{"id":440958,"date":"2026-01-27T15:36:11","date_gmt":"2026-01-27T15:36:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/440958\/"},"modified":"2026-01-27T15:36:11","modified_gmt":"2026-01-27T15:36:11","slug":"celtics-pay-tribute-to-2024-champion-jrue-holiday-in-return","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/440958\/","title":{"rendered":"Celtics pay tribute to 2024 champion Jrue Holiday in return"},"content":{"rendered":"

BOSTON — Jrue Holiday<\/a> got a champion’s welcome in his return to Boston.<\/p>\n

The Trail Blazers guard received a big cheer when he was shown on the scoreboard during warmups, another when he was introduced before the game, and a standing ovation after a tribute video of highlights that included him clutching the NBA championship trophy he helped Boston win in 2024.<\/p>\n

“Brought back good times,” Holiday said Monday night after Portland’s 102-94 loss to the Celtics. “Something like that — for me, it felt like it was like that every single game. You play hard for this team and this city, and they definitely have your back.”<\/p>\n

The Celtics acquired Holiday from the Blazers before the 2023-24 season and rode his two-way prowess to their 18th NBA title. But they had to jettison him and center Kristaps Porzingis<\/a> last summer to get under the league’s punitive second apron luxury tax.<\/p>\n

Former teammates Jaylen Brown and Jrue Holiday share words after facing off in Monday’s matchup at TD Garden.\u00a0Photo by Brian Babineau\/NBAE via Getty Images<\/p>\n

This season was supposed to be a bridge year while the Celtics wait for star Jayson Tatum<\/a> to return from an Achilles tendon injury. But Boston leads the Atlantic Division and holds the No. 2 seed in the Eastern Conference, with hope that Tatum could return for a playoff run.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Holiday missed two months this season with a right calf strain and remains on a minutes restriction since returning two weeks ago. He scored 14 points in 24 minutes Monday night, then hugged it out with his former teammates on the court.<\/p>\n

“It’s just like family. There’s a normalcy to it,” Holiday said. “You spend so much time with them that they become family and then just all of a sudden you’re on a different team. So it’s always good to see them.”<\/p>\n

For Holiday, changing teams isn’t a shock anymore. He was originally drafted by Philadelphia and also spent time in New Orleans and Milwaukee before coming to Boston. But teammate Robert Williams III<\/a> was a little shocked when the Celtics traded him to the Blazers — for Holiday — in 2023.<\/p>\n

“Everybody’s first trade is just kind of a rough one,” said Williams, who had to watch from afar as the team that drafted him won it all.<\/p>\n

“I watched the whole Finals. I watched them win it. Me and my girl,” he said. “I went through a moment of saying I was happy for my dogs. Then I went through ‘F ’em,’ you know what I’m saying? It was mixed emotions, but I’m glad they did it for sure.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BOSTON — Jrue Holiday got a champion’s welcome in his return to Boston. The Trail Blazers guard received…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":440959,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[574],"tags":[64,63,726,85],"class_list":["post-440958","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-basketball","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-basketball","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/440958","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=440958"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/440958\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/440959"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=440958"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=440958"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=440958"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}