How Jrue Holiday, Marcus Smart formed a bond outside on-court battles

How Jrue Holiday, Marcus Smart formed a bond outside on-court battles originally appeared on NBC Sports Boston

Marcus Smart and Jrue Holiday are more than just ships passing in the night.

Smart and Holiday both changed teams this offseason — Smart being traded from Boston to the Memphis Grizzlies in a three-team deal that brought Kristaps Porzingis to the Celtics, and Holiday coming to the C’s from the Milwaukee Bucks (via the Portland Trail Blazers) in a trade this past Sunday.

The two elite defensive guards are plenty familiar with each other from their matchups on the court, most notably the 2022 Eastern Conference semifinals, when Holiday helped steal Game 5 for Milwaukee by recording a block and a steal of Smart in the final minute before the Celtics went on to win the series in seven.

But while they’re certainly not friendly on the court, Holiday revealed to our Chris Forsberg that he’s actually quite close with the player he’s tasked with replacing in Boston.

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“I think we have a good relationship,” Holiday said of Smart in a 1-on-1 interview with Forsberg. “Always been a fan of his, especially because of the way that he plays, how he gets under people’s skin. What he does for the game of basketball, in my opinion, sometimes goes unnoticed.”

Smart helped strengthen that relationship just a few months after that Celtics-Bucks series when his YounGameChanger foundation sent “Smart Carts” filled with tablets, Nintendo Switches and other electronics to Children’s Wisconsin Hospital, where Holiday and his wife, Lauren, did charity work.

“We’ve competed on different levels in basketball, and sometimes I think that when you see people compete, you probably think that they don’t like each other outside of basketball,” Holiday said. “I actually like that, where people don’t think that we’re close or we have friendships outside (basketball), because that means that we’re really going at it.

“But Marcus has done so much in the community. He sent Smart Carts to the Children’s Hospital in Wisconsin where we were doing some great things there and some of the kids there just absolutely loved it. For him to do that and surprise me with it was something that just goes to show what type of person Smart is, what type of character that he has, how much he cares and what type of heart he has.”

Smart was in many ways the Celtics’ emotional leader before his trade to Memphis, and it’s unrealistic to expect Holiday to fill that role right off the bat. But Holiday should be able to fill Smart’s on-court role and then some as a ferocious defender (five-time All-Defense selection) and dynamic offensive player (19.3 points and 7.4 assists per game).

“I would love to play with him, but we know how this business goes,” Holiday added of Smart. “I think for me to kind of step in here and make my imprint and show my game and do what I do is gonna be fun for me.”

To hear Forsberg’s full conversation with Holiday, subscribe to the Celtics Talk Podcast or watch on YouTube below.