Getty Draymond Green of the Warriors and the Celtics' Marcus Smart
A couple of years ago as the Celtics were preparing to meet Golden State in the regular season, I was chatting with Marcus Smart and mentioned that I thought he and Warrior spark Draymond Green were cut from the same basketball leather.
Smart was flattered by the comparison, so I spent some time with Green and his coach, Steve Kerr, on the morning of that January 2020 game for a column that ran in the Boston Herald.
Golden State was in the midst of an injury-riddled NBA season that, with Steph Curry playing just five games and Klay Thompson not playing at all, would earn it the worst record in the league. But Green lit up when told the subject. He’d already won the Defensive Player of the Year award — something Smart would get this year — and quickly picked up the conversation when I suggested their similarities.
“Definitely,” Green said. “Just really being that guy who’s bringing that competitive edge to the game for your team every night, being that emotional leader. I think it’s just really approaching the game with a no-nonsense mentality — you know, being the guy who’s kind of going to connect the dots for the team.
“I think he’s very important, the role that he plays here, from an offensive standpoint of kind of being a facilitator and leader who settles them down and gets them into things that they need to get into. And then from a defensive standpoint, just kind of f***ing up the other team’s offense. You’ve seen Marcus guard point guards, you’ve seen him guard 4-men, so he’s doing whatever it is to connect those dots to help your team win.”
Steve Kerr: ‘Marcus Smart is Super Competitive’
Kerr had been a Team USA assistant coach when Smart played on that club for the 2019 FIBA World Cup.
“It’s a good comparison,” he said Steve Kerr. “Marcus is super competitive and volatile and emotional and wears it on his sleeve. I mean, I enjoyed coaching him this summer. He was a guy on the bus that all the energy kind of revolved around him, and you could feel his power. And that power, much like Draymond, can be volatile.
“Avery Johnson used to have a saying that I loved. He’d say, ‘Same thing makes you laugh makes you cry.’ So with guys like Marcus and Draymond, they’re so passionate and competitive that that volatility can tip you in either direction sometimes. So as a coach, for me with Draymond, it’s always been a balancing act just trying to make sure that the scale is going to the positive side with that emotion. But you realize as coach that you can’t have it both ways. You can’t say, ‘Hey, you’ve got to be perfect all the time.’ Because that’s not how it works. If you want somebody to be that emotional and passionate and competitive, then they’re going to go off the deep end sometimes, and you have to live with that.”
Smart Has Become a Better Leader
Though he still freely shares his thoughts with the referees, Smart has calmed to a degree in the last two seasons. It’s fair to say he’s less demonstrative than Green and has become less prone to altercations with opponents. But, as I wrote then, there are no insurance policies for high wire intensity. One cannot live on the edge without going over it on occasion.
“Absolutely,” said Green. “You have to have that. You can’t bring this competitive nature and have everything be just blah. Those two things don’t mix. So that’s definitely something that comes with it, but, you know, there’s a price to pay and there’s things that come with winning. Winning isn’t always cute. It isn’t always easy. You need somebody to bring that fire to the team, somebody to really bring that edge. And I think that’s what both of us are able to provide.”
Smart got his recognition this season with the DPOY honor, and no doubt his rough and tumble game is loud. But he and Green are aware that there aren’t direct numbers for a good portion of what they provide. For example, there is no statistic for getting into an opponent’s head.
“For sure,” Green said when asked about the hidden contributions. “You definitely have to be comfortable with yourself. I know for me personally and just watching his game, you’re not watching the stat sheet. You’re worried about one stat, and that’s winning. And whatever you have to do on any given night to help contribute to that, you do. I see a lot of that same stuff in him.”
Kerr concurred.
“And if you talk to Steph and Klay about Draymond, they would rave about his impact on winning,” he said. “And if they really opened up and were honest with you, they would say, ‘Yeah, he does some (expletive) that doesn’t make sense. But we live with it, because it’s who he is and it’s one of the things that makes him great.’
“We’re all flawed. We’re all human. But the one thing at this level is, if you don’t have competitors, you have no chance. No chance. So Draymond, I’ve called him our heart and soul for years, and I’ll go to battle with him any day of the week. I love Draymond.
“I know this,” Kerr said. “I would take Marcus and Draymond on my team. I’d take both of them on my team all day any day, because, at their core, they’re both winners.”
It’s been two years, four months and three days since those comments were uttered, and they hold up extremely well.
Old takes confirmed, if you will.