Mike Breen misidentifies woman as Jrue Holiday’s wife on NBA Finals broadcast
Mike Breen had to quickly correct himself after misidentifying a woman as Celtics’ Jrue Holiday’s wife, Lauren, in the final moments of Game 5 as Boston closed out a 106-88 win over the Mavericks to capture the franchise’s 18th NBA title on Monday.
During a stoppage of play with 4:39 left in the game, Doris Burke was talking about Holiday and his wife before the ABC broadcast showed a blonde woman in the stands with what appeared to be a credential around her neck.
“So 4:39 remaining…and there’s his wife,” Breen says before tossing it to sound from a player that was wearing a mic on the Celtics bench.
Moments later as Jayson Tatum was gearing up to shoot free throws, Breen corrected the error on air.
“We want to make a quick correction and apologies, that was not Jrue Holiday’s wife,” Breen said.
Holiday’s wife, Lauren Holiday, is a fellow athlete and a two-time Olympics gold medal winner in soccer with the US Women’s National Team as well as a World Cup winner.
It’s unclear who the woman is that was incorrectly identified on the broadcast.
Lauren Holiday won gold at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing and 2012 London Summer Olympics.
Her Women’s World Cup championship came while playing on the 2015 U.S. team.
She played professionally for the Pali Blues, Boston Breakers and FC Kansas City and had her number retired by the NWSL after she ended her professional career in 2015.
The couple met in 2008 while going to school at UCLA and married in 2013.
They have two children together — daughter Jrue Tyler and son Hendrix.
Lauren Holiday was diagnosed with a brain tumor, which was removed when she underwent a successful brain surgery in 2016.
