« on: January 19, 2019, 03:57:39 PM »
Awesome article on Celtics website, which covers the story behind his passion, how Ainge first saw him, and some priceless quotes are all in there.
I firmly believe that Smart is probably one of Ainge's binkies. I would like to see him remain as a Celtic, because he encompasses and embodies what it means to be a Celtic.
What Ainge vividly remembers from his initial sighting, however, were the two thoughts that ran through his mind as soon as the 6-foot-4, 220-point guard stepped onto the court.
“I want him on my team.”
“I don’t want to play against him.”
The first thought wasn’t triggered by the 18-year-old’s skill set, but by the manner in which he played. Smart approached the game with a fiery tenacity by which Ainge, a passionate player himself in the 1980s and 90s, was enamored.
“I really appreciated how he played,” Ainge tells Celtics.com. “Like more than what he did as a basketball player, but what he was as a competitor. He was strong and smart. I just loved watching him play.”
Through that love, Smart has developed a connection with the city, identifying as a part of its family – a family that he never wants to leave.
“I love this city,” he says. “I grew up here, I’ve been here for a while. I was in Dallas for a certain amount of time, and then I went off to college, but this is where I reside – this is my home. So, for me to say that I’m a Bostonian, it’s something that means a lot because Boston has embraced me as an individual, as a player, and for so much more.
“I love Boston, and Boston loves me.”
That summer, Ainge flipped the Celtics franchise over by trading away cornerstones Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce to the Brooklyn Nets. A new-look squad would go on to endure a 25-57 season under their rookie coach, Stevens, but the silver lining was that they would be ensured a top pick in the 2014 Draft.
To Ainge’s delight, Boston wound up earning the No. 6 pick at the Draft Lottery that May. He had his sights set on Smart, and, little did he know at the time, Smart had his sights set on the Celtics.
“Marcus wanted to play for Boston,” says Kenny Boren, a close friend and former coach of Smart at Marcus High School in Flower Mound, Texas. “We were looking at the NBA Draft and we were actually at the lottery (in New York City) when they did the positioning. So, when it came out that we knew that Boston would have a good shot where he would probably fall in that draft, we actually – through his agent at the time – set up the interest that he had in Boston.”
Why would a kid from Dallas, who had no ties to New England, have such strong feelings toward Boston? Because he felt that the passionate, blue-collared city embodied who he was as a person, and that the championship pedigree of its basketball team was the cherry on top.
“He was the one guy that I could never really screen,” Horford says. “Going back, he’s the one I always had a hard time with, because he was so good at getting behind the offensive player, avoiding screens, and that makes it tough. That’s what makes him a special defender.”
The Hawks escaped from that first-round series in six games and Horford never had to face Smart again. That’s because when he entered free agency two months later, the then-four-time All-Star decided to sign a long-term deal with the Celtics.
“I was very happy,” Horford says with a relieved laugh of joining forces with Smart. “I just knew that he that he was fearless, he was a competitor, and that he embodies a lot of the things that being a Celtic is all about.”
https://www.nba.com/celtics/sidebar/the-story-of-marcus-smart
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