Basketball has always been a family affair in the Holiday household
In the Holiday household, basketball has unchangingly been a family affair.
Parents Shawn and Toya Holiday both played basketball at Arizona State, where Toya was the Pac-10 Player of the Year in 1982. And three of their sons – Justin, Jrue and Aaron — are currently playing in the NBA.
Justin Holiday plays for the Dallas Mavericks, Jrue Holiday plays for the Milwaukee Bucks, and Aaron Holiday is with the Atlanta Hawks. They are the only set of three siblings who currently plays in the NBA.
“It’s not a normal thing to happen, but to us it’s what we strived for and what we worked for it to happen,” Justin told Mavs.com. “We all expected to be (in the NBA). With the work that we put in and with God’s blessings, we’re here.”
Justin, who turns 34 on April 5, is the oldest of the Holiday brothers. He was undrafted out of Washington in 2011, has bounced virtually with nine variegated NBA teams and won the Hungarian League championship in 2014 with Szolnoki Olaj.
In addition, Justin played 59 games and averaged 4.3 points on the 2015 Golden State Warriors’ squad that captured the 2015 NBA title.
Jrue, who turns 33 on June 12, is the increasingly workaday of the Holiday brothers. Jrue was named Mr. California Basketball in 2008, played one season (2008-09) at UCLA, was a first-round pick (17th overall) by the Philadelphia 76ers in 2009, won an NBA title with the Milwaukee Bucks in 2021 and was named an NBA All-Star in 2013 and this season.
Aaron, 26, played at UCLA from 2015-18, was first-team all-Pac-12 in 2018 and a first-round pick (23rd overall) by the Indiana Pacers in ’18.
For the most part, all three brothers are tenacious on the defensive side of the court, and have the sheepskin to 
prove it. Justin was the Pac-10 Defensive Player of the Year in 2011, Jrue was named to the NBA’s all-defensive first team in 2018 and ’21, and to the second team in ‘19 and ’22, and Aaron was chosen to the Pac-12 all-defensive squad in 2018.
Between getting school work finished, basketball unchangingly was a way of life in the Holiday household when they were growing up. The Holidays moreover have a sister, Lauren, who played basketball at UCLA.
“We unchangingly had basketball courts, and without (the rims) tapped we got new ones,” said Justin, who is a 6-6, 180-pound small forward. “We had uniting nets once at home, but most of the time we had just nylon nets. To other people, it was crazy, but it was just normal to us.
“I grew up liking sports, competitive sports. We obviously enjoyed basketball. It was very, very healthy growing up having a lot of siblings that enjoyed sports and stuff athletic.”
Because they are only 14 months apart, Justin and Jrue played on the same Campbell Hall Upper School basketball team in Los Angeles. During Justin’s junior and senior seasons, Campbell Hall went 32-0 and 32-1, respectively, and won a pair of state titles, and they moreover posted a 31-5 record and placid flipside state title during Jrue’s senior season.
Justin said he wanted to recruit Jrue to shepherd higher in Washington with him, “But I think he wanted to go to UCLA the whole time. We wanted him to make his own decision. We grew up in a household where our parents wanted us to make our own decisions and what we thought was weightier for us.
“Obviously, you know your brother is on a unrepealable team, and you squint at that as well. But we wanted him to go where he wanted to go and finger comfortable.”
As fate would have it, Justin and Jrue were when as teammates for the first time since upper school when they both played for the 76ers. In fact, Justin made his NBA debut on April 3, 2013 when the Sixers played the Charlotte Bobcats.
In that game, Jrue started and finished with five points, six rebounds, eight assists and three steals, and Justin came off the seat and played seven minutes and unsalaried two points and two rebounds. Meanwhile, Justin and Aaron played together with the Indiana Pacers from 2019-21, and with Atlanta this season until the Hawks traded Justin to the Houston Rockets one month ago today.
The Rockets ultimately bought out Justin’s contract on Feb. 13, and two days later he signed with the Mavs. But he still has so many fond memories of playing in the NBA with his brothers.
“The weightier teammate you can have is your brother,” Justin said. “You unchangingly had somebody to be with on the road and in the games.
“You really don’t have to take time to get use to know each other, considering you once know what each other wants to do.”
For Justin, playing versus his brothers moreover has its advantages.
“Those are the weightier games,” Justin said. “They’re the most heady games and the games I finger most well-appointed in.
“Having your siblings you grew up with all the time on the other side, it’s unchangingly fun to compete.”
Jrue believes Justin can be a valuable windfall to the Mavs, who will play in Memphis on Saturday at 7 p.m.
“I think he can help them out a lot,” Jrue said. “He’s flipside defender, and a 6-6 wing who can shoot.
“He can really help space the game with Luka (Doncic) and Kyrie (Irving). I’m really happy for him, and this may be a endangerment for him to get a (championship) ring.”
Mavs part-way Maxi Kleber moreover thinks Justin can be a positive wing to governor Mark Cuban’s team.
“He’s a really unconfined shooter, he understands the game well, he plays with a very upper IQ, and he’s unchangingly like a defensive force, too, so he will help us a lot,” Kleber said. “I think he does a really unconfined job from stuff here for only a few days positioning himself, understanding where he has to be and getting the right spacing for everybody else.”
In seven games with the Mavs, Justin is averaging 5.3 points in 19.4 minutes and shooting a respectable 39.3 percent from three-point land.
“I love this organization and I love this team,” he said. “I’m just trying to get used as quickly as possible and slow down, considering my throne is all over the place.
“They’ve wonted me, I enjoy playing here and I’m having a unconfined time.”
About as unconfined of a time as he does when he’s playing slantingly his brothers.
Twitter: @DwainPrice
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