Jaylen Brown opened up about the marquee move of the offseason for the Boston Celtics, trading away Marcus Smart in the deal that brought Kristaps Porzingis to Beantown, during a press conference addressing his recent $304 million Supermax extension — and No. 7 seemingly relived the highs and lows of his shared time with No. 36 in the span of a few sentences, concluding that the Banner 18 journey won’t be the same without Smart.
“Marcus has been somebody that’s – like we butted heads at times, we fought, we did it all, we put each other in headlocks, etc … the journey won’t feel the same without him, to be honest,” Brown said (h/t All Grizzlies). “But it’s a part of life, it’s a part of what you do going forward and everything he’s instilled into this organization, everything he’s instilled into this community is still going to be with us, still carried with us. So we’re going to wish him well on his new journey. Obviously the city of Boston is going to feel the loss of his impact when he’s no longer here but we’ll be able to keep moving forward.”
Brown, who was a Boston Celtics teammate with Smart for longer than anyone else, knows best about what life was like with the former Defensive Player of the Year quarterbacking the team’s perimeter defense. Now, the onus will be on him, Jayson Tatum, Derrick White, and Malcolm Brogdon to complement the defensive contributions on the block from Al Horford, Porzingis, and Robert Williams III.
Jayson Tatum hinted at a potential Boston Celtics reunion with Marcus Smart
It’s possible that Tatum dropped a hint that he and Smart would reunite on the Boston Celtics in the future immediately following Smart’s trade to the Memphis Grizzlies.
“My dawg Forever grateful for you and how you pushed me and helped me along this journey,” Tatum wrote on Instagram on June 22 (h/t NESN). “Never change keep being you, one of kind can never be replaced! My brotha for life. We gone link back up one day and get us one no doubt about that! Until then, Much love Brodie!”
Hopefully, that was Tatum hinting that Smart would be back in Boston, and not that the two would link up somewhere else…