https://youtu.be/2oiMqvIkAAw
It’s a rare treat for a trio of brothers to all appear in a single game. Since trios of brothers are already quite rare in the NBA (shout out to the Zellers), and it’s also relatively uncommon for two brothers to be on the same roster, the opportunity to have all three brothers playing on the court at the same time is one that should never be passed up.
However, in this game between the Pacers and the Bucks, such an opportunity was passed up, and it’s left me feeling mildly annoyed.
Jrue Holiday is on the Bucks. Justin Holiday and Aaron Holiday are on the Pacers. Perfect, right? Wrong. Aaron Holiday didn’t play in this game because he was injured. For once, I’m actually going to believe the allegation that he was injured, given that Malcolm Brogdon was also out, which forced T.J. McConnell to play 45 minutes. No coach wants to play any player 45 minutes these days. If Aaron Holiday was really healthy enough to play, he would have.
That said, I’m sure his injury wasn’t TOO bad. He probably could have played for a minute or two as long as nobody passed him the ball. And then we would have had all three Holiday brothers at least appearing in the same box-score, and possibly appearing on the court at the same time if it was planned properly.
What we are left with was a lame brother-on-brother battle. Those happen all the time. It’s such a common occurrence that it barely deserves to be mentioned. Justin Holiday did outscore his higher-paid brother Jrue, 26-20, but Justin only had five assists to Jrue’s 14, so I’d say Jrue won this bad-blood basketball brother battle. Justin’s 18-point, 6-three first quarter got him off to a good start, but he couldn’t keep that momentum going, and he scored just eight points in the final ~25 minutes he was on the court. Maybe his brother was locking him down. That would be funny.