Boston Celtics guard Marcus Smart achieved a sought-after accomplishment on Monday night when he was named the NBA’s Defensive Player of the Year.
The news of Smart receiving the award was met with high praise from not only Smart’s teammates, but a litany of players across the league. Not everyone thought Smart was deserving of the honor, though.
Safe to say former Dallas Mavericks executive Haralabos Voulgaris, who served as the team’s director of quantitative research and development from 2018-2021, wouldn’t have voted for Smart.
“Marcus Smart is a fine defensive player — the idea that he is the DPOY is absurd though,” Voulgaris tweeted.
Smart became the first guard since Gary Payton in 1996 to win the award as he anchored Boston’s defensive unit, which finished first this season in the NBA in defensive rating (106.2).
Voulgaris unveiled on social media who he would have selected as the Defensive Player of the Year. He would have gone with Utah Jazz center Rudy Gobert, who finished in third place in the voting and has garnered the honor three times already in his career. Volugaris also stated he could have seen Phoenix Suns forward Mikal Bridges taking home the award.
For Smart, he said any doubts others have about his defensive play only fuels him to continue playing his stellar brand of defense going forward.
“I’ve always said that without those naysayers, doubters or what we like to call haters, I wouldn’t be able to go out there and do what I do,” Smart told reporters Monday night, per MassLive’s Souichi Terada. “It inspires me to continue to strive to be the greatest I can be at what I do. What I have to say to them is: Thank you, keep it up.”
