On April 19, Beijing time, the 2021-22 NBA playoffs continued. Earlier today, the NBA officially announced that Celtics star Marcus Smart was named the NBA's Best Defensive Player of the Season award, and he won a total of 37 preferred votes with a total of 257 points, beating Bridges (202 points), Gobert (136 points) and others!
It should be noted that Smart became the first NBA guard player to receive this honor after Gary Payton. Because of this, Payton personally came to the Celtics training ground and congratulated Smart in person. In previous interviews, Payton had bluntly stated that he was a smart supporter. After Payton's congratulations to Smart, the unstoppable Celtics players arranged ice water for Smart to celebrate, and the atmosphere of the whole team was peaceful.
The Celtics officially sent a blessing to Smart for the first time, saying that no one deserved the award more than Smart. Interestingly, the Celtics' official Twitter also made Smart's photo a new avatar of the team and changed the team profile to: Home of the NBA's Best Defensive Player of the 2021-22 Season!
After Smart was elected DPOY, the TNT Celestial Regiment quickly connected with him. Smart, who spoke about his acceptance speech, said: "It's definitely a mindset, you have to believe that you can do it yourself! ”
It is worth mentioning that after Smart was elected to DPOY, he alone won the first and second places in the national hot search, which is enough to see his popularity and the shock brought by his election!
In the regular season, Smart played in 71 games, averaging 32.3 minutes per game, 12.1 points, 3.8 rebounds, 5.9 assists, 1.7 steals and 0.3 blocks, and his average number of steals per game ranked third in the league, with an average plus-minus of +6.2 per game, ranking 9th in the league. Under his leadership, the Green Army achieved a 2nd record in the East with 51 wins and 31 losses in the regular season this season!
Smart also became the second player in Celtic history to receive the award, the previous being Kevin Garnett, who was elected in 2008 and eventually led the Greens to the championship that season.