Holiday a bright spot for injury-plagued Bulls
Bulls newcomer Justin Holiday has a championship ring after spending last season as a reserve for the Golden State Warriors. But he's still playing catch up when it comes to his NBA career.
Growing up in Southern California, Justin shared a room with younger brother Jrue from infancy to the time he left for college. Jrue, now with the New Orleans Pelicans, was a first-round draft pick of Philadelphia in 2009 and an NBA all-star in 2013.
Justin was not drafted after playing in college at the University of Washington and had to take a circuitous route to the NBA with stops in Belgium, Hungary and two D-League teams. The brothers played together briefly with the 76ers in 2013.
"Jrue is 14 months younger than me," Justin said. "We're close. Since we're so close in age, we used play everybody else as well. Of course we went at each other, but when we were teammates, we know each other inside-out, so playing together was always fun for us."
Holiday qualifies as one of the few bright spots in recent days for the injury-plagued Bulls. Holiday passed up Tony Snell in the playing rotation, then with both Derrick Rose and Jimmy Butler sidelined on Friday against Miami, Holiday was promoted to the starting lineup.
The Bulls fell apart in the fourth quarter and lost 118-96, but Holiday scored 14 points and played respectable defense against Miami's leading scorer Dwyane Wade, who only hit 3 of 15 shots.
"I thought Justin competed," coach Fred Hoiberg said after the game. "I thought he guarded Wade really well. He did some good things for us on offense as well."
The Bulls acquired the 6-foot-6 Holiday at the trade deadline from Atlanta for Kirk Hinrich. He's played in nine games for the Bulls and has shown signs of being a player worth keeping.
Holiday has a thin frame, but he's quick and knows how to play. The Bulls have struggled most of the season with too many inexperienced players in key roles. The Bulls also sorely need another strong wing defender to complement Butler, so Holiday might be a good fit for the long-term.
"Even from the beginning, the transition's been going well," Holiday said after Friday's game. "The first day I got here, everybody accepted me, everybody made me feel welcome and it's been great.
"We're here to be on the floor and try to help the team win. Being able to play, especially for the Bulls, has been great. I couldn't ask for anything more."
The Holiday basketball tradition goes beyond Justin and Jrue. Youngest brother Aaron is a freshman guard at UCLA who averaged 10.3 points this season. Younger sister Lauren played two years at UCLA before leaving the sport due to injury concerns.
Both his parents, Shawn and Toya, played basketball at Arizona State. Toya is the girls basketball coach at Campbell Hall High School in North Hollywood. Justin and Jrue led Campbell Hall to a state championship in 2007.
"It was competitive, but fun," Holiday said of growing up in a basketball family. "No matter what we played, we all tried to win and beat each other. Or we would just team up and beat everybody else. It was fun."
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