Pelicans Jrue Holiday in a 2017 game. (Photo Courtesy: NBA/Twitter @NBAFantasy)
New Orleans Pelicans guard Jrue Holiday was named to the NBA All-Defensive First Team for the first time in his nine-year career, the NBA announced Wednesday.
Holiday joins fellow New Orleans teammate Anthony Davis, the Utah Jazz’s Rudy Gobert, the Indiana Pacers’ Victor Oladipo and the Philadelphia 76ers’ Robert Covington. The honor marks the first time in team history teammates have been named to either All-Defensive team in the same season.
Holiday finished the regular season as one of 10 players in the league with at least 50 blocks, 100 steals and 300 rebounds. No play signified Holiday’s impact defensively more than his late-game block against the Portland Trail Blazers in Game 1 of the Western Conference Quarterfinals.
This was arguably Holiday’s best season, posting career highs in points (19.0), rebounds (4.5) and field goal percentage (.494). But it has been a long road for Holiday, who struggled with injuries throughout his career. In 2014, he missed 48 games with a stress fracture in his right tibia. The following season he re-injured his tibia and missed 42 games. But the injuries served a greater purpose and helped transform his prayer life.
“Before [those injuries] I felt like I prayed a lot,” Holiday told Sports Spectrum. “I tried to pray when everything would go well. Do my devotion every day. Set my alarm every morning and it would say, ‘Do your devotion. Do your devotion.’ But I do think that me being hurt and going through that struggle, that was one of the times where I didn’t get as close to God as I wanted to, because I got hurt one time but the injury reoccurred again. And I think that second time was when I started to get closer to Him.”
Read more on how Jrue Holiday thrived this season after navigating through several difficult obstacles on and off the court.
Arizona forward Tobe Awaka, March 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Ryan Sun)
Every morning before sunrise, Tobe Awaka’s day began long before most high school students were awake. Growing up in Hyde Park, New York, Awaka chose a high school nearly two-and-a-half hours away by train — Cardinal Hayes in the Bronx — because he knew it would best prepare him for his future plans.
That meant waking up at 3:30 or 4 a.m. to catch the train, go to class, attend basketball practice, then make the long trip home — only to do it all again the next day.
“It was tough. It definitely had its ups and downs, but it helped mold [me] into the person and player I am today,” he said recently on Sports Spectrum’s “What’s Up?” podcast.
That early discipline, both in academics and athletics, set the tone for his future basketball journey. He didn’t start playing “high-level” basketball until ninth grade, and even then, his approach looked different from many future stars. Instead of structured drills in a gym, he was in his driveway, pretending an invisible defender was in front of him.
“I’d just do a bunch of different combo moves… kind of imagine myself going past them,” he said on the podcast. “I think that kind of helped build my creativity and my love for the game.”
Fast forward to the 2025-26 college basketball season, and that inner creativity and work ethic has helped Awaka become one of the most impactful pieces on the No. 1-ranked and 14-0 Arizona Wildcats. The senior forward is posting a double-double season, averaging 10.1 points and 10.3 rebounds per game, and shooting 59.8% from the floor — numbers that place him among the team’s and Big 12’s most consistent performers this year. And it’s all coming from a reserve role; despite starting 36 of 37 games last season, Awaka has come off the bench for every game this season.
His 18 points against Utah on Jan. 3 matched a career high, and he chipped in 12 rebounds to go with it. But his growth hasn’t only come through box scores.
After transferring from Tennessee following the 2023-24 season — a choice he described as one of the toughest decisions of his life — Awaka leaned deeply on his faith to find clarity. What began as prayer and thoughtful reflection turned into a sense of spiritual peace that guided his decision.
“Honestly, once I got the green light spiritually from God that I was making the right choice and moving in the right direction, it was tough going through on that but I think ultimately it’s been to my benefit and for my good,” he said on the podcast. “Sometimes, as a believer, the unknown can be a little scary. The whole fact of having faith becomes real and true and something you have to put into practice, and that was definitely a moment where I had to.”
