LOS ANGELES — Driveways, backyards and school grounds all across the nation are littered with little kids carrying big basketball dreams — dreams that usually begin and end with making it to the NBA.
For most kids who play into the darkness of night with their siblings and friends from the neighborhood until elbows are bruised and knees bloodied, the closest they ever come to the NBA is watching games on TV.
In the driveway of a modest home on a corner lot in Chatsworth, Calif., in the San Fernando Valley, the three brothers at the Holiday house have defied those long odds.
Two, Justin and Jrue Holiday, already are in the midst of successful NBA careers — Justin as a key swingman off the bench for the Knicks and Jrue as a starting point guard for the Pelicans. The third, Aaron, is a sophomore guard on fifth-ranked UCLA and has significant NBA potential.
Along with the three brothers is a sister, Lauren, who played on the UCLA women’s basketball team until she was forced to retire in 2014 after suffering a series of concussions.
That Lauren was knocked from the game she loves because of concussions is sadly fitting because — by all accounts from the family — she was the toughest, most aggressive of all the Holiday kids in the uber-competitive two-on-two games that went long into the night in the family driveway.
Their parents, Shawn and Toya, both of whom played basketball at Arizona State, where they met, credit Lauren being so tough on Aaron for developing him into the player he is today.
Whenever Aaron declares for the NBA draft, there’s a good chance there will be three Holiday brothers playing in the NBA.
“It shows what type of family dynamic we have and how much work we’ve all put in together and individually,’’ Justin said. “I guess we’ve all shown that if there’s something you want to do badly enough, if you work hard enough and give yourself a chance to get there you can do it.’’
Jrue Holiday said he “dreams’’ of one day being able to play with both of his bothers in the NBA.
“We’ve done a lot of things right to be able to put ourselves in the best position,’’ Jrue said. “To be able say I have two brothers playing in the NBA with me would be something that a lot of people can’t say — ever.’’
Everything the Holiday kids have accomplished in basketball started with those heated pick-up games in the driveway.
Even as she watched through the kitchen windows, Toya Holiday never imagined anything like this — two boys playing in the NBA and a third possibly on the way.
“It was never a thought,’’ she said. “We just told our kids to follow their dreams and to make sure their dad or I could not tell you, ‘No, you can’t do it.’ We told them, ‘Don’t listen to us, because sometimes we’re short-sighted.’
“Some of us can’t dream. To me, they were just kids out there playing in the yard. We would have never thought this. No. Never, ever, ever. Back when they were in elementary school, you asked them, ‘What do you want to do with your life?’ They’d say, ‘Well, I want to be an NBA player,’ because — guess what? — that’s what they were watching at home. But we never thought they were serious.’’
As it turned out, the Holiday boys were as serious as a heart attack about getting to the NBA.
“People think that they just came out of the womb playing basketball,’’ Toya said. “No. Our kids worked hard. There’s this hill on a long street in the neighborhood and they used to hit that hill when it was 100 degrees in the summer. We were just thinking they were working hard so they could play on their high-school team. But no, we were never thinking NBA.’’
Bringing it back to the two-on-two games in the driveway, Toya said, “That’s all I remember them doing.’’
“It got really crazy some days,’’ she said. “Some days, I’d call them into the house and say, ‘OK, we’re going to look up a Bible verse on strife, and you’re going to write that 100 times.’ It got that competitive. They love each other, they really do. But they had to learn how to walk away sometimes and be the bigger person.’’
Shawn Holiday said the one-on-one games between Justin and Jrue, who are 14 months apart, never made it to 21 points.
“When they played they never completed a game, because they would always get into an argument or a fight and the game would stop,’’ Shawn said.
“They wanted to beat each other as much as anybody in the world,’’ Aaron recalled of the battles between his older brothers.
“I remember everything about those games — the fights, wins, losses, the competition,’’ Jrue said. “We’re not like that anymore, but there were definitely some hard-fought games. It was competition. Neither of us wanted to lose, and Justin being my older brother I wanted to beat him. He was my idol. I looked up to him, and I wanted to beat him in everything.’’
