Ime Udoka Addresses Marcus Smart’s Celtics Suspension; Reported Reason For It

Marcus Smart won’t play for the Boston Celtics in their preseason game against the Miami Heat on Friday night due to violating a team rule, and now we have a bit more clarity as to what happened.

Celtics head coach Ime Udoka met with reporters Thursday afternoon and was asked about what led to Smart’s suspension.

“It’s internal. We handled it. He’s remorseful and we hold Marcus to a high standard, we made it clear from Day 1,” Udoka told reporters, via NBC Sports Boston. “So, he’ll obviously be out (Friday) night, he’s with us here on the trip, and just look forward to moving on from this, growing and obviously abiding by the team’s rules and principles. Marcus is one of our leaders that we expect a lot from here and he understands that. He’s remorseful and we’ll move on from there.”

Udoka revealed it was a rule he set that was violated.

“One of my rules, we talked it about from Day 1,” Udoka said. “Like I said, it’s been handled internally, he won’t play (Friday), he’ll be ready to go for opening night.”

Smart declined to elaborate, telling reporters the situation was between him and the team and that it was being “handled in-house.”

While we don’t know exactly what transpired to cause Smart’s suspension, ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski reported Thursday, citing a source, that the guard missed the team flight to Orlando, where the Celtics lost to the Magic 103-102 on Wednesday night.

Regardless, it sounds like everyone is ready to put the incident behind them and focus on getting ready for the Celtics’ regular-season opener against the New York Knicks on Oct. 20.