By Baxter Holmes
Sitting on a bench inside the Boston Celtics` training facility, with afternoon sunlight streaming through 18 championship banners hanging beside tall glass windows, Jrue Holiday points towards the parquet practice court just a few feet away. He then gestures towards the weight room on the other side of the court, and finally, towards his head, legs, and feet.
It was midday on April 19, and the Celtics guard had just finished his workout. Jaylen Brown was still nearby on the court, taking shots. Music was playing. Outside, commuters zoomed past on the Massachusetts Turnpike, bringing thousands daily into downtown Boston, located about 7 miles east. As he motioned towards his body parts, Holiday continued to articulate his philosophies on his long-standing calling card in the NBA: defense.
The more he spoke, a clear intensity emerged.
“I don`t like getting scored on,” he told ESPN. “It`s that simple. My competitive nature means winning every possession or in everything you do. So on offense, I try to win too, but defensively, I feel like getting one stop against an individual is like, *damn man, you stopped me.*”
“But when you get *multiple* stops against someone? It can kind of take them out of the game. It can break their spirit. It can completely alter the dynamics of the game if that happens. So I think I started realizing that — and realizing how fun it is to try to take the heart out of my opponent.”
He smiled.
How fun it is to try and take the heart out of my opponent.
“I grew up in a family of athletes where that`s all they ever tried to do to me,” he said. “It`s literally all I know. And it was okay to do that. It was fun.”
Holiday`s parents, Toya and Shawn, both played basketball at Arizona State in the early 1980s. All three of their sons — Jrue, Justin, and Aaron — reached the NBA. Their daughter Lauren played college basketball at UCLA. Throughout the siblings` childhoods, defense was the only non-negotiable in the household. Good offense would come and go, they told their kids, but defense should never falter. It was a way to consistently make an impact, they said, a path to earning minutes. Shawn for years taught them specific techniques and principles passed down to him. But more than that, he wanted them to love it, because he did.
As Holiday spoke, energy buzzed throughout the city. Thousands had traveled from around the world to participate in the 129th Boston Marathon. Elite runners darted across sidewalks and side streets, loosening up on shakeout runs along the Charles River Esplanade, where pink cherry tree blossoms swayed in a gentle spring breeze.
But the day before the world`s most famous race began, the Celtics embarked on their own long journey towards a potential repeat championship, a feat not accomplished since Bill Russell, arguably the most dominant defender in NBA history, wore the Celtics uniform in the 1960s.
That journey continued Wednesday night in Boston, where the Celtics trailed the New York Knicks 1-0 in a crucial Game 2 of the second-round series. Holiday played in Game 1, an overtime loss for the Celtics, after missing three consecutive games with a right hamstring strain. And the Celtics were certainly glad to have him back.
“What Jrue does for us is elite,” said Celtics center Al Horford. “His impact on our team is immeasurable.”
“I mean, the intangibles are endless,” Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla said of Holiday`s influence. “The mentality he plays with, his selflessness, but also the physicality, the toughness, and defensive versatility: his ability to guard multiple positions, to pressure the ball, to recognize opponents` tendencies and simply make winning plays.”
Holiday is now 34, in his 16th NBA season, during which he has won two Olympic gold medals, two NBA championships, and numerous defensive accolades.
In three of the past four annual NBA general manager surveys, Holiday was voted the league`s best perimeter defender. He has finished in the top eight in voting for the Defensive Player of the Year award five times, tied for the most by any guard (with Michael Jordan, Gary Payton, and Tony Allen) since the award`s inception in 1982-83. He has been named to the All-Defensive first or second team in six of the past seven years. NBA head coaches say he`s a nightmare to strategize against. Several stars — including Kevin Durant and Damian Lillard — have called him either the NBA`s best defensive guard or its best defensive player.
In many ways, the influences that shaped Holiday`s defensive excellence can be traced back over half a century and 5,000 miles away, to a man Holiday says he has never seen play, but who watches his every game — and in him, he still sees some of himself, even after all these years.
