Oklahoma St. point guard Marcus Smart surprised many when he decided to return to school for his sophomore season despite being a guaranteed lottery pick last season. Smart is one of the biggest prospects in the heralded 2014 draft class, but an incident last night may hurt his standing.
Trailing late in last night’s game against Texas Tech, Smart flew out of bounds behind the basket, after trying to block a layup attempt. As he was getting up, he suddenly turned around and began exchanging words with a fan before shoving him.
The fan, Jeff Orr, is known as a huge Texas Tech fan and attends all of their games. According to Doug Gottlieb of CBS, Orr believes he may have crossed the line with his words to Smart:
Jeff Orr to a #TexasTech friend of mine via text "I kinda let my mouth say something I shouldn't have,I feel bad" #MarcusSmart
— Doug Gottlieb (@GottliebShow) February 9, 2014
Regardless of what was said to Smart, he must know better than to ever put his hands on a spectator. While his draft stock is unlikely to take a huge hit, there will undoubtedly be a number of questions regarding his character, temper, and leadership ability.
Smart and Australian point guard Dante Exum are the two top point guard prospects in the draft, and both would be great fits for the Lakers. Exum may permanently move ahead of Smart after this incident.
Here is video of the incident via the ESPN Youtube Page:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ha3S3kwAQE&list=UUiWLfSweyRNmLpgEHekhoAg&feature=share&index=1
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