For nine seasons, Marcus Smart was known as the heart and soul of the Boston Celtics. It broke his heart when he got traded from the Celtics to the Grizzlies, but Smart understands it’s a business. He has one major regret and wishes the Celtics could have handled differently during the trade though.

During an episode of Tidal’s Run Your Race podcast, Marcus Smart revealed the cold truth of how he was traded from the Boston Celtics to the Memphis Grizzlies. He told the story from the perspective of a conversation he had with his wife.

“So she wakes me up and like, ‘Babe, you got traded.’ It’s like midnight. And then, you know, that’s when we got the call and stuff and it was just like, damn,” Smart said. “All right, we started looking up houses right then and there.”

If there was one major wish that Marcus Smart wished for from the Boston Celtics during the trade, it was transparency. Smart wanted to know that there was a chance he could get traded to Memphis, so he could start preparing to find a house for himself and his family with an appropriate amount of time.

“But it was just like, damn. You would have thought at least, and that was my problem, just give me—you could have pulled me in and said, ‘Listen, this is what we’re finna do.’ Transparency is all we want,” Smart said. “That’s all we want, just talk to me. I’m a human being. That’s it, a grown man. That’s it. I might not like it, but you came and told me.”

It’s become a very cliche saying to describe the NBA as a business, but moments like this are why players say it. For as much loyalty as a player can give a team, they can’t even get a heads up to prepare their family to move to a different city. That’s the cold hard truth of it all.

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