BIOGRAPHY
Jrue Holiday was born on June 12, 1990, in Chatsworth, California. He is a guard for the Milwaukee Bucks in the NBA.
He played college basketball for one season with the UCLA Bruins before being selected by the Philadelphia 76ers in the first round of the 2009 NBA draft with the 17th overall pick. Holiday played four seasons with Philadelphia, where he was named an NBA All-Star in his fourth season, before being traded to the Pelicans in 2013. He is a two-time NBA All-Defensive Team member.
Holiday was born to Shawn and Toya (née DeCree) Holiday. His parents both played college basketball at Arizona State, where Toya was named Pac-10 Player of the Year in 1982. In high school, He was named the 2008 Gatorade National Player of the Year and a Parade Magazine First Team All-American. He also played in the McDonald's All-American Game, tallying 14 points, 5 rebounds, 3 assists and 5 steals. In 2008–09, Holiday played alongside fellow future NBA player Darren Collison in the backcourt at UCLA. In 35 games (all starts), Holiday averaged 8.5 points, 3.8 rebounds, 3.7 assists and 1.6 steals in 27.1 minutes per game. After the season, he declared for the NBA draft, forgoing his final three years of college eligibility.
Holiday was drafted 17th overall by the Philadelphia 76ers in the 2009 NBA draft. With his first All-Star selection, the 22-year-old Holiday became the youngest player in franchise history to be named an All-Star. On July 12, 2013, Holiday was traded to the New Orleans Pelicans in exchange for Nerlens Noel and the Pelicans' 2014 first-round draft pick. On November 24, 2020, Holiday was traded to the Milwaukee Bucks in a four-team trade, involving the Denver Nuggets and Oklahoma City Thunder
Holiday's older brother Justin, also became an NBA player while his younger brother, Aaron also played at UCLA and was selected in the first round of the 2018 draft. His younger sister, Lauren, played college basketball on the UCLA Womens team.
In July 2013, Holiday married US Womens National Soccer team midfielder Lauren Cheney. The two first met at a UCLA women's basketball game during his only season at the school.
Holiday is known for being an all-around good guy. During the shortened 2020 NBA season, Jrue donated the remainder of his salary to small black own businesses and those who were effected most by the pandemic.
In 2021, he helped lead the Milwaukee Bucks to an NBA championship, and won a gold medal with the U.S. national team at the Summer Olympics.
Last year thousands of lives and local businesses across the nation were affected in unfathomable ways, due to the uprisings of the global pandemic and the epidemic of racial and social injustices.
In July of 2020, Jrue Holiday, and his wife Lauren boldly pledged the remainder of Jrue’s 2020 NBA salary as a progressive step toward combating systemic racism and socioeconomic inequality that continues to prevent Black communities from upward mobility.
Jrue and Lauren Holiday have since continued to support local Black-led non-profit organizations, city-wide initiatives that seek to bring about equitable outcomes for Black and Brown communities, and historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) of higher education in New Orleans, the Los Angeles area, and Indianapolis.
Jrue and Lauren chose to focus the majority of their support on the four cities they have personal and heartfelt connections to—Los Angeles, Jrue’s native hometown area and both his and Lauren’s UCLA college town; Indianapolis, Lauren’s hometown; New Orleans, the city of the Pelicans and where Jrue played for seven years; and Milwaukee where Jrue won the NBA Championship and the place they now call home.
On September 27, 2023 Holiday was traded to the Portland Trail Blazers
