Jrue Holiday Jun 9, 2024; Boston, Massachusetts, USA; Boston Celtics guard Jrue Holiday (4) dunks and scores against the Dallas Mavericks during the second half of game two of the 2024 NBA Finals at the TD Garden. Mandatory Credit: USA TODAY Sports Images

With the Boston Celtics up 2-0 in the 2024 NBA Finals, it might be time to start deciphering who could be the Finals MVP. ESPN’s Mike Greenberg has his answer, and it may surprise you.

Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown might be the Celtics’ big stars, but the ESPN personality shined a light on someone else. Greenberg believes that if the Finals ended today, Jrue Holiday would get his vote for the coveted honor.

Greenberg revealed his take and his perspective on ESPN’s Get Up Wednesday morning.

“If the NBA Finals had ended on Sunday night, my vote for MVP would have gone to Jrue Holiday,” Greenberg said. The ESPN personality talked down at the idea of him being a prototypical “role player” if you defined his “role as anything his team needs on a given night to win.”

Greenberg ran down his impressive statline from Game 2, and said that Holiday made NBA Finals history. No NBA guard ever scored 25+ Pts, 10+ Rebs, and 75% FG%+ in a single Finals game in the shot clock era. “Michael never did that, Magic never did it. Not Kobe, not Jerry West. Jrue Holiday.”

Holiday also has 38 points with no turnovers, something Greenberg noted that Jordan’s only done once. And he’s on pace to post a 50-40-90 postseason, which would be an NBA first. He also pointed to his impressive defense on All-NBA guard Kyrie Irving.

It’s really a compelling case made. It’ll prove interesting to see if voters shy away from the stars, but if Holiday continues being this impressive? It could be hard to ignore.

“If that guy’s a role player, he’s the best one the league has seen in a very long time.”

[Get Up]

About Chris Novak

Chris Novak has been talking and writing about sports ever since he can remember. Previously, Novak wrote for and managed sites in the SB Nation network for nearly a decade from 2013-2022