In the beginning, Jrue Holiday just needed a reason to go play basketball while the world was on fire. It was summer 2020 at peak COVID-19. Everything was on lockdown. Cops had just killed George Floyd. Protesters filled the nation’s cities’ streets. President Trump hid in the White House basement while fences went around it, guarded by soldiers carrying assault rifles and dressed for war. In the midst of all this, the NBA was bringing teams to Orlando to finish the season in the bubble.
This gave Holiday some complicated feelings. On top of all that, his wife, retired soccer star Lauren Cheney Holiday, was pregnant. “Being with my family was really, really important,” Jrue says. “Having to leave them for that long—I needed motivation.”
As a guard for the Pelicans at the time—he’s with the Bucks now—basketball felt pointless. “We were thinking … maybe I would sit out,” he says. “I was struggling to go to the bubble and play. Socially, there was a lot going on.”
