OverTime: So, It's Time for Some Holiday Cheer!

Photo courtesy of the Philadelphia Tribune.

Welcome to "OverTime," a small subcategory within my larger blog where I will dedicate time to one of my greatest passions - basketball. For those of you that don't know or don't know me that well (and even for the ones that do), professional basketball is the cornerstone of my life. It wouldn't be fair to say, "I live and breathe for basketball," but it also wouldn't be too far from the truth. I mean, do I listen to basketball podcasts everyday? Yes. Do I watch it every night during the regular season? Almost religiously. Can you hear me screaming about a LeBron fade-away that saved Cleveland in an overtime game against the Timberwolves in the background of my roommate's music video? Yeah, if you listen carefully. But hey, who can blame me? It was an amazing game.

Anyway, my point is - I really love basketball and even more so, I really love the people (and the teams they comprise) who play basketball. That's why I created this sub-blog. So I could have a place to monologue about that love. And what better way to introduce you to my love of basketball than by introducing you to my L-O-V-E itself? His name: Jrue Holiday.

I know, you're like, "Who the fuck is that?" I get it. You've never heard of him (unless you have through me, in which case... you're welcome). He's the starting point guard for the New Orleans Pelicans, a team you probably forgot existed. But here's the thing. You should know his name (pronounced "Drew"), because he's one of the best people on the planet. And I'm not even exaggerating.

Let me take you back to when Jrue Holiday first caught my eye. Now, I started watching basketball (semi-) religiously the year Atlanta made it all the way to the Eastern Conference Finals before getting swept by the Cavaliers. That was 2015. So, I'm still relatively new to basketball. I don't have a long coming of age story about how I've loved it my whole life. Nope. I played in my driveway growing up, and after we moved I pretty much stopped caring. But I fell in love with the game watching the 2015 playoffs, and since then I've watched hundreds of hours of live games, highlights, and especially replays. Hell, at night I frequently go back and watch playoff games from the '80's and '90's. But, I digress. What I'm trying to say is that I haven't been watching Jrue since his UCLA days or even when he was an All-Star back in 2013. No, I actually noticed him because he wasn't playing basketball.

It was the beginning of the 2016-17 season, some early game between the Pelicans and my beloved Hawks, and I noticed that the regular point guard for New Orleans wasn't playing. Instead some lesser player, Tim Frazier according to the box score, was starting that game. (Thank God for Basketball Reference!) Now, I didn't know who the fuck Frazier was, and I still really don't. According to Basketball Reference he now plays for the Washington Wizards, which would be why no one's seen or heard from him the last two years. Marcin Gortat probably locked him away in his fucking dungeon.

For reference, until this year Gortat (scene above literally wielding a sledgehammer) was the starting center for the Wizards. He's like one of the scariest things to ever happen. He once suggested that when NBA players disagree in game there should be a "quick 15-20 seconds" where they can, and I quote, "throw a few punches." He's a monster.

Anyway, so I'm looking up what happened to the Pelicans starting point guard, a name that meant little to me at the time, Jrue Holiday. It turns out Jrue didn't show up for the team that year because his wife, a two-time Olympic gold medalist, Lauren Holiday was diagnosed with a brain tumor a week before she gave birth to their first child, a beautiful, healthy baby girl. In the end, Lauren was fine. The tumor was successfully removed and their daughter was completely unaffected by it. Jrue decided he was going to leave the NBA indefinitely to take care of his daughter and wife. 

Now, when I read that I was floored. My heart literally melted and flowed right out of my chest. To this day I have never heard of or seen anything as precious as the Holiday family, and when I read that article I fell in love with a basketball player without him even being on the floor. Fast forward a few months and boom! The family is healthy and (clearly) loving each other, and Jrue is back playing for the Pelicans again about half way into the season. That's when I realized I had fallen in love with, not only an amazing person, but an amazing basketball player. A basketball player the rest of the nation has been sleeping on for years.

This last season (2017-18) Jrue started and played with the team for all but a single game. And he was incredible, one of the best offensive and defensive point guards in the whole league. He averaged nineteen points, six assists, and four and a half rebounds a game, with almost fifty percent shooting. Throw in the average steal and block (or two) and you have a top ten All-Defensive Team player (to which he was named). He was an absolute force to be reckoned with, and yet he always felt like the calm before the storm. He always kept his demeanor, always humble. He never left the court visibly shaken or defeated. He was inspirational.

And then the playoffs happened. The Pelicans went into the Western Conference Playoffs seeded sixth, which meant they had to play the third seeded Portland Trailblazers, who had home court advantage. So let me tell you - that wasn't going to be easy. But Jrue let the calm before the storm facade fade and he became the fucking storm. The Pelicans swept the Portland Trailblazers out of the playoffs 4-0. In just four games, Holiday put up over 110 points. That's un-fucking-believable. That's a godly number of points. Oh! And this happened.

It was, and I mean this with utmost sincerity, the best thing I've ever seen. Every minute Jrue played in these playoffs I had his name and number written across my fingers. I only own one basketball jersey, can you guess whose it is? It's Jrue's. It's obviously Jrue Holiday's. You know how kids always get obnoxiously excited and won't sleep and won't stop jumping up and down on Christmas because it's their favorite holiday? Well that's me when there's a Pelicans game on. Because Christmas isn't my favorite holiday. Jrue is.