Now at Arizona, faith has become something Awaka lives out in community. What started as a personal pursuit of spiritual growth has grown into a space for teammates — and others across campus — to do the same. In one of his early days in Tucson, he visited a local barbershop for a haircut. He noticed his barber had a sermon from pastor Philip Anthony Mitchell playing on a nearby TV, which sparked an organic conversation about faith.
Their friendship grew from there, and the two decided to meet regularly for a Bible study. Other players soon caught wind of what they were doing and asked if they could join. The group quickly grew to six members and has continued expanding as others from across campus have been invited. Some meetings now include 15 to 20 people, Awaka said.
“It’s been really cool just to see how God has moved,” he said on the podcast. “Honestly, it just kind of started with two guys trying to dive deeper into their faith and learn more about it. It’s kind of grown into something cool and special. We’re still trying to grow it, still trying to get more guys on the team interested and bring them along, but it’s been a great experience.”
That boldness in faith wasn’t always instinctive for Awaka. It came through searching, wrestling and earnest exploration of truth. Around his freshman year of college, he found himself digging into every major religion — Christianity, Buddhism, Confucianism, Hinduism and more — before landing where he felt alive with conviction.
“I went pretty deep and I landed on Christianity,” he said on the podcast. “I kind of read the Bible like a mad man. I read it front to back, then read through the New Testament again. I felt it deep in my soul that that was the truth and that’s where God wanted me to move. Even before that, it was just a lot of research, a lot of looking things up.”
Away from the court and classroom, Awaka is a big reader, using books to quiet his mind amidst the chaos of basketball and business school coursework. One book that left an impression was “Inner Excellence” by Jim Murphy, which he said reshaped his mental approach as an athlete. Ecclesiastes is also one of his favorite books in the Bible.
His faith went from something he followed because his parents did it to something he now claims as his. So when the decision to transfer schools came, he said it felt like “peace amongst chaos” when he got that “green light” from the Lord.
“There’s a lot of things swirling, a lot of people in your ear, but internally you have this gravity telling you that it’s going to be OK,” he said. He heard the Lord telling him to follow in His steps and He would lead him in the right direction.
“Adversity is inevitable. We see that all throughout the Scriptures,” he said on the podcast. “But at the same time, Christ isn’t going to take that away, necessarily, but He’s going to help us walk through that. I definitely believe and feel that’s what He was doing with me through that time.”
Awaka and Arizona next face Big 12-foe Kansas State at 9 p.m. ET Wednesday.
Auburn's Johni Broome (4), Ja'Heim Hudson (8) and other team personnel celebrate with a prayer after a win, Feb. 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Vasha Hunt)
With 2025 coming to a close, Sports Spectrum is highlighting our most-viewed stories of the year.
The Auburn Tigers were riding high as the nation’s No. 1 team in February, and had just beaten arch-rival Alabama — No. 2 in the nation — on the road, moving Auburn to 23-2 on the season. They had a national player of the year candidate in Johni Broome and a fiery, charismatic head coach in Bruce Pearl.
But the Tigers also exhibited a culture of faith that intrigued many.
“Everybody on this team is revolved around God and having a relationship with God,” guard Miles Kelly told 247 Sports at the time. “So that’s a big part of why everybody is doing [Auburn’s signature ‘Call God’ celebration].”
Center Dylan Cardwell expanded on Kelly’s sentiment: “It’s unique to see guys use their platform to glorify God, especially just a small gesture like that,” he said. “… I’m just grateful for the opportunity to put that message forward rather than harp on our own successes.”
Sports Spectrum wrote about this team culture on Feb. 18 and the story received heavy web traffic right away. Readers were eager to learn about the No. 1 team in the country and its many players, coaches and others who publicly professed their faith in Christ.
Bonded by a shared devotion to God, Auburn earned a No. 1 seed for the NCAA Tournment and advanced all the way to the Final Four, joining the three other No. 1 seeds in San Antonio. The Tigers fell just short, however, as they lost to the eventual national champions, the Florida Gators, in the semifinals.
Still, Auburn’s run to the biggest stage in college basketball — as the players continued to praise God publicly — generated steady attention throughout March Madness and into the first weekend of April. Readers steadily found our story on the team, helping it to become our No. 3 most-viewed story in 2025:
