Former USWNT star Lauren Holiday detailed a past experience with police in which her husband, New Orleans Pelicans guard Jrue Holiday, was handcuffed by police for attempting to drop off her driver's license during a traffic stop. 

In a post for The Players' Tribune, Lauren Holiday described being pulled over while on a shopping trip with Holiday's sister. She said neither woman had their driver's license with them, so they called Jrue, who was close by at the couple's home.

When Jrue arrived with his father to deliver the licenses for police, they handcuffed him.

"No, seriously: Even though the officer knew in advance that Jrue was my husband, and that he was coming to the scene, and why. Even though no one had explained to us why we had even been pulled over in the first place. And even though Jrue could not have been more careful, or more deferential, in how he made his approach. All the cop saw was this large black man getting out of a car," Holiday wrote.

Lauren Holiday said Jrue "remained calm" during the ordeal, while she was "livid" and asked officers to explain why the Pelicans guard had been handcuffed. 

"The image that most stays with me is the look I saw on Lauren's—Jrue's sister's—face. I think it was seeing her react that made me actually register the danger Jrue was in," she wrote. "Lauren wasn't staying calm like her brother, or getting angry like me. She was just..... terrified."

Jrue Holiday was handcuffed for "about 15 minutes" until another officer arrived on the scene and began talking to the one who originally pulled Lauren over. Lauren Holiday was cited for having tint that was darker than the legal limit.

Lauren wrote: "Let me repeat that: I drove without a license — while Jrue did absolutely nothing wrong. And yet Jrue was the one who ended up in handcuffs."

Lauren Holiday said that she and Jrue did not say anything at the time because it is in their nature to be private people. However, amid the national unrest following the deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and others, she felt compelled to speak on the responsibility—specifically of white people—to speak out against racism.

"[White people] owe a debt that's far from being paid, and the promise of a country that's not yet where it needs to be," she wrote. "We owe our voices—and, more than that, we owe our actions. We've owed for a while..... and we'll owe for as long as it takes to make it right. So let's get to work."