Marcus Smart being named the NBA’s Defensive Player of the Year on Monday prompted an enthusiastic celebration by the Boston Celtics organization, and his teammates continued to sing his praises one day later.
“Amazing, man. I can’t be more proud and more happy for Marcus Smart,” Jaylen Brown said during a video conference Tuesday. “He’s been guarding his butt off since he’s been in this league and now he got the acknowledgment and things like that. It’s great to celebrate a teammate for all the hard work, all the effort you watched him put in from day one.
“I’ve learned so much from Marcus, how to compete and everything on that side of the ball, how he changes the game,” Brown continued. “It says a lot for him to be the first guard since Gary Payton, that’s legendary. Marcus just submitted his name as one of the defensive greats, which we all knew, but now it’s sketched in stone. I think that’s pretty exciting. So we couldn’t be more proud of him. We got to celebrate him yesterday at practice. I haven’t seen him smile like that in a while. So that was pretty nice.”
Grant Williams added: “It was dope to see not only just the recognition that he deserves because he works extremely hard, he’s been in the league for eight years hounding dudes, and one of those guys that if you ask anyone in the league, it’s not fake news. It’s not one of those where it’s like, ‘Alright, he doesn’t deserve it.’ It’s one of those where like, everybody respects it. So a good shout to not only him but shows a testament to how this team has grown over the years, I feel like.”
Smart’s teammates, like the veteran guard expressed himself Monday, acknowledged how the accolade serves as both an individual and team award. Smart, after all, benefited from the Celtics having the league’s best defense during the 82-game regular season.
“It is a team award, we all feel that way,” head coach Ime Udoka said on a video conference. “But individually, that’s who he’s been throughout his whole career so for him to be acknowledged, I mean, everybody was thrilled about that. But, you know, we all share in this identity of the team and he’s a leader as far as that and he sets the tone every night. Well deserved on his part. … So, not surprised by it at all. One of the best on-ball, off-ball perimeter defenders we have in the league that can do a lot of things guarding one through five and, as I’ve mentioned, him being who he is allows us to guard the way we do as a team.”
Smart is the first guard since Gary Payton to win the DPOY award. Smart had a few Celtics teammates join him in getting votes, and likely won’t be the only Boston representative to be named to the NBA’s All-Defense teams.
