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Tim Bontemps, ESPN
BOSTON — Jrue Holiday says he doesn’t have a chip on his shoulder as the Celtics guard enters his first matchup with the Bucks but noted that a heads-up in September from Milwaukee that he was going to be traded would have been appreciated.
“No,” Holiday said matter-of-factly after shootaround at the Celtics’ practice facility Wednesday morning. “I think that they got what they wanted, so I can’t be mad at that.
“A warning would’ve been cool. But other than that, I’m in the best place that I can be to compete against them, which is for the top team in the East and, hopefully, the top team in the league.”
An NBA champion with the Bucks in 2021, Holiday was traded to the Portland Trail Blazers days before the start of training camp in a deal that landed Damian Lillard in Milwaukee. Days later, Holiday was sent to the Celtics in another trade for a package that included two first-round picks.
The Celtics and Bucks, the top two teams in the Eastern Conference standings, play their first of four games this season Wednesday (7:30 p.m. ET, ESPN).
Holiday spent three seasons with the Bucks after coming over in a trade before the 2020-21 season from the New Orleans Pelicans. He helped the Bucks win their first championship in a half-century in his first year with the franchise before Milwaukee lost to Boston in the Eastern Conference semifinals without Khris Middleton in 2022 and then, as the No. 1 seed, was stunned last season in a five-game, first-round loss to the eventual East champion Miami Heat.
After years of being on one side of this rivalry, Holiday finds himself on the other team — something Middleton, in particular, admitted it would be hard to get used to.
“It’s going to be weird seeing him in a Celtic uniform, but I guess we got to get used to it,” Middleton said with a smile after Milwaukee’s shootaround. “But it’s going to be fun competing against him. We’ve had a lot of great battles together, so I know what he’s about on the Celtics’ side. I think it should be a fun, interesting matchup for sure.”
While Holiday made it clear he would have liked to have been told about the possibility of being traded, he said he didn’t have this game targeted above any other on the calendar. Instead, he said, the focus on Wednesday’s showdown isn’t because of him, or Lillard, but instead because the Celtics and Bucks are seen as two of the NBA’s elite teams.
“It’s not like I circled this one on my calendar or anything,” Holiday said. “I think that this is a big game because of the two teams that are playing, I think because of the caliber players that are on the court and all that, so that’s what I would like for it to be about, not me playing against the Bucks.”
Boston is looking to bounce back from a disappointing loss in Charlotte on Monday night — one where, among several miscues late, Holiday missed a pair of free throws with 10 seconds to go that could have put the game away. Instead, the Hornets tied the game to send it to overtime and eventually came away victorious.
Speaking on his time with the Bucks, Holiday said Milwaukee will “always have a piece of my heart” after winning his first NBA championship there. But he said he was able to turn the page after landing in Boston.
“I think it’s been about the same once I got traded,” Holiday said, when asked for his feelings on the trades now that several weeks have passed. “We do know that this is a business, and from a business standpoint, I’m in a very good position to be where I want to be, and that’s to win the championship.
“So again, still happy to be here. None of that has ever changed. So yeah, I wouldn’t say anything changed.”
In addition to the Holiday matchup against his former team, one late wrinkle came Wednesday morning, when Jayson Tatum was added to Boston’s injury report with an illness. The Celtics said he was going to be questionable to play.