DWIGHT HOLIDAY LOOKS out the window of his 11th-floor condominium in a Honolulu high-rise. There`s the Diamond Head volcano visible from one window, and the Pacific Ocean from another. “It`s a great view,” says the 74-year-old, who has lived in Hawaii since the 1970s, when the former 6-foot-4 guard was a star for the University of Hawaii men`s basketball team.
With Dwight, the Rainbows achieved records of 23-5 in 1970-71 and 24-3 the following season, reaching the NCAA tournament for the first time in school history. The team became known as the “Fabulous Five” long before Michigan`s “Fab Five” teams gained fame in the 1990s.
“I was our best defensive player,” Dwight stated proudly. “I had to guard every team`s No. 1 scorer.”
Dwight is Holiday`s uncle, and he can still, to this day, list the names of players he faced.
Ron King of Florida State, a shooting guard who led his team to the national championship game and later played for the Kentucky Colonels in the American Basketball Association? “I shut him down,” Dwight recalled.
Eddie Boyd of Oregon State, a combo guard who was the No. 5 pick in the 1972 NBA draft? “I shut him down.”
Bird Averitt of Pepperdine, a shooting guard and the 1975 NCAA scoring champion? “I contained him,” Dwight admitted, “but I didn`t shut him down.”
Dwight was the second oldest of nine siblings, and by eighth grade, he began focusing on basketball, becoming the first in the family to pursue sports.
“This all started with me,” he asserted. In 10th grade, a coach named Len Wilkins entered his life.
Wilkins had learned the game by observing Pete Newell`s dominant California Golden Bears teams in the 1950s, when they reached two NCAA title games and won in 1959. Wilkins saw how Newell`s teams consistently played aggressive defense, pressing opponents, pressuring the ball, and fronting the post. Wilkins wanted to incorporate those elements into the high school teams he coached.
He taught Dwight how to stay low to the ground, how to move his feet.
“Watch the individual`s body, not their face,” Wilkins advised him. “Wherever that torso goes, you follow.”
Dwight excelled.
“He was a fantastic athlete, quick, had a good basketball IQ, and you could coach him; he would listen and ask questions,” said Wilkins, now 91 and retired in Montana after nearly 50 years of coaching high school and college basketball.
The year Dwight graduated from Hawaii, he brought his brother Shawn, 13 years his junior, to the islands. They played basketball daily, and Dwight passed down the defensive principles he had learned from Wilkins.
After college, Shawn and Toya started a family, first Justin in April 1989, and then on June 12, 1990, another son, Jrue, who first picked up a ball at age 2. He and his siblings grew up in gymnasiums, and when it came to teaching basketball, Shawn aimed to pass down the family legacy.
“I REMEMBER ONE practice vividly,” Aaron Holiday, currently a guard for the Houston Rockets, recounted to ESPN. Aaron was on the court after practice at Taft High School in Los Angeles, and Shawn was teaching him how to slide his feet — “how to keep them from hitting each other while sliding, how to keep them separated, just the fundamental technique of guarding.”
Toya and Shawn would tell their children that if they wanted the ball, they should go and get it. Jump into a passing lane. Secure a defensive rebound. Make something happen. “Everyone can play offense,” Toya stated. “I truly believe that.”
But defense was a choice, they said. Maybe they had an off day shooting, but defense should never wane. “And guess what?” Toya would add. “It`s so much more satisfying to get a steal, run down the court, and slam dunk.”
Holiday wasn`t particularly talkative growing up, his parents said, but they knew competitiveness burned within him. “Piss him off,” Toya advised. “You`ll see.”
Growing up, there were intense one-on-one games in the driveway with his talented siblings at their home in Rancho Cucamonga, California, about an hour east of Los Angeles.
By high school, Holiday had established himself as one of the nation`s most dominant two-way players, a point guard who could score with ease and guard every position on the opposite end.
“The way he`s still able to defend and cut people off without drawing fouls is unbelievable,” Aaron observed.
He led his team to three California state titles. As a senior, he averaged 25.3 points, 12 rebounds, 6.8 assists, 4.6 steals, and 2.4 blocks, and was named the 2008 Gatorade Player of the Year.
