Boston Celtics’ Jrue Holiday. (AP Photo/Chris Szagola)AP
With a new team comes a new number for Jrue Holiday, but he wanted to make sure it was OK with a Celtics fan-favorite before making it official.
Holiday wore No. 21 while he was with the Milwaukee Bucks. But with it being retired in Boston in honor of Bill Sherman, he had to go a different route. The guard also donned No. 11 to begin his NBA career, but Payton Pritchard currently wears it.
So Holiday landed on No. 4, which Isaiah Thomas wore during his time in green.
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The 33-year-old revealed to The Boston Globe’s Gary Washburn that he chose four because he’s one of four children and because of Thomas — who played with the Celtics for three seasons and has many memorable moments. But before he committed to No. 4, he reached out to Thomas to get his blessing.
“Been super close with the holiday family since 2008!,” Thomas posted on the X platform, formerly known as Twitter. “That’s my dawg. Go kill in that (expletive) familyyyyy lol.”
Others have worn No. 4 after Thomas, but none have left an impact on the team and the city quite like he did.
Thomas’ three seasons with the C’s cemented him as a forever fan-favorite. It was arguably the best stretch of his career averaging 24.7 points, six assists an 2.7 rebounds per game. Of course, there was also his 53-point game on his later sister Chyna’s birthday in 2017.
What kind of career Holiday will have with the Celtics remains to be seen. But on paper, he certainly helps keep the C’s competitive in a tough Eastern Conference division.