On this day in Boston Celtics history, veteran guard Marcus Smart signed his $14.8 million rookie-scale contract with the team. Drafted by the Celtics out of Oklahoma State with the sixth overall pick of the 2014 NBA draft, the Flower Mound, Texas native was named to the All-Rookie Second Team in his inaugural season.
Smart was quick to craft a reputation as one of the NBA’s most dogged defenders at any position, able to defend almost any player in the league for at least short stints. The 6-foot-3 point guard would later make All-Defensive First Teams in 2019, 2020, and 2022.
At the end of the Celtics’ 2021-22 campaign, the defining honor of his career was awarded to Smart after he became the first guard since Gary Payton to win Defensive Player of the Year.
Speaking of signings, it was also on this date in 2010 that former Boston big man Semih Erden signed a one-year minimum deal with a team option on the next season afterward.
Erden would play 37 games for the Celtics, averaging 4.1 points and 3.9 boards per game before he was traded with Luke Harangody to the Cleveland Cavaliers for draft assets.
It is also the birthday of former Celtics forward Bob Duffy, born in 1922 in Columbus, Ohio.
He would play just six games for the team in its inaugural season of 1946-47, logging 1.3 points per game over that short stretch.
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