“People make a big deal out of two-way players these days,” he said. “It should be very natural to want to do both.”
At UCLA, Holiday started every game as a freshman on a team that went 26-9 and reached the NCAA tournament`s second round. He also met his future wife, Lauren Cheney, who would become one of the most decorated American soccer players in history, a two-time Olympic gold medalist and FIFA Women`s World Cup champion. She played basketball through high school. She understood the game. And her philosophies on soccer were similar.
“Jrue`s superpower is his selflessness,” she told ESPN. “And I think that`s what defense is all about — the willingness to do the hard things to make it easier for everyone around you. It`s a choice to work that hard. It`s a choice to decide, `Hey, I`m not going to let this person beat me, or if they do, they`re going to have to try really, really hard.` That`s true to who he is and everything that he does.”
In 2009, after one season at UCLA, Holiday was drafted by the Philadelphia 76ers with the 17th pick. Playing on a veteran roster, he found that defense was a way to earn minutes, just as his parents had taught. He mentioned that one of the first times he earned significant playing time was because he was picking up defenders full-court.
His mindset was straightforward, he explained. “I want to lock you up on the defensive end, and then I want to score on you on the offensive end. Whoever I`m playing against, I want it to be a really difficult night on both ends of the court.”
He quickly recognized that playing defense could distinguish him.
Holiday diligently studied film, looking for subtle nuances and tendencies of opponents. He attacked the weight room. And in the offseason, and for as long as he can remember, he engaged in grueling defensive drills where he had to stop offensive players in a one-on-one half-court setting, one after another.
“I feel like that`s the way to condition yourself,” he said. “So by the third person, you`re exhausted, and then you have two more people you have to go against — and the guys I play against aren`t scrubs.”
The accolades accumulated. By his third season, he became the youngest player in 76ers history named an All-Star. In 2018, he received the first of his six All-Defense honors. In August 2020, then-Portland star guard Damian Lillard said on `The Old Man and the Three` podcast: “To me, he`s the best defender in the league. Like, among guards, I think he`s the best defender.”
When Holiday joined the Milwaukee Bucks in 2020, he began working with Charles Lee, a member of the Bucks` coaching staff at the time. Lee watched in awe how Holiday consistently seemed to employ a combination of his quick hands, fast feet, and strength to make a game-changing defensive play, always at the opportune moment.
“I was blown away by how much of a student of the game he was,” Lee told ESPN. “He had already significantly impacted winning, and when he got to Milwaukee, he was still so curious about how he could continue to improve.”
In some instances, Lee noted, “you`re trying to drive, and he starts trying to pull the chair on you while also getting this offhand swipe on the ball.”
He saw Holiday use this tactic so frequently during the Bucks` 2021 NBA title run that it earned a name among the coaching staff.
“We would call it `The Holiday,`” Lee said.
WHEN BRAD STEVENS became the coach of the Celtics in the summer of 2013, Holiday was still in Philadelphia, having made his first All-Star appearance the previous season. Stevens, now the Celtics` GM, vividly remembers what it was like trying to game-plan for Holiday.
“You avoided him,” Stevens told ESPN.
“You tried to position players where he wouldn`t be influencing the play, especially late in the game. But that`s easier said than done because he`s going to be guarding your best players.”
After hearing that comment, Holiday smiled. “That`s what I love. I *love* knowing that.”
For years, Stevens said, he asked then-Celtics president of basketball operations Danny Ainge what it would take to acquire Holiday.
Each time, the response was the same. “I`d love to,” Ainge told him. “Unfortunately, the team he`s on loves him, too.”
In the fall of 2023, Stevens turned the dream into reality, acquiring Holiday from Portland, where he had been traded as part of the move that sent Lillard to Milwaukee.
Just days later, Stevens looked down onto the practice court and watched one of the Celtics` coaching staff members, Phil Pressey, a former NBA guard, face Holiday in a drill on the right wing.
