BOSTON – Marcus Smart is one who wears his heart on his sleeve, and sometimes his competitive nature causes his emotions to boil over.
Such was the case Tuesday night during the closing minutes of Boston's discouraging, 123-108 loss to the Washington Wizards. Smart was seen yelling at some of Boston's assistant coaches on the sidelines toward the tail end of the loss and was sent back to the locker room to cool off.
Fortunately, Smart was quick to take responsibility for his actions. He apologized to his coaches and teammates as soon as they walked into the locker room after the game. Then, he expressed his regrets during a postgame interview with the media. Finally, he issued a public apology on Twitter.
“To my coaching staff and my teammates and the Celtics organization,” Smart wrote. “I apologize for my actions tonight. In hating to lose, my actions were childish and unprofessional and never under any circumstances do I have the right to act that way and for that I sincerely apologize. I'm a role model to kids and a player for Coach. I'm sorry.”
Brad Stevens addressed Smart's actions Wednesday evening ahead of Boston's matchup against the Houston Rockets. As someone who is around Smart every day, Stevens understands how passionate of a player he is.
“Marcus' greatest strength is that he's very willful,” said Stevens. “He's very competitive. He wants to do really well, and it eats at him when it doesn't go his way.”
Stevens added, however, that Smart can't cross the line like he did last night. On that note, the coach is glad that the young guard took responsibility by addressing his team soon after his flare-up.
“You guys saw what he wrote, what he said. He was (composed) like that when I got into the locker room,” said Stevens. “Sometimes it just takes a minute to gather yourself and then recognize that you could've handled things differently.”
Smart has gone through many learning experiences during his three years as a pro, and Tuesday night's frustrating flare-up was certainly one of them. Fortunately, he addressed the issue as maturely as he possibly could by apologizing and taking full responsibility for his actions.
