Marcus Smart shoves fan at basketball game

According to ESPN: “Oklahoma State star Marcus Smart shoved a Texas Tech fan in the final seconds of the 19th-ranked Cowboys’ 65-61 loss to the Red Raiders on Saturday night in Lubbock, Texas.”  The incident occurred on Saturday night, 8 February 2014.

Mr. Smart is a rather remarkable young player whose story was told in an interview which is detailed by USA Today: “Rage burned inside him after seeing cancer overtake one older brother and cocaine nearly destroy another. Anger boiled while confronting a neighborhood south of Dallas he called a war zone amid duplexes. He desperately sought to inflict others with the pain that incessantly gnawed at his 12-year-old heart.”

Through the game of basketball, Marcus Smart has turned his life around.  He is committed not only to the game of basketball but also to completing his college education.  This unfortunate incident in which he impulsively shoved a fan who made an unwelcome comment to him in a heated moment can potentially derail him from his trajectory.  I wondered what his birth chart looked like.  Martin Smart was born on March 6, 1994,  and grew up in Texas.  Here is his birth chart, time unknown, cast for noon in Texas with solar sign houses.

Marcus Smart, March 6, 1994. Noon chart, time unknown, solar sign houses.  Note the prominent Mars square Pluto aspect.

The first thing that struck me about this chart is Mars in Aquarius so closely square to Pluto in Scorpio. This angry Mars/Pluto square is entirely consistent with the comment in USA Today: “Family tragedy sent him into a period of simmering rage and troublemaking as a youth.”  Among other things, cafeastrology.com delineates natal Mars square Pluto as follows:

“You have a tendency to impose your will upon others, which can cause severe problems for yourself when they react in self-defense. You have a hair-trigger temper and may even resort to verbal or physical abuse when upset. Learning to react to unpleasant circumstances with your intellect rather than your emotions comes with maturity. “

Maria Desimone says of Mars square Pluto in her own birth chart:

“I was born with Mars square Pluto in my horoscope. These planets, especially when in hard aspect (conjunction, square or opposition) leave the native with an imprint that represents fighting for your life. It is sometimes an indicator of an individual with a fierce temper or someone who is the victim of violence at some point in his or her life. It is also an indicator of someone with the most incredible drive to win.”

It seemed to me that Mars or Pluto must have been involved, probably by transit, at the time of the shoving incident, so I ran his transits for the few days before and after the game in Solar Fire.  Here are the results:

Transits to Marcus Smart’s natal chart around the time of the shoving incident.

Sure enough, on the day of the fateful game, transiting Mars (which squares Pluto natally) made an exact square to his natal Uranus at 1:58 pm CST, just a few hours before the shoving took place.  Solar Fire delineates this transit as “inner tension and stress, impulsive actions.”  Astrologically, Marcus Smart was primed for a sudden outburst of aggressive Mars energy on Saturday, February 8, 2014.

It is amazing how astrological symbolism plays itself out so precisely in such public events.  Fortunately, the fan whom Marcus shoved did not appear to have been injured.  The case is under review.  Given Mr. Smart’s overall impressive performance and the way in which he has turned his life around after a troubled youth, I hope he can learn from this incident and put it behind him.

Addendum:  In this evening’s news (Feb 9th) it was announced that Marcus Smart will be suspended for three games for pushing a fan.  Smart was quoted as saying: “This is not me, and I really do apologize for it … I’ll take responsibility and the consequences that come with it.”  He is probably unaware that he was under the influence of transiting Mars square his natal Uranus during the shoving incident.