Even though he will not be along for the ride for the first time in his career, Marcus Smart will be cheering on the Boston Celtics. Traded to the Memphis Grizzlies after failing to help Boston get over the hump and back to the NBA finals, one would not blame the Flower Mound native if he held a grudge towards his former team.

But speaking to the media after his first return to TD Garden as a member of the Grizzlies roster, Smart let it be known that it was all love. “When you come that close, and then you have to leave (the team you did it with), anybody in this position … it would be hard to try to wrap your head around it,” said Smart.

“But at the end of the day … it doesn’t stop how I feel about those guys.”

“And just as much as I think I deserve it, they deserve it as much as well,” he explained. “So that’s why I say I am ecstatic for those guys, because they work just as hard, and they deserve it just as much as I do.”

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Story originally appeared on Celtics Wire