During his Media Day press conference Friday, Anthony Davis noted that the Pelicans have added another member to their family. The three-time All-Star power forward delivered the news that Lauren Holiday, wife of New Orleans point guard Jrue Holiday, gave birth to a healthy baby girl in North Carolina this week, the couple’s first child.
Now that Lauren has given birth, doctors say that she will undergo brain surgery in approximately six weeks, in order to remove a benign tumor. In the meantime, Jrue will remain by her side, missing an indefinite portion of the upcoming season.
“We don’t have a timetable on his return,” Pelicans GM Dell Demps said, when asked about Jrue’s status. “When the time is right, Jrue will come back to the team. We feel as an organization – led by the Bensons – that it’s most important for him to be a husband right now. For now, our hearts and prayers are with them, and we hope that Lauren has successful surgery.”
“Having Jrue there for support is very important,” echoed Pelicans Coach Alvin Gentry. “In our case, we told Jrue to forget about the basketball part of it. This is where you take care of your family. We’re going to welcome him back whenever he feels that it’s time to come back, and his family is in good hands.”
Jrue won’t be able to play or practice with his teammates in the interim, but Davis and small forward Quincy Pondexter noted Friday that several Pelicans decided to visit Jrue over a two-day period earlier this month. The group worked out together and scrimmaged, likely the only way they’ll be able to spend time with the starting point guard before the rigorous NBA calendar begins this weekend.
“To see him and the spirits that he was in, it really made me that much more of a fan of his, because he and his wife are handling it really well,” Pondexter said. “He and his wife are amazing people. If you’ve got a chance to say a prayer for them, please do.”
“We thought it’d be a good idea to go see him, and take his mind off a lot of everything that’s going on,” Davis explained of the trip. “We thought it would help him and – I don’t want to say make the situation lighter, because there is nothing light about that situation – but just being around the team and some of the players, getting back playing with us, we thought would be good. It meant a lot to him. He had a ton of fun. He kept telling us that he definitely appreciated us coming there. It was good and I’m just glad we had a chance to see him for a couple days.”
“It was great to see him and be able to cheer him up,” center Alexis Ajinca said. “It was important for us to be there, because when someone is hurting in the family, you always have to have his back.”
Asked what his initial reaction was when he heard the news of Lauren’s brain tumor, Gentry said, “Understanding what they were going through, it was tough. But if you had to choose a person who had to deal with this and go through it, it would be Lauren Holiday. She’s a very, very tough individual.”
New Orleans will need to compensate for being without the ’13 NBA All-Star for an uncertain number of games, likely pushing some players into bigger roles and responsibilities. For now, the Pelicans are focused on trying to “hold down the fort,” in the words of guard Tim Frazier, who also joined teammates in visiting the Holidays on the East Coast.
“Any chance I had to go there and visit, I was ready to go,” Frazier said. “It was great to be able to go there and let him know that we’re thinking about him, and we’ll be excited for when he is able to get back.”
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