“I saw Holiday get into him and push him back five feet, and it looked like [Pressey] couldn`t even function,” Stevens said. “And I thought, `Well, there you go, we`ve got a shot.`”
In Holiday`s first season with the Celtics, the veteran guard made Stevens` prediction look accurate. In the first round, when Holiday guarded Miami`s Tyler Herro, he limited him to 33% shooting from the field and 25% from 3-point range. In the Eastern Conference semifinals, Cleveland`s Darius Garland shot just 7-of-22 overall and 1-of-7 from deep against Holiday. In the Eastern Conference finals, Holiday held Tyrese Haliburton to 3-of-10 shooting (1-of-7 from deep). And in the Finals, facing Kyrie Irving, Holiday restricted the Dallas star to a single three-pointer.
The Celtics comfortably won their 18th NBA title, Holiday`s second.
“I don`t think anyone at any position would prefer to be guarded by Jrue Holiday,” Stevens stated. “And then ask the coaches who they least want to see attacking in isolation late in the shot clock. Same answer.”
ONE DAY AFTER explaining his defensive philosophies at the Celtics` training facility, Holiday demonstrated them in action — a perfectly timed tutorial in Game 1 of his team`s first-round playoff series against the Orlando Magic. The lesson began about two minutes into the third quarter inside an expectant TD Garden in Boston, with the seventh-seeded Magic holding a one-point lead at halftime.
At the top of the key, Holiday was matched up with 6-10 Magic forward Franz Wagner.
Half a world away, Dwight observed Magic big man Wendell Carter Jr. stepping up towards Wagner, preparing to screen Holiday, but Holiday stuck to Wagner like a magnet. Carter soon abandoned his plan. Then, Wagner attempted to drive right, but Holiday remained attached to his hip. Clearly frustrated, Wagner then veered into the lane, attempting an errant layup that hit the top of the backboard. Holiday tipped the loose ball to Brown, who secured the rebound, then passed back to Holiday.
On the other end, Holiday drained a step-back 3-pointer, his first points of the night.
On the subsequent possession, Holiday guarded Orlando`s Paolo Banchero, another 6-10 agile forward. Again, Holiday essentially merged his body with Banchero`s, denying a screen attempt by Carter. Like Wagner on the previous play, Banchero drove right, and like Wagner, Banchero missed a layup. Holiday tipped the ball to Celtics guard Derrick White, who scored a layup on the other end, capping a 7-0 Celtics run.
Later, with 7:32 remaining in the fourth quarter, Wagner once again brought the ball up court, and Holiday moved towards him, his hands active. Wagner self-destructed, dribbling the ball off the back of his foot, and Holiday scooped up the loose ball, dribbled up the floor, and drilled a transition 3-pointer, giving the Celtics a 10-point lead.
As he jogged back, Holiday let out a primal scream as the Garden erupted in excitement and appreciation. In the third quarter alone, Holiday scored nine points, added four assists and two steals, and the Celtics took control of the game, outscoring the Magic 30-18 en route to a double-digit win.
“He disrupts everything you`re trying to run offensively,” said Magic coach Jamahl Mosley.
Holiday held the Magic to 2-for-11 shooting from the field as the primary defender and forced five turnovers. He limited the Magic`s top two scorers, Banchero and Wagner, to a combined 1-for-9. Holiday matched up with Banchero 23 times, the most of any Celtic. In those 23 matchups, Banchero scored four points on six shots.
“He just cares about winning,” Stevens said. “Here`s a guy who is a two-time Olympic gold medalist, a two-time NBA champion, a several-time All-Defensive team member, and he comes here and just says, *Hey, I`m part of a really good basketball team. How can I help?* There aren`t many guys with his accomplishments and his ability to carry us who would be willing to do that.”
Throughout the game, Dwight watched Holiday maintain a low center of gravity, fight through screens, and force offensive players to go where *he* wanted them to go.
“I see things in Holiday`s game that I taught Shawn,” Dwight commented.
Holiday has never seen footage of his uncle play, and although they text each other, they don`t talk much about their similar styles.
What Holiday hopes, perhaps most of all, is that how he plays — how he was taught to play — endures.
“Hopefully I can influence people to do more on the defensive end,” he said, “because I do think there is a place for it. You can stay in the league for a long time adding value by being a defensive player, simply because so many people don`t.”