Marcus Smart got a chance to respond to Bam Adebayo on Wednesday after the Miami Heat star claimed he should have won the NBA’s Defensive Player of the Year award last season over the Boston Celtics guard.
Unsurprisingly, Smart didn’t come anywhere close to agreeing with Adebayo’s take.
“Bam, come on now,” Smart said on ESPN’s “NBA Today” alongside Malika Andrews and Kendrick Perkins. “Bam’s a good guy, a good friend of mine. But me and Bam both know that’s a lie. The things I was doing at that time at my size was different and last time I recall Bam, I blocked your shot as well. That should let you know everything you need to know right there.”
Adebayo is seen as a strong interior defender, but even the award voters didn’t believe he should have taken home the hardware. Adebayo finished fourth in Defensive Player of the Year voting, trailing not only Smart but also Mikal Bridges and Rudy Gobert.
While the label has been almost exclusively reserved for big men, Smart broke that trend and became the first guard since Gary Payton in 1996 to win Defensive Player of the Year.
There certainly can be some debate around it, but Smart surely earned the label as well.
