Give-and-Go: Jrue Holiday
By: Jim Eichenhofer, Pelicans.com, @Jim_Eichenhofer
The most eventful offseason of Jrue Holiday’s NBA career continued this week in Metairie, with the All-Star point guard joining his new teammates as they opened the New Orleans Pelicans’ brand-new practice facility. It’s been a hectic summer for Holiday, including a June trade from Philadelphia and a July trip to Las Vegas for USA Basketball’s minicamp. The 23-year-old was frequently interviewed in Las Vegas by national reporters about coming to a new team; he repeatedly expressed his enthusiasm about joining New Orleans.
After a red-hot shooting performance on Day 1 at the Pelicans’ practice facility, Holiday sat down with us to answer numerous fan-submitted questions via Twitter:
Welcome to New Orleans, Jrue. Let’s start with a few questions about you settling in to a new city. From @AshB43: Besides being a Pelican, what is your favorite part of now being in New Orleans? Holiday: It’s probably the food. I’ve already tried a lot of places. I recently went to Oceana Grill and Galatoire’s. Galatoire’s was cool – it’s old school, fancy and you’ve got to wear a blazer to go in. I like the food here, especially the seafood.
From @evansaacks: Jrue, what's the best meal you've had so far in NOLA? Holiday: My favorite food so far is probably gumbo. I had gumbo even in the hotel and it was very good.
From @AaronGonsoulin: What food are you most excited to try in New Orleans? Holiday: Well, I used to live in Ruston, Louisiana, when I was a kid. I think I’ve had pretty much everything.
From @DanielVeuleman: How do you like the Southern weather compared to Philly, Jrue? Holiday: It’s different. When you step outside, you just start sweating. I’m not really sure how it is during the season, but I’d think it’s a lot like California (Holiday’s home state). You can wear maybe a sweater and some shorts. I look forward to that. Now to a few on-court questions.
From @LoganLovesLyfe: Are you excited about all the potential alley oop passes you will be throwing this year? Holiday: [smiles] Oh yeah, man! Last year, I don’t think I threw as many as I’d like to. Right now I’m really excited about this year, especially with Anthony (Davis) and Jeff (Withey), even Jason (Smith) when he gets back healthy. I’m really excited.
From @oceanback: Jrue, how do you plan on maximizing AD on offense? Lots of alley oop opportunities were missed last season. Holiday: That’s kind of easy. All I have to do is hopefully draw two guys and get him the ball where he wants to get it, then let him go to work.
From @btejeda1: How do you think your AAU days playing with/against Gordon and Evans will help your chemistry this year with the Pelicans. Holiday: I think I can read guys pretty well. I think I know where they like the ball and what they like to do very well. Playing with Eric and Tyreke is going to be like the good old days.
From @FearTheBrown: Can you help Austin Rivers with his left (hand)? Jrue is almost ambidextrous and Austin can learn from that. Holiday: For sure. There are probably drills that we can do. But I’m pretty sure he already does all the drills I do. It’s about just concentrating on that, to where it becomes second nature. When you get out there on the court and have a go-to move that goes to the right, (you must get to the point where) you can do the same thing if you have to go left.
If this were “Jeopardy,” this last group of questions would probably be considered the “potpourri” category. From @RyanFlynn11: What do you think of “Jrue Dat” becoming a thing? Holiday: I mean I’ve heard it before already. I’ve heard it a bunch of times, because I guess it goes with a lot of (sayings) here.
From @HewittFilms: If you could be any member of The Avengers, who would you be? Holiday: That’s a good question. Hmm. Probably Iron Man, because he seems like he runs the whole crew.
From @DanielVeuleman: Thoughts on Davis’ unibrow? Holiday: I mean, it’s his trademark now. It’s what makes him him. Obviously at first it’s like, you can’t believe he still has it and never cut it or anything. That’s kind of crazy. But it works for him.
From @Kimballer5: How good are your soccer skills? Did you teach your wife (USA Soccer star Lauren Cheney) everything she knows? Holiday: [smiles] No! My soccer skills are not that good. I used to play when I was little, but besides that… She tries to teach me things. But I don’t like to play with her because I don’t like to lose. [laughs]