Brad Stevens Sheds Light On ‘Difficult’ Marcus Smart Talks After Trade

One could argue that no one has seen Marcus Smart grow more as a person and a basketball player in his NBA career than Celtics president of basketball operations Brad Stevens. That alone made Stevens' decision to trade the franchise cornerstone even more difficult.

Ultimately, though, that's what Stevens -- Smart's first NBA coach -- decided to do with Boston reaching a fork in the road. Stevens sent Smart to Memphis as part of a three-team deal that became official early Friday morning.

After coaching Smart for seven seasons and then spending the final two years of the guard's tenure in the front office, Stevens had a front-row seat for Smart's maturation into a team leader. Becoming so close with someone over a decade made it especially difficult for Stevens to not only make the move but to have to deliver the news to Smart, too.

"(The conversation) wasn't very long. it was just your best chance to share your gratitude to him," Stevens explained in a press conference in the wee hours of Friday morning following the NBA draft. "Because of these things and the sensitivity of these things and how many people talk about them and wild speculation when something happens, it's hard to digest. it's hard to process."

Smart apparently is still in the area even though the season is over, which gave Stevens a chance to speak with the guard in person Thursday morning.

"He actually came in this morning, so I got a chance to see him this morning," Stevens continued. "It's just, you're not going to be around a guy that you like every day, but you'll always have the relationship that these teammates have, these coaches have and everybody in the building and organization have, and that will be forever. then when you go to a new place, you build a whole new one, and your network doubles. that's just kind of the way it works."

Regardless of that basketball decision, Stevens is confident Smart's legacy will live on in Boston and believes he'll always be part of the community he embraced to begin his NBA career.

"Very difficult conversations, really hard to do, but he'll always have Boston for sure, right?" Stevens said. "I think Boston really appreciates him, and I do, and he knows we'll do anything for him, but it's hard."