BOSTON — ‘Playing like Jrue Holiday’ should be a compliment that basketball players of all levels should strive to earn. A two-time NBA Champion, two-time All-Star, and six-time All-Defensive player, Holiday has cemented himself as one of the most well-respected players in the NBA today.
Yet, when Phoenix Suns head coach Mike Budenholzer asked Bradley Beal to play like Holiday, the message wasn’t well-received. “League sources told me, early in the season, coach Budenholzer met with Bradley Beal,” Chris Haynes reported after Budenholzer’s firing. “And he told Bradley Beal that he wanted him to be the Jrue Holiday of this team. Holiday is a player who might become a Hall-of-Famer, but you got to understand when you’re talking to a guy of Bradley Beal’s caliber.
“It wasn’t well-received. You know the type of player Bradley Beal is. You know how he’s made a name for himself in this league playing his way. And to ask him to shift his game and alter it, and to say Jrue Holiday on top of that, somebody who Coach Budenholzer has won a championship with in Milwaukee, it wasn’t well-received, the way it was explained to me.”
Jrue Holiday wants to be kept out of the Bradley Beal-Suns drama
Budenholzer was fired after the Suns’ failure to make the postseason this year, marking Phoenix’s third head-coaching change in as many seasons.
On the Haynes Briefs Show, inside the Phoenix Suns’ turmoil and incidents that led to Mike Budenholzer losing the team and ultimately his job. Also a list of coaching candidates Suns are expected to look at. Subscribe. #haynesbriefs
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With Kevin Durant and Devin Booker leading the way, Beal’s role as a score-first guy, one that he’s taken on his entire career, was a bit obsolete. But changing his ways for the potential betterment of the team was not on Beal’s to-do list, as he wanted to stay true to his brand of ball, from the sound of it.
That part made sense to Holiday.
“I guess I have nothing to say because it's the first time I'm hearing about it. I think me and Brad are different players,” Holiday said after Celtics practice on Tuesday. “I don't know how—And I also don't know what he meant by saying that. But we are different players. Brad is an elite scorer, and he's had somewhat of an off year. So, I feel things are different. It's tough to go from where he was, somewhere like in Washington, and then kind of experienced the experience that he's been going through.”
But more than anything, he just wishes his name stayed out of the conversation.
“I just don't know why people gotta bring me into it,” Holiday said with a laugh. “Let me just do me and go out here and try to win as many rings I can.”
Holiday played under Budenholzer on the Milwaukee Bucks, and the pair won a championship together in 2021 alongside Giannis Antetokounmpo and Khris Middleton.
Jrue Holiday reacts to Suns firing Mike Budenholzer
The Phoenix job was Budenholzer’s return to the NBA coaching world after a one-year break following his departure from Milwaukee. Now, he’s back on the open market.
“I mean, can you really be surprised by anything nowadays? People get traded, and crazy trades happen. A lot of coaches have gotten fired,” Holiday said of Budenholzer’s firing. “And again, nobody knows the exact reason. Everybody can speculate, but obviously, there's something that they want to work out and something they'll do as an organization.
“But, I mean Bud's sitting on a bag. Right? That's what they say, you know what I mean? You get fired, but he's sitting on a bag, so he can't be that upset, right?”