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From animals to NBA opponents, Lakers’ Marcus Smart immerses himself in his favorite topics

April 3, 2026

DALLAS — The Lakers had just watched Luke Kennard drain a last-second, game-winning 3-pointer to beat the Orlando Magic.

High off the spirit of escaping with their ninth consecutive win, conversation in the visitor’s locker room at the Kia Center turned to the encounter LeBron James and Bronny James had with an alligator while golfing during the Florida leg of the six-game road trip.

As Marcus Smart walked toward his locker, his ears were burning. The veteran guard was ready for this moment, much like when he is game-planned onto the opposing team’s best offensive player – such as Zion Williamson or Shai Gilgeous-Alexander to name a few – and pounced on the gator-centric dialogue pulsating through the room like music.

Smart shot from the hip and let his knowledge flow. He spoke with the Southern California News Group about his interest in animals earlier this week.

“Alligators are at the top, they have one of the, if not the strongest bite force of any animal, right?”

“Hippos – hippos are just as scary, because their bite force is stronger than alligators. And they’re bigger, and they’re very territorial, and they freak out for nothing.”

“If you’re in their waters,” Smart said of hippos, “you might as well say goodnight.”

“Sea otters are very sneakily dangerous. Because they look cute. Kind of like foxes. They travel in like packs of 20. They’re very aggressive and territorial – and they can get up to like five feet. Leopards and jaguars love the water, and they’re not even getting in the water when they see those things.”

Smart, well, knows his animals.

He waxed about the specific dangers of polar bears compared to the likes of brown and black bears.

Smart shared a story – which reeked of folk tale, but is true – of a Dutch woman who visited a gorilla multiple times a week and believed she had a special bond with the animal. She was attacked in 2007 following the gorilla’s escape from his zoo enclosure (gorillas are threatened by smiling and eye contact).

The story, however, doesn’t prevent gorillas from being the first animal Smart visits when going to a zoo.

“Don’t look them in the eyes, don’t show teeth,” Smart said of gorillas. “Show a very submissive stance.”

Smart doesn’t just know these things. He has immersed himself in information about animals since he was a child.

“I was always outside,” Smart said of growing up in Lancaster, Texas, about 15 miles South of Dallas.

“For some reason, I always encountered (animals),” Smart said. “So I was like, shoot, I probably might need to start understanding what type of animals are which as I got older.”

Smart ultimately took an aquatic science class while at Marcus High School in Flower Mound, Texas, bolstering his interest in the tidbits and details of animals. He studied and dissected the wildlife of the water while he was developing into a promising basketball prospect – going on to play at Oklahoma State before embarking on what is already a 12-year NBA career that includes the league’s Defensive Player of the Year award in 2022.

With the Lakers this season, his first in purple and gold, Smart has become the team’s “enforcer,” center Deandre Ayton said. It’s not just that the 32-year-old has carved out a role as a starter alongside the likes of LeBron James, Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves – averaging 9.5 points in 28.8 minutes per game.

And it’s not just that Smart’s “competitive gusto” helps set the defensive tone for the team, Lakers coach JJ Redick has said, a spark evident through his team-best 110.9 defensive rating when on the court (a metric calculating the amount of points a team allows while a player or groups of players are on the floor).

“Marcus is the only one that consistently is just doing what he’s supposed to do,” Redick said last month, “and sometimes is trying to make up for other guys not doing what they’re supposed to do.”

Smart is also recognized as one of the best teammates in the league.

Earlier this week, the NBA named Smart as one of 12 finalists for the 2025-26 Twyman-Stokes Teammate of the Year Award, an honor that “recognizes the player deemed the best teammate based on selfless play, on- and off-court leadership as a mentor and role model to other NBA players, and commitment and dedication to team.”

“I know this guy impacts winning wherever he’s been,” Washington Wizards coach Brian Keefe said Monday of Smart’s 15-game stint with Washington at the end of last season. “He did that for us. He was a huge impact in a short time. His intensity, his preparation, his defensive detail, the edge that he brings, he was terrific in his time for us. He was one of those guys who was a good leader in our locker room that guys really gravitated towards.”

Redick said there are on-court and off-court aspects to being a good teammate.

On the court, the player has to buy in and inspire his teammates to do the same. The easiest way to build goodwill and acceptance with teammates, Redick said, is through how hard you compete each time you’re on the floor.

Off the court, Redick said, there needs to be a different kind of effort – the effort that for Smart, could link back to the outdoors, his childhood away from the screens and on the grass.

“I think that’s the big thing, particularly in today’s day and age,” Redick said. “There has to be an effort. It’s easy to be on your device, have your AirPods in or be on your screens. Smart, he’s been a great addition to our group.”

In October, just a few weeks into the season, Ayton told reporters of Smart being willing to take initiative to correct and give him instruction. The game before the Lakers’ nine-game win streak began, Smart spent time in a Denver locker room speaking about Ayton – who missed most of that night’s 120-113 loss to the Nuggets with knee soreness – and defended his locker room neighbor.

Ayton had been receiving outside heat for some of his performances after the All-Star break. Smart, a voice for Ayton who had already departed the Nuggets arena, shared how much his teammate had been trying despite the results not having paid dividends in the weeks prior.

“I know as of lately he’s been getting a lot of backlash for his effort and his play,” Smart said that night. “He understands it. I know it might not seem like it, but he does and he wants to do good and he wants to help this team and I think that’s what’s more frustrating for him, because he’s trying. But the way he’s trying is not working and he’s still trying to figure it out.”

Redick called Smart a “calming voice” for Ayton throughout the season, a player who has always been there for his teammate – in huddles, at halftime, on the court, and at the team’s El Segundo training facility, he said – and helped build consistency for the former No. 1 overall draft pick as the regular season nears its close.

Ayton compared Smart to his former Phoenix Suns teammate, Jae Crowder, a voice in the room who sees everything, who is going to speak up, who is going to say the right thing at the right time, he said.

“He’s a brother’s keeper,” Ayton said Tuesday night of Smart.

And so, it only makes sense that, when asked about Smart as a teammate, Ayton turned to one of the dogs that Smart, a self-professed “dog lover” has owned. Smart now owns an Australian labradoodle, but Ayton shouted out a dog that he felt best-described Smart’s role on the team, a dog Smart once cared for.

“(He’s) our pitbull,” Ayton said. “And he’s the one that set the tone, really, and we all follow. He throws a punch, we all going to throw a punch. You got a 1,000 punches, you know what I’m saying?”

“That’s Marcus,” he said.

Orange County Register

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From animals to NBA opponents, Lakers’ Marcus Smart immerses himself in his favorite topics

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