Marcus Smart is accustomed to winning games, having played the first nine seasons of his career with the Boston Celtics.
Now, in his first season with the struggling Memphis Grizzlies, Smart wants his teammates to know their level of effort is unacceptable.
During Memphis’ 119-97 loss to Minnesota on Sunday night, Smart blasted his teammates during a timeout according to Molly Morrison, who runs a popular NBA-focused Twitter account.
“Marcus Smart just gave the Grizzlies bench one of the most passionate speeches I’ve ever seen a player give his team,” wrote Morrison, who was sitting within earshot of the Memphis bench at the time.
“[Smart] said ‘this is f*cking embarrassing’ several times, talked about how fans are paying to come watch them and they’re not even trying.”
Despite his best efforts, Smart wasn’t able to turn things around with his impassioned speech. The Grizzlies proceeded to lose the game by 22 points.
Memphis is now 3-13, the equal-worst record in the Western Conference at the time of publication.