Emotional Bucks look forward to an awkward, weird reunion with Jrue Holiday in Boston

Bobby Portis smiled and couldn’t wait for the rest of the question to be asked as his Little Rock, Arkansas, accent was holding onto the last syllable.

“Awkwarrrdd,” he said with a slight laugh when the topic of seeing Jrue Holiday in Boston was broached. He looked down and adjusted his shoes under a row of chairs in Toronto. “Awkwarrrdd.”

Khris Middleton smiled as he picked up the remaining items in his locker in Charlotte.

“Yes, you can say weird,” he said. “Yes. It’s going to be weird.”

Thanasis Antetokounmpo, one of the more boisterous personalities in the Milwaukee Bucks locker room, was literally left without words thinking about seeing Holiday. Brook Lopez stretched his arms across several seats on the Bucks bench and looked off in the distance as he thought about that reunion. He’s played with 209 teammates to date in his 16-year career. He’s also played against many of them.

For the five remaining players off the 2020-21 championship team, Jrue Holiday is one of one.

And it’s going to be different for Giannis Antetokounmpo, Thanasis Antetokounmpo, Pat Connaughton, Middleton, Portis and Lopez to see Holiday in Boston, be it Tuesday on an off day, or Wednesday at TD Garden when the Bucks face the Celtics for the first time this season.

“I would think so,” Lopez said. “He’s such a special person and means so much to me and obviously the team and the city. It’s definitely not going to be just like playing any other previous teammate. It’s definitely going to be different.”

Trade involving Damian Lillard, Jrue Holiday sent shockwaves across the NBA

Holiday was part of a stunning three-team trade on Sept. 27 that brought Damian Lillard to Milwaukee, a move that shocked not just the basketball world but rocked the Bucks’ locker room. Everyone was stunned. No one saw it coming. And while the Lillard-for-Holiday swap on the court could be distilled down to as simple as “point guard for point guard,” the hole left off it by Holiday’s departure has been real.

Seeing him in Boston had been discussed among that group long before they arrived in Boston on Tuesday. They all have had to work through it – and to some degree, still are.

“It’s more personal,” Middleton acknowledged. “Just ‘cause how he was with everybody on and off the court. He was a guy that was a good friend to a lot of people. A brother in so many ways to different people. So to see him on the other side is definitely going to be weird.”

He leaned against a wall. Middleton is perhaps the most unflappable member of the Bucks. He’s been teammates with some longer than Holiday, but there was so much shared between the two. There was something in Middleton’s eyes as the idea of playing against Holiday became more tangible.

‘He’s got a place in my heart this guy’

“I think it’s just weird just the fact that he’s on the other side, all the things he went through with us during his three years,” Middleton began. “The ups and downs of the season, going through COVID – getting over the hump of COVID – and the things we went through during the playoffs. The conversations we had. The late night convos. That type of stuff. About basketball, family, other issues.”

Like Lopez, Thanasis Antetokounmpo also had to look off into space to try and find words.

“So different,” he began. “It’s going to be so different because…it…mixed feelings. Mixed feelings.”

He paused a bit longer. The silence said far more than his words.

“He’s really…like…he’s got a place in my heart this guy. It’s not just him, though. It’s him, his family, his kids. Just…yeah.”

Portis calls Holiday his big brother. Lopez has known Holiday since their prep days in California. Connaughton agreed it will be different, reiterating Holiday is the best teammate he’s ever had. Giannis Antetokounmpo was emotional talking about Holiday in his first public comments on the trade in early October.

But Giannis Antetokounmpo said it will not be an emotional reunion in Boston, in part because he was able to speak to Holiday after the trade on the phone, and their families got together afterward and they talked. But for a couple of the Bucks, this will be their first chance to see or speak to Holiday.

“I didn’t see him,” Lopez said. “I just figured he wasn’t in for that day of workouts and everything, so I didn’t get a chance to see him. So, it’ll be my first time seeing him since then. I’m excited to see my guy, give him a hug, man. He’s a great dude.

“He’s so special.”

Portis had seen Holiday the day before the trade, but was filming a commercial when he heard.

“It was just like, damn, you’re kind of hurt at first,” he admitted. “Like, damn, big brother…He hits me up all the time, checks on me and things like that. S—, times go on I guess.”

Connaughton collected his thoughts on why it’ll be different with Holiday than playing against any other former teammate.

“I think everything plays a role in it,” he began. “Look man, you’re talking about the abruptness of it. You’re talking about nobody thinking or knowing or having any feel for it. It’s not free agency. It’s not a guy not signing back. It’s a guy that the day before there were quotes (in the Journal Sentinel) about him wanting to end his career here and how this organization reminded him of how much he wanted to play basketball and stuff of that nature. So, I think it’s one of those things where it all played a role in it. Look, three years ago, we won a championship.

“It just speaks to the nature of the NBA. It’s one of those leagues where anything can happen at any given time. You’ve got to understand it, you’ve got to know it, and I think we all do. But, you’re abruptly and cold-heartedly remined about it sometimes. And that’s just what we all signed up for.”

Then there is, of course, the basketball part of it.

“S—, ‘Knocked away and stolen by Holiday,’” Portis said, a broad smile returning as he repeated Mike Breen’s now-famous call of Holiday’s steal away from Phoenix’s Devin Booker in Game 5 of the 2021 NBA Finals.

“It’s kind of hard to get out your head, you feel me? It’s our brother. When you play ball in the Fiserv Forum and we tip up and you look up at the championship, you can’t help but think about him you feel me? Obviously it’s weird.”

Jrue Holiday with Boston adds new dimension to Bucks-Celtics rivalry

Giannis Antetokounmpo straightened up and looked ahead, keeping his jaw set.

“It’s going to be really strange,” he admitted, “but at the end of the day, you’ve got to do what you gotta do. It’s going to be strange seeing one of my brothers playing in a different jersey, but hey, you gotta do what you gotta do. It’s going to be weird for him to see us playing against us, too. We’ll see. We’ll see how it goes.”

He wouldn’t look down, keeping his eyes fixed ahead.

Middleton and Portis then stated the obvious.

“We all know about Jrue,” Middleton said. “So he’s a guy we can’t take lightly or think he’s going to take it easy on us. He’s coming to kick our ass. So, we’re going to be ready for him. We know what he’s all about.”

It’s also …. Boston.

Holiday was technically traded to Portland, but was quickly routed to the Celtics – a team that knocked the Bucks out of the playoffs two seasons ago and have battled the Bucks for supremacy in the Eastern Conference over the last half decade.

“I watch Celtics games and look at him and see him in No. 4 with a sleeve on,” Portis said. “All that s— is just mad weird to me. But it’s part of the game, part of the league.”

Connaughton, a Massachusetts native, always gets up for games at TD Garden.

“When we’re out there I’m sure I’ll be different, it’ll be a little bit weird, we’re all competitive guys so we’ll all want to try to win obviously and it will be your typical Boston-Bucks over the last five years type of game,” he said with a smile curling up. “Those are my favorite games obviously.

“I got a sentimental reason to compete with those guys. Now you add him to the mix and it’ll be different, but it’ll be fun. And it’ll be something that we wish him the best every time he doesn’t play us.”

Lopez smiled.

“I’ll be excited to see him – be annoying to play against him because that’s what he does,” he said, allowing himself to laugh a bit. “But I’ll definitely be excited to see him. I miss him very much.”