Jrue Holiday's tiresome work throughout the season has paid off: the 23-year old point guard was invited last week to work out for the 2013 USA Men's National Team. Jrue, along with 26 other players, will work out and compete at the mini-camp in Las Vegas from July 22-25.
In my opinion, Jrue has a great chance here to dominate his competition and maybe even sneak his way onto the team's final roster. Jrue is one of three All-Stars (Paul George, Kyrie Irving) that received invitations to the mini-camp, as the rest of the invitees are players who have yet to burst onto the scene as a superstar for their respective teams. Despite the lack of All-Star power, Jrue will face some stiff competition at the point guard position, as he will be battling against the likes of Irving, Mike Conley, Ty Lawson, Damian Lillard, Kemba Walker, and John Wall. In order to stand out from competition like this, Jrue will have to show coaches his tremendous athletic ability, as he can create his own shot offensively and also be a lock-down defender at the other end of the court.
Sixers fans will remember former Sixer Andre Iguodala being invited to these same workouts in 2009 with a camp that consisted of Kevin Durant, Derrick Rose, and Russell Westbrook. Despite the long shot that Iguodala faced to make the team, his athleticism on both sides of the court wowed the coaches, and he found himself on the 2010 USA World Championship team as well as the 2012 U.S. Olympic team. Hopefully, Holiday will impress coaches in a similar way next month and advance to the next round of roster cuts for the national team.
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