Jrue Holiday Won the ‘People’s’ Finals MVP Award Despite Jaylen Brown’s Performance, Per 1x NBA Champ

Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum anchored the Boston Celtics’ glorious and dominant run to the NBA title and were the lynchpin to their team’s success. However, they were also aided spectacularly by a slew of stellar teammates, especially Jrue Holiday. In fact, the former Buck was so influential, that Jeff Teague believes he deserves an award of his own for his performance in the NBA Finals.

On the Club 520 Podcast, Teague claimed that Holiday’s stats do not reveal just how critical he was to the Celtics’ success against the Western Conference champions. He said,

“Jrue Holiday didn’t have the numbers, but to me, he was the X-Factor of the series… So, if you said you had to give a People’s MVP, a People Champion [Award], it will probably [go to] Jrue Holiday for me.”   

Holiday averaged 14.4 points, 7.4 rebounds, and 3.8 assists against the Mavericks, while also undertaking the unenviable task of guarding Luka Doncic. Without his exceptional display on both ends of the court, the series wouldn’t have been nearly as comfortable for the Celtics.

The 34-year-old was almost solely responsible for his team’s narrow 105-98 win in the critical Game 2 in Boston. He scored 26 points on 11-of-14 shooting and hauled in 11 rebounds, in what was easily the best performance by any Celtics player in the series.

As Teague said, Holiday certainly deserves to be ‘The People’s MVP’ for how much he accomplished against the Dallas Mavericks in the NBA Finals. However, even he didn’t go as far as Bobby Portis did in praising the man of the hour while talking about the Celtics’ 18th title.

Bobby Portis Jr. claims Jrue Holiday was the catalyst to the Celtics’ title win

On the Run It Back podcast, Bucks forward Bobby Portis Jr. sang Jrue Holiday’s praises and noted how critical the guard was in helping the Celtics end their 16-year wait for an NBA title. He said,

“Jrue Holiday. Shoutout to Jrue Holiday…If Jrue wasn’t on the team, they don’t win no championship this year. Jrue’s just different, man. He locks guys up. He raises guy’s awareness on the defense, when you play with him, he just makes you lock in a different way.”

The Celtics’ decision to replace former Defensive Player of the Year Marcus Smart with Jrue Holiday initially raised a few eyebrows. However, the 34-year-old guard showcased that they made the right call in the best way possible in the NBA – winning his team an NBA championship.

And now, in large parts due to him, the Boston Celtics will now be able to celebrate a title all offseason long.