Milwaukee Bucks guard Jrue Holiday and his wife Lauren received the famed Muhammad Ali Humanitarian Award at the 2023 ESPYs.

They were honored with this prestigious award for their outstanding commitment to helping Black-owned small businesses. The pair have started the JLH foundation with the primary goal of aiding and encouraging Black-owned small companies in addition to their admirable efforts.

Lauren effectively conveyed the value of aiding people in need in her moving award speech. She underlined that an athlete’s reputation and achievements are meaningless if they are not put to good use to change the world.

Who is Jrue Holiday?

Professional basketball player Holiday plays for the National Basketball Association’s (NBA) Milwaukee Bucks. Before the Philadelphia 76ers selected him with the 17th overall choice in the first round of the 2009 NBA draft, he spent one season playing college basketball with the UCLA Bruins.

Holiday played for Philadelphia for four seasons before being moved to the New Orleans Pelicans in 2013. He has made the NBA All-Star team twice and the All-Defensive Team five times. He won a gold medal with the 2020 U.S. Olympic team in addition to assisting the Milwaukee Bucks in their 2021 NBA championship run.

Aaron and Justin Holiday, who are Holiday’s brothers, are both NBA players. Lauren, his younger sister, was a college basketball player for the UCLA women’s squad. Lauren Cheney, a midfielder for the United States women’s soccer team, and Holiday got married in July 2013. They initially met during a UCLA women’s basketball game during his lone season at the university.

Following his wife’s brain tumor diagnosis in September 2016, Holiday took an indefinite leave of absence from the Pelicans. Only a few weeks after giving birth to the couple’s daughter, J.T. (Jrue Tyler), Lauren underwent brain surgery the following month. Hendrix, a boy, was the couple’s second child, born late in 2020 to Holiday and Lauren.