Marcus Smart has collected several awards over the past year for his performance on the basketball court. On Monday, he earned some hardware for his efforts off the floor.
The reigning Defensive Player of the Year was recognized Monday for his impact in the community, receiving the NBA Cares Community Assist Award for the month of October for his “ongoing support for pediatric cancer patients and commitment to creating access to opportunity for inner-city athletes.”
It’s a fulfilling accomplishment for Smart because it emphasizes his compassion outside of work and reveals his true character.
“By winning an award like this, a community award, it shows people that we’re more than just basketball players,” Smart told Celtics.com Sunday evening. “We are human beings like everybody else, we go through similar problems, similar struggles like everybody else, and we see what impact we can make off the court just by taking a little bit of our time.”
Smart devotes a great deal of his free time to hospital visits, zoom calls with pediatric patients and fundraising events for his YounGameChanger Foundation. As someone who has been impacted numerous times by the devastation of cancer, he has made it his life mission outside of basketball to be there for those who are coping with the disease.
“It stems from losing my mom, my brother, a couple of my aunts and uncles from cancer when I was growing up,” Smart said of his passion to support pediatric cancer patients. “I wish I had somebody to come in and take as much interest in helping me or helping my family in ways that we couldn’t even imagine, such as giving us hope, making us feel better, putting a smile on our faces, things like that. I think somebody that people look up to such as an NBA player, any type of athlete, entertainer, or any type of person that they idolize, for them to be able to come and show their support, means more than anything in the world.”
Source: Marcus Smart Receives NBA Cares Community Assist Award
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