We’re so used to seeing big men win the NBA’s Defensive Player of the Year Award that Monday’s announcement of the honor going to the Boston Celtics’ Marcus Smart was somewhat of a surprise.
He was the first guard to win the award since Gary Payton in 1996. But if the award wasn’t going to a big man, there’s a solid argument to be had that Suns wing Mikal Bridges deserved to take home the honor.
Bridges — that best perimeter defender on the league’s best team — finished second in the Defensive Player of the Year voting. But unlike Bam Adebayo, who was upset about his snub, Bridges was proud of Smart for winning the honor as a guard.
On Monday night, Bridges took to Twitter to congratulate Smart on the DPOY win. He knows firsthand how difficult it is to guard the perimeter when you have to go up against generational offensive talent on a regular basis.
Congrats to Marcus Smart fr ! Happy they start realizing it aint easy guarding mfs on the island every night ! Very much deserved … I appreciate everybody that was rockin wit me lol we’ll be ok😭 its a blessing to even be apart of the convo
— Mikal Bridges (@mikal_bridges) April 18, 2022
Smart took notice of the tweet on Tuesday morning and responded with his own classy comment.
You’re up next young king. Thanks for the words! Much appreciated! 🙏🏽 https://t.co/8stNagwPqA
— marcus smart (@smart_MS3) April 19, 2022
That was great on Bridges who easily could have been bitter about the snub. NBA fans as a whole loved the respect being shown between two of the league’s top defenders.
