The Boston Celtics continued its busy offseason over the weekend by pulling off another blockbuster trade. After acquiring center Kristaps Porzingis from the Washington Wizards early in the summer, the Celtics now went and added veteran point guard Jrue Holiday in a trade with the Portland Trail Blazers. Holiday landed in Portland last week as […]
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]]>The Boston Celtics continued its busy offseason over the weekend by pulling off another blockbuster trade. After acquiring center Kristaps Porzingis from the Washington Wizards early in the summer, the Celtics now went and added veteran point guard Jrue Holiday in a trade with the Portland Trail Blazers.
Holiday landed in Portland last week as part of the trade that sent Damian Lillard to the Milwaukee Bucks. However, the Trail Blazers never actually intended to keep Holiday, wanting to turn him into more assets, which a trade with the Celtics achieved.
According to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, the Celtics gave up a lot to get Holiday. They are sending center Robert Williams III, guard Malcolm Brogdon, as well as a 2024 first-rounder via Golden State and a 2029 first-round pick to Portland.
The Blazers are expected to keep Williams as a frontcourt partner to Deandre Ayton, whom they also brought in as part of the Lillard trade. However, Brogdon is expected to be made available on a trade market, considering Portland is loaded with young talent at the point guard position.
The Celtics, on the other hand, made a move that makes them one of the favorites in the Eastern Conference once again. They get one of the best two-way guards in the league to pair with Porzingis and All-Star duo Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown.
Holiday, who previously also played with the Philadelphia 76ers and the New Orleans Pelicans, is entering his 15th NBA season. He is averaging 16.4 points, 4.1 rebounds, and 6.5 assists per game since turning pro and has two NBA All-Star nods.
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After a disappointing playoff exit in 2019/20, Milwaukee Bucks started working on ways to improve their roster in order to impress reigning MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo and convince him to ink a long-term extension with the team. And it appears they are on a great track to pull that off. According to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, Bucks […]
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]]>After a disappointing playoff exit in 2019/20, Milwaukee Bucks started working on ways to improve their roster in order to impress reigning MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo and convince him to ink a long-term extension with the team. And it appears they are on a great track to pull that off.
According to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, Bucks acquired Sacramento Kings’ sharpshooter Bogdan Bogdanovic and New Orleans Pelicans’ guard Jrue Holiday in separate trades on Monday.
Bogdanovic was an impending restricted free agent, so Bucks are acquiring the Serbian in a sign-and-trade type of deal. Kings will receive Donte DiVincenzo, D.J. Wilson, and Ersan Ilyasova in return.
The package that Milwaukee gave up for Holiday is even bigger. Pelicans will receive guards Eric Bledsoe and George Hill as well as significant draft compensation.
Wojnarowski reports that Bucks will send Indiana Pacers’ first-round pick in 2020 as well as unprotected first-round picks in 2025 and 2027 to New Orleans. As part of the deal, the Pelicans will also have the option to swap picks in 2024 and 2026.
The two trades significantly add to Bucks’ already talented squad while addressing some of their biggest needs.
Bogdan Bogdanovic is a proven shooter in the league, having the ability to create a shot for himself while being extremely efficient from catch-and-shoot threes in recent seasons with Kings. Bogdanovic averaged career-high 15.1 points in 2019/20 while shooting 37.2 percent from deep and 44.0 from the field.
Jrue Holiday, on the other hand, comes with a reputation as one of the NBA’s best defenders and a player who has consistently produced during his time in the league. Holiday, who has one All-Star appearance to his name, finished the past season with 19.1 points, 4.8 rebounds, 6.7 assists, and 1.6 steals per game.
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Utah Jazz center Rudy Gobert earned the most votes for NBA All-Defensive First Team, the league has announced on Wednesday. Gobert, who is also the favorite for Defensive Player of the Year, earned 94 First Team votes. He averaged 13.5 points, 10.7 rebounds and 2.3 blocks per game during the regular season, and was the […]
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]]>Utah Jazz center Rudy Gobert earned the most votes for NBA All-Defensive First Team, the league has announced on Wednesday. Gobert, who is also the favorite for Defensive Player of the Year, earned 94 First Team votes. He averaged 13.5 points, 10.7 rebounds and 2.3 blocks per game during the regular season, and was the big part of the Jazz’s Western Conference first-round win against the Oklahoma City Thunder.
