Smart sees himself with the Celtics next season

At the start of his Young Game Changers basketball camp at Brandeis University on Wednesday, Marcus Smart addressed his future with the Celtics:

Back in April when Smart revealed that his mother, Camellia, was diagnosed with myelodysplastic syndrome, Marcus said:

“Everybody, we wish it wouldn’t happen to us,” Smart said. “We pray and hope. A lot of us, we forget and we take life for granted. We think it’s not going to happen to us until it actually does. And then you have to be faced with a problem that some people have never faced before. For me, I’ve faced it before, so we kind of know how to go about it and make sure she’s comfortable and make sure whatever she needs is taken care of.”

When Smart returned to the floor, he wrote “I Fight U Fight” on his shoes to honor his mother and the t-shirts at his camp echoed the same sentiments. CelticsBlog would like to send all our prayers and support to Marcus, his family, and his mother as she battles cancer. You can donate to the American Cancer Society here or the MDS Foundation here.

Smart enters the off-season as a restricted free agent. After the Game 7 loss in the Eastern Conference Finals, both Danny Ainge and Brad Stevens voiced their affection for the four-year guard who is currently the longest tenured Celtic and quite frankly one of the biggest culture setters on the roster. I love Marcus Smart and Marcus Smart loves Boston:

“Boston’s like a second home for me,” he said. “Boston’s just showed me so much love in my years, since year one. You always want to give back to a city that shows you love, because it’s hard to find people, things, anything that really cares about you and you care about it, and it’s genuine. Boston is a genuine place that cares about people.”

And Smart cares too much about his campers to teach his entire game.

When imparting the Marcus mentality was brought up, Smart smiled and said, “Ah, man, I don’t know. You don’t want to cross that line and really scare the kids so you’ve got to dial it down a little bit. But it’s still there. The kids love it. They just love being out here and they love playing. They love that dog and they love playing and competing. So that’s all you can ask.”

He didn’t dial it down. Here’s one of Smart’s winning plays from camp yesterday:

Smart also imparted a new Celtics’ slogan today. After “thick, jacked frame” and “Kaizen” made it rounds on WeirdCelticsTwitter this year, Smart has made his submission: “think the game.” In an interaction with The Athletic’s Jay King and a fan, he replied Wednesday night with this gem: