Sunday was an emotional day for Marcus Smart.
The Celtics veteran took to the streets of Boston to protest against racial injustice and police brutality following the recent slayings of three unarmed black people — George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery and Breonna Taylor. That night, Smart told NBC Sports Boston’s A. Sherrod Blakely he was out there to make sure his voice was heard and believes “something has to change” systematically.
WBZ-TV’s Steve Burton also caught up with Smart during Sunday’s protest. And Smart got emotional when explaining his reasons for protesting.
“We want justice,” Smart said. “We want justice, and unfortunately, this is what we have to do to get it. And for us, we want you to know that we won’t be silent. Enough is enough. We’re tired of our loved ones, our brothers, our fathers, our sons being killed for nonsense, for nothing at all, with no justice being served. In America, unfortunately, it’s not about what you know, but what you can prove. Well, we can prove murder. We’ve seen the video. Everybody across the world has seen it. It’s nothing to justify it. What can you say to that officer to justify that killing? Nothing at all. There’s nothing to negotiate about, there’s nothing to be said. He’s supposed to be just like one of us, if one of us is out there and we committed this crime, we would be charged for it. Justice isn’t served until he’s behind bars.”
(You can check out the full clip here.)
Smart wasn’t the only Celtics player to join this weekend’s protests, however. C’s teammates Enes Kanter and Vincent Poirier also attended Sunday’s peaceful protests before violence broke out around 9 p.m. ET. Boston youngster Jaylen Brown, meanwhile, traveled 15 hours to protest in his hometown of Atlanta on Saturday.
In the end, the Celtics gave Boston something to be proud of.
