I’ve been looking to pick up a cool Celtics game worn championship tag for sometime. While Smart never won a championship with the Celtics, his 10 years of hard-nosed, defensive-minded play was a fixture for a long time. Trading him eventually the lead to banner 18, but I still have fond memories of Smart in green and white. Happy to add this to my collection at a reasonable cost.

As a Celtics fan, I was a little torn when the Celtics moved on from Marcus Smart. He was the heart and soul of that team, especially on the defensive side. But, he never matured past the hustle and grind and often took ill advised and bad shots, which hurt the team. Brad Stevens trading him was definitely the right move at that point in his career, and getting Kristaps Porziņģis in trade brought the Celtics another championship. Still, I always root for Marcus and would love them back on the Celtics for a year to bring some heart and soul to the team that lost Jrue Holliday, Porziņģis, and Jayson Tatum this year due to injury.

Marcus Smart distilled down to one word: grit. He represented the hustle of the Celtics and was glue for that team for nearly a decade. Yet, trading him and signing KP and getting Jrue was was propelled the current roster to get banner #18. My point being, from a card standpoint, you have to sometimes make tough decisions and give up some good pieces to make your collection grow. It reminds me of trading a Shaq immaculate gold #/10 three color patch auto. I loved that card. But I traded it to get my one Paul Pierce mini game used logoman NT cards. Oh well, you gotta give up good to get good. Worked out for the Celtics.