Meet the dogs of the Boston Celtics

https://www.masslive.com/celtics/2019/12/meet-the-dogs-of-the-boston-celtics.html




Meet the dogs of the Boston Celtics



Today 10:42 AM





Jayson Tatum and his late dog Lennox




By John Karalis | JKaralis@masslive.com




Basketball life is a grind. Sure, players are compensated well and no one is going to shed a tear for guys who fly in private jets and stay in luxury hotels, but the physical and mental toll an 82 game season takes on a player is real.

Players have different ways of dealing with it. Downtime is critical to a player’s recovery, and some spend that time with family, playing an instrument, or playing video games. A few find a different way to deal with the stress.

“Dogs just make things a little bit better,” Marcus Smart said. “You having a bad day, they sense that, they feel with you, they’re very empathetic with you, they feel the love, they feel everything that you feel, so being able to have a dog definitely helps with stress.”

A few of the Celtics have dogs in their lives, just like a lot of us do. Smart, for example, grew up with dogs, mostly pit bulls. Others, like Kemba Walker, are new to the wonders of tail-wagging best friends. In fact, Walker and Smart share a special connection here.

“(Marcus Smart) came to my house. He met my dog for the first time and he seen how calm and cool my dog was and he was like ‘can I get one?” and I was like ‘yeah,’” Walker said. “We hit the dog breeder up, and I was actually about to get another one, so we found him one and went from there.”

Walker has two Labradoodles, the newest one named “Bronx” after his home borough. Smart’s labradoodle is named “Dallas,” and it’s his first dog in about 12 years.

“My first small dog ever,” Smart said. “I plan on, when I get my house, I plan on getting my big buddy, the big guy, my big dogs and stuff like that. Right now this is the perfect, I got a little condo, so this is perfect for a smaller dog right now.”

Walker is new to dog ownership, getting is first about a year ago. Now he’s enjoying the companionship of two.

“Those are my little guys. I don’t have no kids or anything, so those are my kids right now,” Walker said, flashing a wide smile. “It’s cool, though. It’s a responsibility, but it’s fun, especially with my first dog getting a chance to watch him grow over the year which was pretty cool.”

.@smart_MS3 and @KembaWalker met their new puppies postgame