Get to Know Marcus Smart | Guarding Kobe, Winning Defensive Player of the Year, and MORE

Get to Know Marcus Smart | Guarding Kobe, Winning Defensive Player of the Year, and MORE

Ah, it still feels like a dream. It look good in gold, is it? What’s up? I’m Marcus Smart and I’m a Los Angeles Lakers. [Music] All right, here we go. Wow. This was my pre-draft workout. It was one of the toughest workouts I had for sure. It was very competitive. Uh we went to war and uh a lot of great great competition in that workout for sure. One pick away from not being here 12 years ago to being here now is is definitely surreal. Here we go. I love Marcus and I think if I’m picking a basketball team, I want him on my team. He gets under guys skin and he competes. Love that. This JJ’s I should have known. Should have known. I do get under guy’s skin and I do compete. So this this is the quote right here. in this day and age where, you know, defense isn’t really glorified, you know, to to be able to get your flowers as a defender. This definitely means a lot. JJ understands all too well about this. What we got here? Hey, that the defensive player of the year. Okay. This was really special to me. You know, being the first guard since uh Gary Payeyton to to win this was exciting. It was definitely something that is going to be in the record books for a long time. So now I can tell my kids, hey, I’m up there. You go look for my name. Just trying to get back to to that status right there and hopefully, you know, give me another DPOI. I think one reason it’s tougher to win defensive player as a guard. The bigs have, you know, blocks, rebounds, and uh stuff like that. But guards, they don’t really know what to give us to put us up there. A lot of us aren’t really rebounding like a big or blocking shots like a big. What people don’t understand is as a guard before you even get down to the big you have to get past us. So I think it should be more guards in the race and more guards should win because it is a hard job. Smart. What a recovery. I think having this title, especially as a guard, it makes uh opponents approach you with caution. Smart gets a steal and Smart will throw it down. It is a dog mindset. Uh, it’s not the prettiest job in the world. Um, it’s very dirty work and you have to be willing to be okay with that. Oh wow. Honestly, I was shaking. I’m a rookie or second year, one of those here. All I’m thinking is my mom watching me guard Kobe. Like, you know, my brother’s watching me guard Kobe right now. Like, I hope somebody got a picture of this. In my mind, I’m like, listen, just live in this moment because to be on the court with, you know, one of the all-time greats is an honor, let alone to be guarding him. So, to, you know, embody the mama mentality, patience, stealth, and a stone cone killer. And now to be a Laker with that mentality, it just amplifies it. All right, what we got here? Control what you can control. That’s me right there. That my quote. This quote is really big to me u and it’s kind of been um my motto for the last couple years. Been through a lot uh personally uh basketball-wise and and off the court. It’s been a lot of dark times where things could have went down, you know, a bad road for me in my life and uh just staying focused and controlling what I control and getting myself to understand that, you know, it’s a lot of things out here that we can’t control. Um so why spend your energy focused on it? That’s been my mindset and that’s helped me get through a lot. All right, what we got here? Yes, sir. Uncle Daddy out there with the golf club. I got to give a shout out to Jason Tatum and them for that. He’s one of the guys that on the team, him, Sam Howard uh in Boston that loves to play golf. They were always going to the golf course and you know, I just always felt left out. So, I was like, you know what? Let me let me pick this up. And I actually love it. And then now me and my friends we play like almost every day. All right. Looks good. I ain’t used to it yet. Still my eyes still adjusting. First ever to wear 37. The first Hey, we already what? Making history already. What I’m talking about. So 36 is actually a couple meanings, but first my birthday is March 6. 0306. I used to wear 33 cuz of my brother. That was the age he passed away when I was in Boston. We couldn’t get 33. So I was like, how can I still incorporate? And all my brothers wore the jersey number three when they played. So that’s kind of how 36 became me. Okay. Yeah. We get used to this. Here we go. Trick shot king. The rumors may be true. I have a lot of trick shots in my repertoire. I actually did one I think it was 2019. Um, it’s a trick shot I do where I’m laying down at half court and it’s using only core. So, no legs, nothing else. Just straight core. It looks easy, but it’s harder than than it looks. So, that’s me, trick shot king. I I take that title. I don’t do a lot. I have one specific one that I do, and that’s just the three-pointer behind my head. But, I have a lot that people haven’t seen, so you might see some this year. Ooh, that’s a good one. I don’t know. I’m going to say me. I I told you I’m biased. So, but uh we going to have to set that up so we can find out. What can Lakers fans expect from me on the court this season? You can expect a lot of energy. You can expect uh a lot of passion. And you can expect me to leave everything I have on the court for you guys. We here with it.

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