Boston Celtics general manager Brad Stevens has publicly reprimanded Marcus Smart on Thursday after the veteran guard openly lambasted his teammates, Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown, for being selfish basketball players. It was not necessarily what Smart said, but rather how he went about saying it that had Stevens irked the most.

“I think any time you have things to say, you say it to the person or people,” Stevens said, according to Brian Robb of Masslive.com. “Whether they’re right wrong or whatever, you say it directly to the person. I think it’s important — you have to be willing to have difficult conversations and put your name on it.”

After a tough loss to the Chicago Bulls on a night that the Celtics blew a 19-point lead, tensions bubbled over when Smart criticized Tatum and Brown.

Obviously, Stevens wants to keep his team from reaching a breaking point that comes after players stop trusting one another. Smart has always been a very emotional player so you have to understand where he is coming from. He wants to win just as much, if not even more than anyone else on the Celtics so you have to respect his passion.

That respect could be lost, however, if you don't respect other people, so that is where Smart will have to make amends. As Stevens said, conversations like this are necessary sometimes for teams to grow as a unit. But the message just has to be delivered in a more professional way than Smart chose to go with.

As of posting, the Celtics have a 4-5 record.