Celtics Rookie Buys Mom a House, Fulfills Childhood Promise

Rachel Bertsche
·Writer
Updated
image

Photo courtesy of the Smart Family/Tulsa World

The Boston Celtics may have come up short in their face-off against the Mavericks on Monday night, but the trip was still a win for rookie Marcus Smart.

Smart, who played professionally for the first time in his Texas hometown, fulfilled a life-long dream by buying his parents a house.

STORY: How Having a Son Changed My Life

“Growing up as a kid you always want to try to give back to your parents,” Smart, 20, tells Yahoo Parenting of the $500,000 home his mom picked out in the Dallas suburb of Flower Mound.

“My mom is someone who I always looked up to and now I am just proud to be able to provide things for her so that her life is easier. It is a very special circumstance to be able to provide something like this to your parents,” he says. “We don’t always realize everything that our parents provide for us when we are growing up so it is very rewarding to be able to provide a new home to her.”

STORY: Kids and Sports: Is Training Getting Too Intense?

“I promised my mom when I was a little boy, if I ever made it to the NBA, that’s the first thing I’d do for her,” Smart told the Boston Herald. “And right now, I’m blessed to be able to do that.”

After practice on Sunday, Smart  and his mom went to check out the house.

“She picked out an awesome place,” he said, according to MassLive.com. “It’s incredible. I love it, so she did a good job.”

"I could have never imagined buying my mom a house for half a million dollars," Smart told CowboysRideforFree.com. “Now she’ll be right down the street [from where we used to live].”

STORY: Sergeant’s Emotional Surprise for Wife

The Smarts will move in after Thanksgiving, but are already feeling at home. “I looked at my mom, and she was smiling from ear to ear. And my dad,” Smart said. “And I just felt proud.”

His trip to Dallas was one that Smart’s mother had been looking forward to since the season schedule was released in August. “She saw the schedule and she called me right away,” Smart told The Boston Herald. “She was excited.”