Jrue Holiday Makes ‘Christ a Priority’ Amid Celtics NBA Championship Run
By Movieguide® Contributor
Boston Celtics guard Jrue Holiday is a veteran on the court for his team.
Holiday, who’s about to turn 34 this month, has “started all 69 games he played in this regular season, averaging 12.5 points, a career-high 5.4 rebounds and a career-low 1.8 turnovers per game, all while shooting a career-best 42.9% from the 3-point line,” Sports Spectrum reported.
Regardless of those stats, Holiday has one goal during this finals run: to make “Christ a priority.”
“Making Christ a priority is huge, because without Him, I wouldn’t be here. None of us would,” he said in an interview.
A major aspect of his faith journey is his relationship with his wife, Lauren.
Lauren is a World Cup champion and two-time Olympic gold medalist with the U.S. women’s soccer team. But when the couple was pregnant with their first child, she was diagnosed with a brain tumor.
That time helped the couple focus on God and prayer.
“I think for her and me that was definitely a pivotal moment because that was something — it brought us closer together getting closer to God,” Jrue said in a 2018 issue of Sports Spectrum Magazine. “I would say [our relationship with God] changed because I started to reach more towards Him. … I felt like a lot of times when something bad happens, that’s where you can start to seek God more.”
Holiday continued: “Again, some people veer away from Him, but at that point, I felt like because my wife and myself are both believers, we [prayed] together and that’s something that we could just do together. We just pray together every night before we go to sleep. Pray for our daughter, pray for her health.”
For more inspiring sports stories, check out Sports Spectrum.
Holiday is outspoken about his faith on his social media accounts.
His Instagram bio reads, “We most bear resemblance to Christ, when we bear another’s burden.”
Movieguide® previously reported on Holiday:
NBA Champion and All-Star Jrue Holiday recently scored a career high 40 points for the Milwaukee Bucks in their 125-131 victory against the Boston Celtics on Feb. 14.
“The only stat I look at is turnovers,” he said after the game. “That’s kind of how I determine if I had a good or bad game. Tonight, what did I have, five turnovers? To me, that hurts my soul.”
“I think for me, it doesn’t matter if I score,” Holiday added. “I would like to make plays on defense most of the time I’m on the court. We have enough guys that are going to score … I try to do my best to impact the defense.”
Holiday’s humility comes from his Christian faith, which he shares via social media and in post-game interviews.