Adam Silver Is Clearly Scared Of Marcus Smart, Doesn't Suspend Him

Smart move here by Adam Silver and Kiki VanDeWeghe. We all remember what happened over the weekend

Whether you think Smart made the right decision here is up to you. I’ll just look at the facts which state that the Celtics finished the game from this point on with a great run, ultimately pulled out the win and the end result was just a 35K fine. No suspension, no nothing, just a little cash from a guy that just signed a $52M extension. Does this look like a guy who is sweating cutting that check?

All things considered that’s clearly worth 35K in my opinion, and it wouldn’t shock me if his teammates all chipped in to cover the cost.

I think the one thing the Smart haters were hanging their hat on was the possibility that Smart might hurt his team acting this way. He’s so important to how they play (not debatable), missing any sort of time for throwing a temper tantrum against the pathetic Hawks would have been a bad look. It’s no secret how different this team is with Smart on the floor

You can’t really argue that, but since it didn’t happen I have no problem with how things went down. I found it funny how they called it “failing to leave the court in a timely manner”, instead of ya know, trying to start a fight. Credit to Smart for not actually throwing a punch, some may say that makes him a fake tough guy but I call it Smart. He made his point, he proved that Bembry didn’t want that smoke and he fired up his teammates. It’s like when Brad semi-curses and gets a tech in order to motivate the guys. Smart goes about it a little differently but it’s clearly just as effective.

Had Smart thrown a punch, he probably gets like 3 games because he has a history, and with GS coming on Saturday that can’t happen. I would also argue that even though their next two games are against MIA/CLE let’s not act like this team never loses at home to bad teams. They still would have felt the absence of Smart no matter who they played, and fortunately we won’t have to stress about that. Bonus bit of good news is there was no Marcus Smart punches a hotel mirror and cuts his hand which then tanks his shooting, after the ejection in ATL like we saw last season. So not only is Marcus Smart progressing in terms of his shot selection, he’s also figuring out how to still go after people, get ejected, and not hurt himself. That’s the type of growth I love.