Score one for the little guy. Boston Celtics guard Marcus Smart won the league’s Defensive Player of the Year award Monday, becoming the first guard to earn the honour since Gary Payton in 1996.
The 8 year veteran is only the second player in the storied history of the Celtics franchise to win the award, joining Kevin Garnett in the exclusive club. Smart earned 37 first place votes en route to 257pts to edge out Mikal Bridges (22 first place votes, 202 total points) and Rudy Gobert (12 first place votes, 136 total points).
The 6’4” guard anchored a Celtics defense that led the league in points allowed per game (104.5) and defensive rating. Smart and Payton are the only two point guards in league history to capture the award since its creation in 1982.
Sonics legend Gary Payton was on site at the Celtics training facility Monday to personally present Smart with his trophy. In a social media post afterwards, the former Oklahoma State player wrote “Really blown away tbh.Incredibly honored! Just happy to be able to do get this award with our team and my brothers on the team. This is for you mama! I love you.”
Runner up Mikal Bridges was quick to offer congratulations to his fellow nominee, Tweeting: “Congrats to Marcus Smart fr ! Happy they start realizing it aint easy guarding mfs on the island every night ! Very much deserved … I appreciate everybody that was rockin wit me lol we’ll be ok, its a blessing to even be apart of the convo”
Smart and his Celtics teammates continue their series against the Brooklyn Nets in Boston on Wednesday night at 7pm ET. The newly minted DPOY winner posted a 20pts/7reb/ast statline in Game 1 to help propel Boston to a 115-114 win and a 1-0 series lead.
Photo: Erik Drost. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.