{"id":93093,"date":"2024-08-29T09:40:01","date_gmt":"2024-08-29T13:40:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=93093"},"modified":"2026-02-28T15:10:59","modified_gmt":"2026-02-28T20:10:59","slug":"celtics-jrue-holiday-compares-winning-nba-championship-olympic-medal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/08\/29\/celtics-jrue-holiday-compares-winning-nba-championship-olympic-medal\/","title":{"rendered":"Celtics Favorite Compares NBA Championships, Olympic Medal"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Boston Celtics guard <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/h\/holidjr01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Jrue Holiday<\/a> is one of just three players who were able to win an NBA championship and Olympic gold medal this year. He\u2019s just <a href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/olympics\/story\/_\/id\/40574845\/players-won-nba-title-olympic-gold-medal-same-year-lebron-james-michael-jordan\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">one of eight players<\/a> to do it in NBA history. He\u2019s the only player besides former Chicago Bulls star <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/p\/pippesc01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Scottie Pippen<\/a> to do it more than once.<\/p>\n<p>Largely overlooked by the casual fan because he doesn\u2019t put up gaudy scoring numbers, Holiday is quietly putting together a Hall of Fame career. He may have just two All-Star selections, but he does have six All-Defensive selections. He also has, as previously mentioned, two NBA championships and two Olympic gold medals.<\/p>\n<p>This week may not be the time to talk about that. When Holiday retires and the dust settles, then those debates will intensify. Right now, he\u2019s riding the high of his summer.<\/p>\n<h2>Celtics\u2019 Jrue Holiday Compares NBA Championships, Olympic Medal<\/h2>\n<p>Holiday has made over $256 million in his career, but that didn\u2019t stop him from making an appearance at a local Raising Cane\u2019s to help out behind the counter. During his community service, the 34-year-old was asked to whether he preferred winning the gold medal or championship this year.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe medal in Paris was cool,\u201d Holiday says. \u201cIt was obviously against France so it kind of like literally us against the world.\u201d<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Jrue Holiday was asked which was a wilder celebration: Winning the championship in Boston or The Gold Medal in Paris.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWinning here was amazing. I\u2019m not sure anything tops that. Winning here in Boston. The crowd, the shot Payton hit. It was all just so overwhelming.\u201d <a  href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/GpXgfQN3I8\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/GpXgfQN3I8<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Justin Turpin (@JustinmTurpin) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/JustinmTurpin\/status\/1828795036580057403?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">August 28, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut winning here was amazing. I\u2019m not sure it tops that,\u201d Holiday considers. \u201cTo be able to win here in Boston. Game 5. I mean the crowd. The shot Payton (Pritchard) hit. I mean it was all just so overwhelming. That was amazing. Then the parade was crazy, too.\u201d<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u201cSo\u2026 I don\u2019t know. I feel like I\u2019m still on the high of both\u2026 but that Boston win was amazing.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>In light of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/a\/anthoca01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Carmelo Anthony<\/a> saying <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/08\/11\/knicks-carmelo-anthony-chooses-olympics-medals-nba-ring\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">he wouldn\u2019t trade<\/a> his three Olympic gold medals for one NBA championship, it\u2019s a fair question. Many assume that an NBA title takes precedence for players. However, there have been thousands of NBA players and at least one may see it differently.<\/p>\n<h3>Boston or Milwaukee?<\/h3>\n<p>Holiday was also asked to compare the championship he won with the Celtics to the one he won with the Milwaukee Bucks.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey were both different,\u201d he says, \u201cto be completely honest.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cGoing to Milwaukee is my first one and I get 50 years in between is kind of crazy. But I\u2019m from L.A. and I grew up a Laker fan. So, for one, putting on the green was a bit weird for me like the first day.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Jrue Holiday on winning a championship in Boston:<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt was crazy. I feel like I keep on saying that, but there is no words that can describe that feeling when you win that championship.\u201d <a  href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/eG9AJz1Ceq\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/eG9AJz1Ceq<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Justin Turpin (@JustinmTurpin) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/JustinmTurpin\/status\/1828807632490008924?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">August 28, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>And then, once I kind of got used to the green, we win the championship and it was like against the team you hated as a Laker fan. But I think once I kind of got acclimated to the city and the fans, it was crazy.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>As Holiday notes, prior to the 2021 NBA Finals, the Bucks hadn\u2019t won a championship in 50 years. He\u2019s not even rounding up; it had literally been 50 years since a Bucks player had hoisted the Larry O\u2019Brien Trophy. Back then, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/r\/roberos01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Oscar Robertson<\/a> was their starting point guard.<\/p>\n<p>Making history in that manner has to be surreal. It being Holiday\u2019s first NBA championship and one he won after 11 seasons only adds to that. However, a person\u2019s first love isn\u2019t always the person they marry. Or, phrased differently, just because it was his first doesn\u2019t mean it was more special.<\/p>\n<p>With that being said, Holiday didn\u2019t say that the Celtics championship was better. Still, it\u2019s clear that there were elements that made it a fantastic experience as well.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u201cI feel like I keep on saying that, but there\u2019s no word to describe that can describe that feeling after you win that championship. Or after we won that big game.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Winning a ring with a team that he rooted against in his youth while actually growing to love the city and fans is, well, crazy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Boston Celtics guard Jrue Holiday is one of just three players who were able to win an NBA championship and Olympic gold medal this year. He\u2019s just one of eight players to do it in NBA history. He\u2019s the only player besides former Chicago Bulls star Scottie Pippen to do it more than once. Largely [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5008,"featured_media":93192,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1608,5,15,62,3,60],"tags":[239,4557,1052],"class_list":["post-93093","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-basketball","category-celtics","category-bucks","category-nba","category-news","category-olympics","tag-jrue-holiday","tag-nba-offseason","tag-olympics"],"modified_by":"Michael Kovacs, ADMIN","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93093","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5008"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=93093"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93093\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":179355,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93093\/revisions\/179355"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/93192"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=93093"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=93093"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=93093"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}