The Celtics appear likely to have at least two players in uniform for Team USA for the 2024 Olympics. Shams Charania and Joe Vardon of the Athletic reported Wednesday morning that Jrue Holiday is expected to be among the 12 members of Team USA’s roster for the 2024 roster in Paris, France.
Holiday was a key member of the 2021 Team USA Gold Medal win, playing with the team despite coming off an NBA Finals win with the Bucks. Holiday reportedly delivered his commitment to the team in recent weeks after being pursued by Team USA officials. He will likely join several other NBA stars who have committed to the team for this summer including Kevin Durant, LeBron James, Stephen Curry, Joel Embiid and teammate Jayson Tatum.
Two other Celtics (Jaylen Brown and Derrick White) are also in the large player pool for Team USA for the 2024 Olympics which will ultimately be trimmed down to 12 players ahead of the team’s training camp later this summer.
Holiday’s commitment to Team USA is noteworthy on a key front for Boston given his contract situation. The veteran guard is eligible to become a free agent this summer if he elects to turn down a $39 million player option with Boston for the 2024-25 season.
Officially, the Celtics can’t negotiate an extension with Holiday until six months after he was traded to Boston, which would line up to be early April. Boston already agreed to a two-year extension with their other high profile offseason addition Kristaps Porzingis back in July. Under the terms of the new NBA CBA, the Celtics can extend Holiday for up to four seasons.
Holiday told MassLive last month that he is interested in getting a deal done with Boston during the season and wants to stay with the team long-term.
“I’d like to be here,” Holiday said. “I feel like I’m getting more and more comfortable, loving the guys, loving the organization and loving the city.”
Holiday’s commitment to Team USA could be viewed as a sign that he feels like his long-term future will be settled well before Team USA begins training camp in late June. It would be a somewhat risky scenario for a veteran player coming off a deep playoff run to suit up at camp without having their future settled by that point with NBA free agency not set to begin until June 30th.
Given his desire to remain in Boston, the odds would only seem to increase on that front with this commitment if the Celtics are willing to reach his asking price.
“My last extension was during the course of the year,” Holiday explained. “I think that we can do both, talk about it and as well as prepare for games and prepare for what the future is.”
Holiday is averaging 13 points, 5.7 rebounds and 4.8 assists with Boston this year after being acquired from the Portland Trail Blazers in September.
- Highly anticipated sportsbooks like BetMGM Massachusetts, along with Caesars Sportsbook Massachusetts have been live since Spring of 2023. New players can use promo codes like the FanDuel Massachusetts promo code and the DraftKings Massachusetts promo.