The same would take place when Lauren and Aaron, who’s three years younger than his sister, played.
“My daughter’s the one who made Aaron the player he is,’’ Shawn said. “Lauren used to take it to Aaron when they were younger. I think that’s where Aaron’s killer instinct came from. My daughter is an aggressive player and she would take Aaron in the post and dunk on him [in a lowered rim]. She took no prisoners.’’
Lauren recalled the exact turning point her younger brother became a fierce competitor.
“I remember one time I dunked on him and he got so mad he threw the ball at my face and my nose started bleeding,’’ she said. “After that, he started getting more competitive. I think that was the last time I was able to put it on him.’’
Aaron remembers the abuse he took, and the effect it had on him.
“For sure, there were times when I would get angry because I’m not making shots or Lauren is scoring on me,’’ Aaron said. “It just taught me to fight harder. Lauren was the one I went up against a lot, and yeah, she was really aggressive, which helped me be a little bit more aggressive on the court and play harder. It taught me to play harder and always have a chip on my shoulder.’’
Part of that chip on Aaron’s shoulder is the pressure that comes with trying to follow his brothers into the NBA.
“There is pressure on him to live up to expectations as the youngest, but it doesn’t bother him,’’ Shawn said.
“We may have similar games in certain ways, but my game is totally different from Jrue and Justin,’’ Aaron said. “I don’t really feel much pressure on making it to the league, because I’m not them.’’
Make no mistake, though: The NBA is very much on Aaron’s radar.
“I always dream about making it to the league, and I want to do well in the league. I don’t want to just get there,’’ Aaron said. “My dreams are to make it there and do well, not really just make it and just leave. I want to get there and stay there for a while and be one of the best players. I have confidence in myself that I can play in the NBA.’’
“One of my dreams is to play with or against my brothers in the league, because I didn’t get that chance in high school or college. So to be doing that on the highest stage would be awesome. Yeah, that would be awesome to have three Holiday brothers in the NBA.’’
Each brother has taken his own unique path.
Justin, the oldest at 27, is the quintessential journeyman, having gone undrafted out of the University of Washington in 2011 and starting his professional career with Okapi Aalstar in Belgium.
He followed Belgium with stops with the Cavaliers, the Trail Blazers, the Idaho Stampede of the NBA’s D-League, the 76ers, the Jazz (where he never played) and Hungary, where he played with Szolnoki Olaj for a year. In 2014, he signed with the Warriors, with whom he won an NBA championship in 2015. He signed with the Hawks in 2015, was traded to the Bulls in 2016 and traded to the Knicks in the Derrick Rose deal in June.
He seems to have found a home with the Knicks, averaging a career-high 7.4 points per game and 2.8 rebounds this season.
“I’m the player and person I am now mentally because of everything I went through,’’ Justin said. “God put me through all those things not for me to be the basketball player I am but to be the person I am now. It’s helped me to mature and grow and made me better person and basketball player as well.’’
Jrue’s journey has been much simpler. He was the 17th pick out of UCLA by the 76ers in the 2009 draft and played in Philadelphia until 2013, when he joined the Pelicans. This season, he’s averaging 16.3 points, 7.5 assists and 4.0 rebounds per game.
Justin said he believes Aaron has the “best potential, because of the skill set he already has at his age.’’
Aaron is averaging 10.3 per game off the bench and is an integral part of the UCLA guard rotation that incudes Lonzo Ball and Bryce Alford. Though he doesn’t start, he averages 31.7 minutes a game and is usually on the floor in the game’s biggest moments because of his uncanny poise under pressure.
“He lives for those situations — the important moments in the games, the hostile arenas,’’ Shawn said. “I think a lot of that comes from his older siblings. From Day 1, he’s seen how they prepare and work and work and how they deal with situations.’’
Situations that all came up in those life-shaping games in that driveway in the San Fernando Valley.