Celtics Suspend Marcus Smart For Friday's Preseason Finale For Reportedly Missing Team Flight
BOSTON (CBS) -- Marcus Smart has been suspended by the Celtics and will not play in the team's final preseason game against the Miami Heat on Friday night
Smart's suspension was for "breaching" a team rule, as first reported by Sham Charania of The Athletic. It was later revealed that Smart missed the team's flight to Orlando earlier this week, via ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski.
First-year Celtics coach Ime Udoka said that Smart broke one of his new rules for this season, something that the team has talked about since Day 1. He added that Smart was "remorseful" for his error.
"Marcus is one of our leaders that we expect a lot from, he understands that," said Udoka.
Smart did not want to talk much about his suspension on Thursday.
"That's between us and the team and we're going to handle it in house," Smart said.
Like most of Boston's regular starters, Smart did not play in Wednesday night's preseason loss to the Magic in Orlando. He did play in the team's first two preseason tilts, averaging 6.5 points and 4.5 assists.
Smart will have a lot more responsibility on his plate this season as he takes over as Boston's starting point guard. Hopefully this is his way of getting his annual behavioral hiccup out of the way early this year.
The redeeming part of this episode is that Udoka is not afraid to make an example of the longest tenured player on the team. Celtics players said they wanted some tough coaching when Brad Stevens was looking for his replacement this offseason, and it appears they are getting just that from Udoka.