SportsPulse: USA TODAY Sports' Jeff Zillgitt breaks down LeBron James' buzzer-beater that lifted the Cavs over the Raptors and the mistakes that doomed the 76ers against the Celtics. USA TODAY Sports
J.T. (Jrue Tyler) Holiday is the best thing about the the 2018 NBA Playoffs.
She was born in September 2016 to parents Jrue and Lauren Holiday. Lauren, a former Ben Davis soccer star who went on to a long career with the United States Women's National Team, was diagnosed with a benign brain tumor during the pregnancy.
As she was forced to undergo surgery, the labor was induced early. Jrue took time off from the New Orleans Pelicans and Lauren started a long recovery process after a healthy J.T. was born.
Now, she's regularly seen at dad's games. The Internet, of course, loves J.T.
“She loves seeing me at certain instances in the game – if there’s a timeout, or there’s a break – and I can look up to her and wave at her and blow a kiss,” Holiday told USA TODAY Sports before the playoffs started. “I think there’s joy in just knowing that my family’s OK. Being able to know that my home life is fine, I feel like it reflects the way that I play.
"(It’s) just knowing that my daughter gets to watch me play and she gets to come to the games. I can’t even describe how much joy that brings me.”
In an interview with Yahoo Sports' Shams Charania, Jrue spoke to how trying his wife's illness was for him. At one point in September 2016, he left the Pelicans to support Lauren during surgery.
“There was a lot of stress that I felt, a lot of pressure there,” Holiday told Yahoo Sports. “I think how my family dynamic is built, how my faith is built, we persevered through that. Always praying. My family praying, especially for my wife. My wife going through that — being pregnant and having a brain tumor — that was the point where I had to rely on other people.”
Holiday pauses as his daughter is yelling for her dad in the background on this evening at their home, a moment he cherishes.
“As a man and as an athlete, you always feel you can handle things by yourself,” Holiday said. “You feel like, ‘I got to the league, I did it by myself.’ You thank and serve people along the way — but I put in the work. That was somewhat in my control. But my wife’s situation, it really wasn’t in my control. So to bounce back from that has been pretty cool, pretty special to me.”
Lauren, who took a long hiatus from social media after surgery, has been active since her recovery.
Yes, those posts are adorable, too.
You can find IndyStar sports producer Dakota Crawford on Twitter: @DakotaCrawford_.