Marcus Smart

“I want to win games, win a championship.”

“When I got cleared by doctors and was coronavirus-free, one of the first things I did was get to marching in Boston. I wanted to join the people out there doing all they could to speak out against injustice and hatred and police brutality - folks looking to ensure the future of our country is better than its past.”

“I've always been playing because I knew this was eventually going to pay off in the long run for me.”

“You understand what your eyes mean to you, but it's different when you have to go through something like I did, where it's a possibility you could have lost your eyesight. It puts things back into perspective for you and humbles you a little bit.”

“I feel like Boston is a second home for me.”

“There's not a lot of guys in this league who are tough for me to guard. It's a short list.”

“Nobody else is going to protect yourself. You've got to protect yourself.”

“I feel like I'm a part of the Boston community.”

“If you watch me for a long time, you'll really understand and appreciate the way I play.”

“I had a lot of adversity that kind of tested my maturity and things I was able to learn from and were put in my way for a reason, to make me a mature person and more experienced person.”

“Contact is in my nature.”

“I am a physical player, no doubt about that, but a dirty player? That's not my reputation.”

“I look at basketball as like a storm. But it's the eye of the storm. The calmest place of it is to be right in the eye of it. And that's what basketball is for me; it's my eye. And while everything else around me is going on,' he continued, 'the destruction and things like that, basketball keeps me calm.”

“I pride myself on the defensive end. That's where I earn my keep.”

“I don't think it's ever really easy to lose a loved one, especially your mother.”

“Playoffs, you know, defense is elevated even more.”

“I was always taught coming back from injuries the last thing you want to do is have a mental game going on with yourself and psyching yourself out and you just start thinking about the injury.”

“The whole point of college is to find yourself, to figure out things before you go into the real world.”

“You need to separate the fans and the players.”

“I'm a reflection of my mom, my brothers and everyone in my family. How I carry myself is a reflection of how they raised me. I've learned that.”