BOSTON — As Marcus Smart warmed up Saturday night to play against his former team for the first time, his wife, Maisa, had her hands full in the TD Garden front row. She was carrying their 2-month-old son, Zayn, and showing him off to a line of old friends.
According to Smart, the couple planned for Zayn to leave the arena before tipoff. Still, Smart considered it important to bring his first-born child to the building he used to call his home court. Smart wanted to introduce Zayn to his former teammates and Boston Celtics staff members for the first time. Plus, Smart told The Athletic, he wanted to create memories for father and son to look back on in the future.
“It’s going to be something when he grows up I can show him and he can understand it as he gets older,” Smart said.
After his usual pregame warmup, Smart posed for photos with Zayn and Maisa courtside. Years from now, Smart intends to show Zayn pictures and videos of the night his father first competed against the Celtics in the city where he spent the first nine seasons of his NBA career. Though Zayn couldn’t understand everything Saturday night, when Boston fell to the Memphis Grizzlies 127-121, Smart wanted his son to experience the love inside the arena.
“One day,” Smart said, “he can understand, he…
