Then a member of the New Orleans Pelicans, he mulled for two weeks last summer whether to commit to the NBA's restart in Orlando, Florida. In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, Holiday's wife, Lauren, was five months pregnant and could sense his discomfort over leaving the family.
So she challenged him: Play, and donate the remainder of his 2019-20 salary to Black-owned businesses, non-profit organizations and initiatives.
"I felt like I kind of needed a reason to go back and play -- and my wife just said it. It kind of just hit her," Holiday said. "There were other ideas we were thinking about. Obviously, I couldn't go protest -- my wife was pregnant and in L.A., the pandemic [made it] one of the hardest-hitting places ...