Marcus Smart has given Boston Celtics fans another reason to smile.
With Smart no longer headed to the Los Angeles Lakers and instead joining Kevin Durant on the Houston Rockets, the former Celtics guard also took a shot at how the Lakers handled his free agency. In an exclusive interview with The Houston Chronicle’s Varun Shankar, Smart said the Lakers’ offer was “disrespectful.”
“First off, I played so well that the offer that was ultimately given didn’t match the way that I played,” he said, “especially when you see guys who played way worse than I did, the offers they’re getting. And then it wasn’t any security that we wanted that they were willing to do.”
That kind of blunt honesty is exactly the sort of thing that can endear Smart to Celtics fans all over again. Even after three seasons away from Boston, the connection clearly hasn’t faded, and now that he’s out of the Lakers’ orbit, his words land with extra force.
Smart’s time in Los Angeles was a small comeback story in itself. He never fully got back to the level he had in Boston after two injury-plagued seasons, but he played well enough to remind people why Celtics fans embraced him in the first place.
The Lakers’ decision to pass on him is looking questionable. They saw Smart as a low-risk, high-reward option, and he gave them exactly that: a still-useful defender and a steady complementary playmaker. Put that next to Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves, and it’s easy to see the appeal, especially after Los Angeles lost LeBron James and gave up the farm for Walker Kessler.
Doncic’s defensive limitations make support on that end all the more important, which is why Smart would have fit. The Lakers did bring in Matisse Thybulle, but they used the money that could have gone to Smart on Collin Sexton instead. Sexton is a good player and had earned his place as a free-agent target, but he overlaps with Doncic and Reaves.
Maybe the Lakers didn’t see it that way. They’re free to build their roster however they choose.
Still, for Celtics fans, not seeing Smart in purple and gold is enough. Hearing him call the Lakers out only makes it sweeter.
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