Jrue Holiday is an NBA Champion, which means that for two years in a row, a key player who has left the New Orleans Pelicans went on to win a title with another team.
While it is never fun to see your ex-players dominating for someone else, there was a distinctly different feeling when Holiday lifted the championship trophy than when Anthony Davis did.
Unlike Davis, fans were happy and excited for Jrue Holiday, who is still a fan favorite in New Orleans even after quietly requesting a trade out of town.
Both players more or less did the same thing in New Orleans, so why is one player still beloved and the other enemy number one?
New Orleans Pelicans: Jrue Holiday showed the heart that Anthony Davis never had.
The main reason fans of the Pelicans love Jrue Holiday so much is the way he played the game when he was in New Orleans.
Holiday never complained, played hard every night, tried to be a leader, played through injuries and did whatever the Pelicans asked to help them win. He wanted desperately to bring a winner to the Big Easy and busted his butt every night to make it happen, whether the Pelicans were asking him to be the leading scorer, facilitator or guard the other team’s best player.
Anthony Davis was nearly the polar opposite. While he had some monster games and seasons for the Pelicans, it never seemed like he was “all-in” on the team or city. He wasn’t a great team leader and put his personal comfort ahead of what was best for he team. Everyone knew he should be playing some center but he refused. He was also constantly injured and never found a way to play through them.
He was the anti-Jrue Holiday, which is the main reason Holiday is still loved and he isn’t, but there are more.
New Orleans Pelicans: Anthony Davis’ exit was a lesson in how not to do it
Both Jrue Holiday and Anthony Davis eventually requested trades to better teams. This happens in the NBA and sometimes it totally makes sense.
But if you look at how Holiday and Davis did it, you’ll see two totally different approaches. Davis used the media to make his wishes well known, which led to constant speculation and trade rumors hanging over the Pelicans for the better part of two seasons.
The AD saga became a soap opera that hurt the team and dominated all of the talk, especially once it became clear that they were going to honor his wishes and trade him.
Holiday, on the other hand, did his business behind closed doors, never going to the press or making his story the focus of the team. He quietly asked to be sent to a better situation, which made sense given his age and desire to win a title before he was too old.
Davis wasn’t old, wasn’t in the latter stages of his career and just wanted out because it would be harder to win a title in New Orleans than it would be in Los Angeles. Pretty simple.
He hijacked the team for a season, forced a trade and then basically flipped New Orleans the bird on the way out.
Jrue Holiday has had nothing but positive things to say about the organization, including thanking them for their part in sending him to Milwaukee.
All class, as usual, Jrue Holiday gave thanks to New Orleans for setting him on the path towards helping the Milwaukee Bucks win their first championship in 50 years: https://t.co/MsBgJsY1XV pic.twitter.com/L4wTUEkEDv
— FOX 8 New Orleans (@FOX8NOLA) July 21, 2021
Holiday’s exit and the aftermath were a lesson in class, while AD’s was a lesson in how to look like a clown wearing a “That’s All Folks!” T-Shirt after faking an injury to not have to play.
New Orleans Pelicans: Jrue Holiday is just a good dude
Holiday was beloved in New Orleans partially because of his charitable work through the foundation that he and his wife run.
That work hasn’t stopped just because he left New Orleans. The Jrue and Lauren Holiday foundation didn’t pull the plug just because they left the city, the work continued and just expanded to include Milwaukee.
One of the goals is to lift up and empower Black owned businesses and non-profits and that work has carried on, which Jrue Holiday called “my biggest accomplishment to date.”
How can you not love this guy?
When Anthony Davis left New Orleans he left nothing but a bad taste and a bunch of trolling Tweets.
I don’t know either one of these guys but it’s easy to see why fans of the New Orleans Pelicans are going to give Jrue Holiday a standing ovation every time he returns and boo the life out of AD.
You can leave a team without burning bridges, which is how you have a legacy in the NBA that is larger than being LeBron’s sidekick for a bubble title.