When it comes to basketball hotbeds, the types of places where one finds elite hoop talents practicing their craft, Aalst, Belgium isn't a name that leaps to mind. Neither the country's 15th-largest city nor its 2,800-seat arena are locations where one expects to find a future NBA player, let alone two.
But that is exactly what veteran Chris Young had on his Okapi Aalstar team headed into the 2011-12 season, the 10th of his 12 years in Europe after playing collegiately at the University of Michigan. Young, who had already established himself as the premier center in Belgium's top division, knew that he had extraordinary teammates.
At the same time, Belgian pro hoops and the NBA are two completely different tiers of basketball. Was Young confident that two of his talented teammates would make the leap to the NBA and thrive there?
"If I had that kind of insight into the universe, I'd be a millionaire," Young joked.
When the Atlanta Hawks signed Justin Holiday in July, they added a promising two-way player with a well-rounded skill set.
"Justin Holiday is a young player who has a lot of opportunity," Hawks Head Coach Mike Budenholzer said at the time, "and a lot of potential to emerge and take the next step in his career."
In 2011 though, Holiday was an undrafted 22-year-old testing the waters of pro basketball in Aalst. After three years at the University of Washington, Holiday had earned a well-deserved reputation as a strong defender, and it enabled him the chance to prove himself and develop his skills overseas.
"Justin was very, very talented. He was working on his shot all the time, but it definitely wasn't what it is now," Young said, noting that Holiday excelled at "defensive rebounding and scrappy hustle plays and that type of stuff."
"He was our bench guy."
At the other end of the spectrum, the budding superstar of Aalstar was then-27-year-old Chris Copeland.
"I had known Cope for three or four years before I started playing with him from playing against him and that type of thing," Young said of Copeland, who was signed by the Milwaukee Bucks this summer. "I could see that before the start of our second season together -- the one we played with Justin -- I could see a change in his mentality, his demeanor, his work ethic, It just clicked. You could never get him out of the gym. He was constantly working on his game. He was shooting, I would say, 3,000 or 4,000 shots a day. And when Cope was the guy that was laboring back the gym, he kind of took Justin along with him. If Cope was in there shooting, then Justin was right there with him working."
Holiday noted that Copeland urged him to take an active approach to molding and shaping his career.
"I took a lot from from Chris," Holiday said. "The first thing he told me was, 'Don't get left behind. If you want to do this, come on and be aggressive. Don't go out there and play passively.' Hearing him say that and seeing how he played helped me improve my game offensively. Looking for my own shot ended up helping me open up things for other people."
Young saw the same development in Holiday's game.
"(Justin) came in with the college mentality where he was thinking, 'I'll find what my niche is', but basically it's like, 'Okay man, that's great, but you're a pro now. If we give you the ball at the end of the shot clock, we don't need you to pass it off to look for a great shot, we need you to do something.' It was basically just trying to keep the some of the good things that he learned in college, but also take it to that next professional level. He always had the kind of intangibles that the NBA is always looking for."
The joint work of Copeland and Holiday paid dividends that season and beyond. Copeland led Belgium's top division in scoring and won its MVP award. For the first and only time in the team's history, Aalstar won the Belgian Cup, a national tournament featuring teams from all the country's basketball divisions.
"For Justin to come over as a rookie and to win the Cup, that's a special thing," Young said. "I will always have a special place in my heart for Justin because he was a big part of that."
In addition, NBA teams took notice of Copeland and Holiday. The Knicks extended a training camp invite to Copeland that eventually ended with a roster spot. Holiday landed with the Idaho Stampede of the NBA's D-League after a pair of preseason stints with NBA teams.
In fact, success has followed Holiday through four stops in four pro seasons. In Idaho, Holiday averaged 17.3 points and 2.4 steals per game and earned All D-League Third Team honors. More importantly, his work merited a late-season call up from the Philadelphia 76ers that enabled him to play nine games with his younger brother, Jrue.
For the 2013-14 season, Holiday joined Szolnoik Olaj, winning the championship in Hungary's top division. And before coming to Atlanta, Holiday captured an NBA title in his one season with Golden State.
Holiday savors the successes of his past teams.
"Oh yeah, I like to win," he said. "Usually when I play, I've been blessed to play on winning teams."
He believes that the experience of winning with the Warriors can help him succeed with the Hawks, even though his role in Golden State saw him move in and out of the playing rotation.
"I saw the atmosphere, and I saw what it took to win a championship. I was there every day practicing. I was there in the huddles. I was there watching the games. I know what it feels like in different situations and how you need to be mentally and physically."
Interestingly, when Holiday did play more minutes, he used them to produce. Consider the following statistic: In 59 games overall, Holiday shot 38.7% from the field and 32.1% from three-point range. In the 18 games in which Holiday played 15 or more minutes, those numbers jump significantly: 48.5% shooting from the field and 42.6% on three-point shots.
He felt more at home in the games where he got to play longer.
"There's a comfort level. You can play a game and settle in and miss a couple of shots," he said. "Once I find my shot, I won't miss much after that. When you get to play more than 15 minutes, you settle in more to the game instead of saying, 'Okay, now I don't have that much time, but I can make this happen, I can make this happen, and I can make this happen.' When you think like that, you might miss a little more or speed up your shot. Obviously, with more time, you feel a lot more comfortable."
It remains to be seen how much Atlanta will need Holiday this season. Part of the decision may lie in the health of his teammates. If the Hawks do call on Holiday to play an important role, they can safely count on him to work as hard as he can toward success just as he always has.
Other Justin Holiday facts:
Holiday counts Michael Jordan and his father as his favorite players when he was a kid: "I was a Laker fan growing up, but my dad always had Bulls stuff on. I mean, he's Michael Jordan. I always liked him."
Holiday's sister-in-law, Lauren, who is married to Jrue, is a professional soccer player and was a member of the U.S. Women's National Team that won the World Cup in 2015: "I hear about the preparation and stuff like that. I think they practice even more than we do. It amazes me. The whole team is great."
Holiday's sister, Lauren, played on the UCLA women's basketball team for the 2013-14 season with Kari Korver, cousin of Kyle Korver.
Story by KL ChouinardTwitter: @AnaheimAmigos