Basketball life is a grind. Sure, players are compensated well and no one is going to shed a tear for guys who fly in private jets and stay in luxury hotels, but the physical and mental toll an 82 game season takes on a player is real.

Players have different ways of dealing with it. Downtime is critical to a player’s recovery, and some spend that time with family, playing an instrument, or playing video games. A few find a different way to deal with the stress.

“Dogs just make things a little bit better,” Marcus Smart said. “You having a bad day, they sense that, they feel with you, they’re very empathetic with you, they feel the love, they feel everything that you feel, so being able to have a dog definitely helps with stress.”

A few of the Celtics have dogs in their lives, just like a lot of us do. Smart, for example, grew up with dogs, mostly pit bulls. Others, like Kemba Walker, are new to the wonders of tail-wagging best friends. In fact, Walker and Smart share a special connection here.

“(Marcus Smart) came to my house. He met my dog for the first time and he seen how calm and cool my dog was and he was like ‘can I get one?” and I was like ‘yeah,’” Walker said. “We hit the dog breeder up, and I was actually about to get another one, so we found him one and went from there.”

Walker has two Labradoodles, the newest one named “Bronx” after his home borough. Smart’s labradoodle is named “Dallas,” and it’s his first dog in about 12 years.

“My first small dog ever,” Smart said. “I plan on, when I get my house, I plan on getting my big buddy, the big guy, my big dogs and stuff like that. Right now this is the perfect, I got a little condo, so this is perfect for a smaller dog right now.”

Walker is new to dog ownership, getting is first about a year ago. Now he’s enjoying the companionship of two.

“Those are my little guys. I don’t have no kids or anything, so those are my kids right now,” Walker said, flashing a wide smile. “It’s cool, though. It’s a responsibility, but it’s fun, especially with my first dog getting a chance to watch him grow over the year which was pretty cool.”

Jayson Tatum recently got a second boxer, named Creed. Sadly, the reason he got Creed was because he recently lost his childhood dog, a boxer named Lennox. Look closely on Tatum’s left hand and you’ll notice a small, heart shaped tattoo with paw print in it, which he recently got in Lennox’s memory.

“I love dogs,” Tatum said. “And the only people that notice this tattoo are people that have a dog or lost a dog.”

Boxers are Tatum’s breed of choice, and he chooses to roll with the motif by choosing boxer names. Lennox was named after former champion Lennox Lewis. Creed was named after the Rocky character Apollo Creed.

“They’re just real friendly dogs,” Tatum said. “Protective. They got great energy. I like big dogs. They’re fun to play with. You can box with them. Unique personalities. I think they look the best.”

For Tatum, there’s an added element of having a child. Tatum’s son Jayson Jr., a.k.a. Deuce, is a sort of bridge between both dogs. Young kids, though, can be tough for dogs to handle.

“Lennox was real friendly with Deuce,” Tatum said. “When he was around, Deuce was still young. He just started walking. Creed is kind of scared of Deuce cuz he be terrorizing Creed. He be hitting him with his toys. So when Deuce is around, Creed just runs away. He just goes in his cage.”

If one child is tough, imagine three. Gordon Hayward’s three young daughters are no different with their poking and prodding of the family’s two German Shepherds Siber and Ebby.

“The girls, especially when they’re younger, they have no idea what they’re dealing with,” Hayward said. “So they’ll slap them in the face, grab their tail, the whole deal. Both of our dogs have been great with the kids.”

Hayward also didn’t have a dog growing up because his parents said there was no time to care for them. He finally got the German Shepherd he always wanted, but he also got peace of mind along with a family pet.

“That’s the reason we got Siber originally,” Hayward said. Siber came to the Haywards as a puppy, but was later trained for protection. “Everyone knows our schedule, when we’re home, when we’re away, so to have him there to protect (Robyn, his wife) and it is peace of mind for me too.”

Gordon Hayward and his dog

Ebby is the newest addition to the family, and she is a bit more hardcore.

“We ordered her probably 5-6 months ago. She’s a trained protection dog from Slovakia,” Hayward said. “She came over in the middle of the summer… she was with (a trainer) for three months or something kind of getting acclimated to the United States, acclimated to everything. We recently just got her maybe about a month ago.”

Whether it’s protection or companionship, there is one common thread between all of the Celtics dog owners. They are happy to come home to a friend that doesn’t care what happened that day.

“It’s good to have a dog who just doesn't know,” Walker said. “If things are not going well for me and I can go home to the pups and tails are wagging, I know he’s happy, it makes me happy.”

Smart agreed.

“It keeps me young,” Smart said. “I got the same energy. It matches me. I’m a big kid, I like to run around, joke around, so having a puppy is right up my alley.”

“They’re super-excited when you come home,” Tatum said. “Play with them. It was just like having a baby, until you have a baby, kinda.”

“The dog doesn’t know where you’re at, he just knows when you’re coming home.” Hayward said, summing up the experience of opening the door to an excited pup with wiggly butt. “Just greets you at the door, really happy to see you, and it’s good to come home to. There’s no doubt about that.”