It's hard for the relative of a top athlete or former star to outdo the hype that inevitably follows in their familial predecessor's wake. Yet somehow, a freshman boys basketball player in California might be succeeding in doing precisely that.
As noted by the Los Angeles Times and Los Angeles Daily News, North Hollywood (Calif.) Campbell Hall School guard Aaron Holiday is absolutely tearing up the court early in his high school career. The teenager scored a whopping 36 points in a Chaminade holiday tournament game against Lancaster (Calif.) Eastside, leading his team to a stirring, 59-55 comeback victory.
Most impressively, Holiday put the game away with a huge slam, cutting into the lane and drawing a foul while converting the dunk, and sinking the subsequent free throw to provide the game's final score.
"I love those situations when the game is tight," Holiday told the Daily News. "Thank God I can jump like that."
If Holiday's last name and Southern California roots ring a bell, that's because he's spent his entire life following in his very talented older brother's footsteps; current 76ers guard Jrue Holiday.
Clearly, the younger Holiday has wasted little time proving that he can excel just as his brother did on the Los Angeles prep hoops circuit. His 36-point explosion followed an earlier 32-point game, and the 5-foot-11 point guard was already averaging 24 points per game within weeks of the season's opening.
Perhaps none of these early Holiday exploits should come as a surprise at all. The speedy guard scored an astounding 54 points in his first varsity summer league game with Campbell Hall over the summer, and he followed that up with another steady string of starring roles. You can see highlights from those summer performances directly below.
Whether or not the younger Holiday can continue to follow so seamlessly in Jrue's path remains to be seen, but one thing is certain: He won't make being a Campbell Hall fan dull.
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