Jrue Holiday to Take Time Off to Care for Pregnant Wife With Brain Tumor

NBA player Jrue Holiday plans to miss the start of the upcoming season to take care of his pregnant wife who has been diagnosed with a brain tumor.

The New Orleans Pelicans point guard said he is staying home to take care of his 28-year-old wife, Lauren Holiday, who is set to undergo surgery to remove a tumor on the right side of her brain about six weeks after she gives birth to a baby girl, the Times-Picayune reports.

“My family comes before basketball,” Jrue Holiday, 26, told the New Orleans newspaper. “I’m obviously blessed to play this game and be in the position I am in, but my wife is the most important thing in the world to me. She comes before anything else.”

The basketball player called the diagnosis “devastating.” However, the tumor is operable and not a threat to the couple’s baby, according to the Times-Picayune.

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Lauren Holiday, who retired after winning two Olympic gold medals for the U.S. women’s national soccer team, is expected to return to full health, the newspaper said. The two have been married for more than three years.