Marcus Smart: 'Tough' to See Celtics Win NBA Finals After Being Traded to Grizzlies

Memphis Grizzlies guard Marcus Smart had mixed emotions when watching his old team, the Boston Celtics, beat the Dallas Mavericks in the 2024 NBA Finals.

During an interview on the Run Your Race podcast, Smart said "there's no hard feelings" toward Boston. However, he described the Celtics' title run as "bittersweet" and "definitely tough" because he wasn't there to enjoy it.

Smart spent his first nine years in the NBA in Boston, and he eventually emerged as the spiritual leader for the Celtics while they consistently challenged for the Eastern Conference crown.

The thoughts of many fans went to the 2021-22 Defensive Player of the Year as his former teammates were lifting the championship trophy.

It's impossible to say whether Boston would've reached the Finals and come out on top if it had never traded Smart and largely ran it back with the same roster from 2022-23. Swapping him for Kristaps Porziņģis and subsequently adding Jrue Holiday did make the Celtics stronger on the court, though.

Porziņģis, who was limited to seven playoff games, provided the size and floor-spacing that was desperately needed, while Holiday was basically a more optimized version of Smart.

Whether he has the ring to show for it or not, Smart's contributions won't be forgotten in Boston by those who were there to see it. In the coming years, he's likely to be nearly as synonymous with this era of Celtics basketball as Jayson Tatum and Finals MVP Jaylen Brown are.