Jrue Holiday and his wife, Lauren Holiday, are lending a helping hand this Holiday season. The couple announced that they will be donating the remaining of the basketball star’s NBA salary to small Black-owned businesses and nonprofits. Their decision comes amid the COVID-19 pandemic and its devastating effect on so many small businesses across the country, and the racial tensions in the United States called for nonprofits and other initiatives to take action.
The Milwaukee Bucks star shared his plan to donate his salary in a statement via Instagram on Saturday (Dec. 19). “With the Covid-19 Pandemic and heightened racial injustices in 2020, many of us have been looking for answers. Lauren & I found ourselves searching for ways to help our community at a time when they needed it most. Pledging the remainder of our 2020 NBA salary to small black-owned businesses, nonprofits and initiatives is how we felt we could make a lasting impact,” the statement read.
“According to @google, in 2020, worldwide searches for ‘support small business’ doubled compared to the previous year,” they added. “It’s encouraging to know that in a time when we could all use a helping hand, we are still searching for ways to help one another. Know that you are not alone in your search for answers.”
The basketball player didn’t share the exact figure that he is donating but according to Spotrac, he brings in an annual average salary of $26,361,000. This isn’t the first time the Holiday family makes a large contribution like this one. Earlier this year, while he was still playing for the New Orleans Pelicans, Holiday said he was donating the rest of his paychecks for the NBA’s 2019-2020 season to help launch a social justice fund.
The NBA star announced The Jrue and Lauren Holiday Social Justice Impact Fund, a collaboration with his former U.S. women’s soccer team player wife. “Today we announced that I have pledged the remainder of my 2020 NBA salary as a progressive step toward combating systemic racism as well as social and economic inequality that continues to prevent Black communities from upward mobility,” Holiday wrote on Instagram in July. The athletes are among a few sports stars who have stepped in to help those in need amid a trying year.