UCLA Basketball: One-And-Done Bruin Jrue Holiday Wins Second Championship

Former one-and-done UCLA Bruins Pac-10 Freshman Team point guard Jrue Holiday just won his second NBA title on Monday.

The 6-foot-4 All-Defensive Teamer, 34, was a critical two-way contributor to the Boston Celtics during their run to a record 18th league championship this year. Boston went a dominant 16-3 through the playoffs, including a 4-1 Finals walk over All-NBA guard Luka Doncic’s too-green Dallas Mavericks.

As a terrific two-way force roaming the perimeter and oftentimes shutting down All-Star Mavericks guard Kyrie Irving, Holiday was perhaps the third-most important player on the team during the series, behind only All-Stars Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown.

After the first two games of the Finals, Holiday seemed to carve out a pretty legitimate case for claiming Finals MVP. But following scoring outbursts from Tatum and Brown in Game 3, plus a total dud of an outing on offense in Game 4, Holiday fell out of the running. Tatum and Brown cemented their cases as the two primary contenders for the accolade. Brown earned seven votes to Tatum’s four, the NBA announced, although Tatum led his team in average points, rebounds and assists for the series.

For the Finals, Holiday averaged 14.4 points on 53.6 percent shooting from the field (including 47.4 percent shooting from deep) and 100% from the charity stripe (albeit on just four attempts for the series), 7.4 rebounds, 3.8 assists, 0.6 steals, and 0.6 blocks a night. Those may be relatively modest, though efficient, sums, but his two-way lethality had to be seen to be believed.

He now has a chance at being a fringe Hall of Famer. Holiday has been named to two All-Star teams over the course of his lengthy and decorated career, and six All-Defensive teams, while being a clutch starter on two different league champions.

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