Behind Gobert is New Orleans Pelicans’ forward Anthony Davis who earned his first NBA All-Defensive First Team selection. Davis, who has two NBA All-Defensive Second Team selections, earned 73 first-team votes. He had an MVP-worthy campaign after the Pelicans lost DeMarcus Cousins, averaging 28.1 points, 11.1 rebounds, 1.5 steals and led the league in blocks with 2.6 per game.
Rudy Gobert and Anthony Davis are joined on NBA All-Defensive First Team by Indiana Pacers guard Victor Oladipo, Pelicans guard Jrue Holiday and Philadelphia 76ers forward Robert Covington. This is also the first selection for Oladipo, Holiday and Covington.
The 2017-18 NBA All-Defense First Team! @VicOladipo @Jrue_Holiday11 @Holla_At_Rob33 @AntDavis23 @rudygobert27 pic.twitter.com/yk94xYliI6
— NBA (@NBA) May 23, 2018
NBA Defensive Player of the Year finalist, 76ers’ Joel Embiid, didn’t find his place on the NBA All-Defensive First Team. He did, however, made it into NBA All-Defensive Second Team selection. He is joined by Golden State Warriors forward Draymond Green, Boston Celtics center Al Horford, San Antonio Spurs guard Dejounte Murray and Minnesota Timberwolves guard Jimmy Butler.
Six players selected to an NBA All-Defensive Team for their First Time! pic.twitter.com/sm9nmQOIT6
— NBA.com/Stats (@nbastats) May 23, 2018
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In 2008, while she was a budding soccer star at UCLA, a man caught Lauren Cheney’s eye. He was young and handsome, obviously an athlete like she was. Was he a football player? Baseball player? She had to know. Lauren thought he looked familiar. “Are you,” she asked, “Darren Collison?” She meant the famous point […]
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]]>In 2008, while she was a budding soccer star at UCLA, a man caught Lauren Cheney’s eye.
He was young and handsome, obviously an athlete like she was. Was he a football player? Baseball player? She had to know.
Lauren thought he looked familiar. “Are you,” she asked, “Darren Collison?” She meant the famous point guard of the Bruins basketball team, who by then was on his fast track to the NBA.
“No,” the man replied.
“Don’t worry,” Lauren said. “You’re cuter than Darren is.”
Instagram
So it was that a romance began. Lauren had in fact spotted Collison’s teammate, Jrue Holiday, a local Los Angeles baller setting the early stages for his own professional basketball career.
It was a perfect life … until it wasn’t
The couple began dating, and while Lauren continued her excellence in soccer, playing pro for FC Kansas City and internationally for the U.S. women’s national team, Jrue did the same, getting drafted in 2009 to the NBA, where he now plays for the New Orleans Pelicans. They married in 2013.
It was the perfect life. Until, suddenly, it wasn’t.
In 2016, a year after she won her second women’s World Cup title, Lauren was diagnosed with a tumor on her brain. Lauren was also pregnant, and worse than her own health being in jeopardy, the tumor was also believed to have put her unborn baby at risk.
It rocked them, a charmed life now upended, but it would not tear them apart.
The Holidays had their baby girl in Sept., 2016, happy and healthy. But now there was the matter of Lauren’s own fate.
Instagram
She was scheduled for surgery to remove the tumor in October, yet that was also the month Jrue’s NBA season was to begin. He would be on the road almost as much as he was home. With a newborn girl, and a wife who would be facing serious recovery, Jrue had a difficult choice to make.
The right choice
He picked Lauren. The point guard reached an agreement with the Pelicans to take an indefinite leave from the team to care for his wife and their baby.
“The most important thing for Jrue to do right now is be with his wife and family,” Pelicans coach Alvin Gentry said at the time.
“Every one of our coaches and players understands what Lauren and Jrue are going through, and they know we’re behind them 100 per cent.”
It was, in the end, the right choice. Lauren’s surgery was a success, and with Jrue by her side, her recovery went smoothly.
‘My family comes before basketball.’
Jrue rejoined the Pelicans on Nov. 18, scoring 21 points on efficient shooting in a win over the Portland Trail Blazers. After the season, Jrue re-signed with New Orleans, on a deal that will pay $126 million over five seasons.
Life has settled for the holidays. Lauren’s future in soccer is unclear, but her role as a mother and wife is decidedly less so after this serious medical scare.
Jrue, before his wife’s operation, seemed to say it best.
“My family,” he said, “comes before basketball.”
Instagram
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