Boston’s Marcus Smart shares how his brother’s bravery changed his outlook on basketball
Casual fans of the Boston Celtics may not be aware just how much family has shaped the contours of veteran guard Marcus Smart’s life on the basketball court, but for a player with as tough of an origin story as anyone in the league, family for the Flower Mound native has been everything.
And for Smart, even family has been tinged with pain in a life that has known far too much of it. Like many in the league he now plays in, he came from humble ends with the hurt it sometimes inflicted infusing his life with bitter moments his siblings and mother helped lighten.
And fate had cruel designs on even those isolated islands of solace.
More fervent fans of Smart and his team may know his mother Camelia passed away after a long fight with cancer in recent years, but fewer know the ugly disease took his brother Todd Westbrook as well. Fewer still know Smart believes his elder brother was the better basketball player, which he spoke about in a heart-rending but critical listen in the new Celtics podcast, "The View from the Rafters," which dove into the Texan's life story. https://twitter.com/TheCelticsWire/status/1384545388170862594?s=20
"He was actually the tallest one of my family members," explained Smart. "he was [6-foot-6]."
"He was more of the scorer of the family, when it came to that. He didn't play any defense at all ... he's the only one [in the family]. The other two of my brothers, they play defense and they're defensive-minded. But him, he was straight score-the-ball, that was all he cared about."
"He can walk into the gym, not stretch and score the ball, and that was kind of his thing," Smart added. https://twitter.com/TheCelticsWire/status/1384551915883696131?s=20
But the specter of cancer first appeared in Todd's life early -- while he was still in high school. Smart shared a memory of how his brother refused to bend to the will of the malignant disease that hint at where the Oklahoma State product gets his indomitable will from. "When he was diagnosed with cancer, he ended up having a tumor behind his left eye," said the Celtics veteran guard. "He had to go into the hospital on a game day. I think it was senior night." https://twitter.com/TheCelticsWire/status/1384557088056266752?s=20
"We checked into the hospital and he's going to get his chemo, and he's got this tumor behind his left eye that's just closed his eye shut," explained Smart.
"Literally about 20 minutes before the game, they said he comes walking in. It's a full, loaded gym. Everybody, they're kind of sad because he's not going to be there, they understand what's going on. And then they see him walk in and walk out with his jersey and warm ups, and it's like 'What are you doing? Who checked you out of the hospital?' and he's like 'Myself.' He was like, 'If I'm going to die, and God's going to take my life, or I'm going to leave this world, I'm going to do it my way, and I'm doing what I love to do, and that's playing basketball. This is what makes me happy.'"
"They said he went out with one eye closed and scored I think like 30-plus points and just shot the ball lights out," explained Smart. "Just to hear my family talk about it, it was something that always stuck with me." https://twitter.com/TheCelticsWire/status/1384627990999535619?s=20
There are moments on the court when it's undeniably shades of Todd Westbrook inflecting the Texan's game when he's played for the Celtics, refusing to accept defeat and fighting with a force of will that at times can seem almost supernatural. "That's where it has been for me ever since," explains Smart. "I had this mindset where every day I go out here, I have to play like it's my last because they could possibly be my last, and my oldest brother didn't have a chance to live out his dream." This post originally appeared on Celtics Wire. Follow us on Facebook! [lawrence-related id=49265,49255,49247,49233] [listicle id=49259]
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