What Memphis Grizzlies' Marcus Smart thought of his former Celtics team winning NBA title

Some in the basketball world might have wondered what was going through Marcus Smart's head when the Memphis Grizzlies guard watched his former Boston Celtics teammates win an NBA championship, while he missed the playoffs for the first time in his career.

Smart spoke publicly for the first time since the NBA Finals ended in a recent episode of the "Run Your Race" podcast with Theo Pinson. He admitted that seeing his team of the prior nine years win a title was "bittersweet" because he didn't get to finish the job with them, but he cheered for the Celtics during their finals run and said he was yelling as loud as anyone else.

"I'm just so proud of them," Smart said. "I'm proud to be able to be in the trenches with them, to know those guys and to be able to go to work with them every day that I had that chance to do . . . I know everybody is expecting me to be up here and be salty and (expletive). There's no hard feelings."

Flipping the page to Memphis, Smart spoke glowingly about the talent on his current team. The Grizzlies had a rough season in large part due to injuries, but he said the extra time rehabbing with other injured teammates allowed for them to build stronger bonds off the floor.

On a personal level, Smart is going through the longest layoff of his NBA career. His season ended in January because of a right hand injury, and the Grizzlies missed the playoffs. He has used the extra time to decompress.

"This is also the first year I could just let my body heal," he said. "The way I play, I need to let that thang heal . . . My body was just banged-up."

Injuries not only limited Smart, they affected how much he was able to play with other key pieces of the team. He played in only six games with star Grizzlies point guard Ja Morant — whose own season ended prematurely because of shoulder surgery — but that was enough for him to buy into the hype.

Smart recalled underthrowing a pass to Morant during the preseason after thinking he had thrown it high enough. His teammates told him to launch it even higher. The next time he got a chance to do so, Smart said Morant "came out of nowhere."

"Different animal," Smart said of Morant. "It's one thing to watch him on TV, it's another thing to see him in person."

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Damichael Cole is the Memphis Grizzlies beat writer for The Commercial Appeal. Contact Damichael at damichael.cole@commercialappeal.com. Follow Damichael on X, formerly known as Twitter, @DamichaelC.

This article originally appeared on Memphis Commercial Appeal: Memphis Grizzlies' Marcus Smart talks of watching Celtics win NBA title