Jrue Holiday's life was turned upside down in 2016 when his wife Lauren Holiday, who is a former USA Soccer player, was diagnosed with a brain tumor while she was pregnant with the couple's baby.
He was in a contract year with the New Orleans Pelicans but decided to step away from the game to be with his wife while she battled the tumor.
He didn't talk about it much while it was happening but he recently sat down with Shams Charania of Yahoo! Sports to talk about the challenging time in his life.
“There was a lot of stress that I felt, a lot of pressure there,” Holiday told Yahoo Sports. “I think how my family dynamic is built, how my faith is built, we persevered through that. Always praying. My family praying, especially for my wife. My wife going through that — being pregnant and having a brain tumor — that was the point where I had to rely on other people.”
“As a man and as an athlete, you always feel you can handle things by yourself,” Holiday said. “You feel like, ‘I got to the league, I did it by myself.’ You thank and serve people along the way — but I put in the work. That was somewhat in my control. But my wife’s situation, it really wasn’t in my control. So to bounce back from that has been pretty cool, pretty special to me.”
His wife is now healthy, and they had a healthy baby girl so now he is back focused on basketball. He signed a five-year contract extension with the New Orleans Pelicans during the off-season and is now having the best season of his career.
He has played in 66 games putting up 19.2 points, 5.8 assists, and 4.4 rebounds per game. The Pelicans are in the middle of a playoff race, and they are going to need the good play from Holiday to continue to make the playoffs.
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