Recommended reading from ESPN’s Baxter Holmes.
After the Portland Trail Blazers traded Anfernee Simons for Jrue Holiday early in the offseason, some expected Portland would immediately try to flip the veteran guard for more future-oriented assets. However, the Blazers have held fast — as Holiday’s introductory press conference in July reaffirmed — that they expect the new guard to play an important role in the 2025-26 regular season.
Just two months before the Blazers finalized the deal for Holiday, ESPN senior writer Baxter Holmes wrote an expansive profile on the decorated guard and how he became one of the NBA’s best defenders. Holmes wrote the piece as Holiday and the Celtics were still playing in the 2025 Eastern Conference Playoffs, attempting to win their second consecutive NBA Championship (an effort that ultimately ended in the second round).
While the piece is older, it’s still an evergreen resource if you’re trying to learn more about Portland’s big, and only, summer trade acquisition. The piece explains how Holiday’s defensive mentality and prowess was passed down by his parents and uncle, who all played high-level college basketball, and how his competitive fire was forged further by intense one-on-one battles with his NBA-bound brothers Justin and Aaron. It touches on Holiday’s development from high school, to college at UCLA, and on through his 16 NBA seasons, keeping his defensive excellence at the forefront.
Along with quotes from Holiday’s family members and (now former) Celtics teammates, Holiday talks in depth about his defensive mentality and how he tries to impact the game.
“I don’t like getting scored on,” he tells ESPN. “It’s that simple. Competitive nature, to me, is winning every possession or in everything you do. So an offensive possession, I also try to win, but defensively, I feel like getting one stop against an individual is, it’s like, damn man, you stopped me.
“But when you get multiple stops against somebody? It can kind of take them out of the game. It can take their heart away. It can completely change the landscape 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.”
You can read the full piece here.
Category: General Sports
