Sixers' Holiday knows he has to 'represent' in hometown

LOS ANGELES - His hair was freshly cropped by his familiar barber, the final piece of preparation 76ers guard and Los Angeles native Jrue Holiday needed before taking the court last night at the Staples Center for the T-Mobile Rookie Challenge & Youth Jam game.

"Have to look good and I'm at home so I have to represent."

He would have looked much better if the NBA hadn't fitted him with bright, yellow shoes and matching checkered socks for the game, in which Holiday scored 10 points in his team's 148-140 loss to the rookies.

"It was cool. I definitely wish we would have come out with the win, but it was cool," he said. "I really wanted to beat them. That's all we kept talking about."

Holiday arrived in LA early Thursday and met up with his dad, Shawn, but didn't get to see the rest of his family until later in the night as his siblings were still in school. He will hang with them this weekend, and was trying to come up with as many tickets as he could for last night's game.

"I'm not sure how many they want me to get, but someone told me there was going to be around 50 family and friends here," he said.

Holiday was a little giddy during the morning "workout," in which the team went over some basic plays overseen by coach Lawrence Frank. He flashed his bright smile almost continually, and was looking forward to the whole weekend experience, which included some fun with his sophomore teammates after the game.

In Frank, an assistant coach with the Boston Celtics now, Holiday has a huge fan and someone who sees great things from the UCLA product.

"I love Jrue," Frank said. "To see his maturation . . . He was the youngest player in the NBA last year and to see him grow is impressive. I was watching him in the summer league before his rookie season, as the Sixers and the Nets [whom Frank coached at the time] were playing together and then to see him the improvement made is incredible. We played Philly twice in exhibition [this season] and I was amazed.

"I think the sky's the limit for him. I love the way he can pressure the basketball with his long arms and his intensity. To see his growth in pick-and-roll play and being able to run a team and the consistency to do it every night is great. I think he has a tremendous future."

Frank couldn't let the time get by without also talking about the job new Sixers coach Doug Collins is doing and how it has helped Holiday.

"Doug's done as good a job as any coach in the league when you look at the growth of his team," Frank said, before turning his attention back to Holiday. "I think, with Jrue playing so much last year, it helped a lot. If he wouldn't have gotten to play last year . . . But now he's ahead of the curve with his age, and if he continues to put the time in, I think he's a very special player."

Holiday is very aware of the crazy atmosphere surrounding this weekend and how special it all can be. Still, he is maintaining his California-cool attitude and said he wasn't really sure what the rest of the weekend would hold for him.

"I don't know yet," he said when asked whether he would attend tomorrow's All-Star Game. "I haven't decided. I prefer to watch it at home, but at the same time, I probably would want to go and see things for myself. I'm already here, so . . . "

For almost all of the participants here this weekend, playing in an all-star game is a pretty common occurrence, no matter what level they have played. Holiday likes playing with the guys he is usually competing against.

"It's cool," he said. "It's nice to be able to showcase your talent and try to play as a team and get a win. It's fun playing with them."

Holiday might have had more fun if he'd played more. He played a team-low 6 minutes, 36 seconds in the first half and finished with a little more than 17 minutes.

"Man, I was dying to get in there more," Holiday said. All in all, though, a winning weekend at home for him.

Denver forward Carmelo Anthony, the subject of contant trade rumors, insisted during an NBA Cares community service event there was "no meeting at all" between him and Nets billionaire owner Mikhail Prokhorov.

"My mind's boggled right now about this whole situation," Anthony said.

The Nuggets have looked into trading Anthony since he declined to sign a 3-year extension worth nearly $65 million.

Washington rookie John Wall won MVP honors for the game, with 22 assists and 12 points. DeMarcus Cousins led the rookies with 33 points and 14 rebounds . . . Jrue Holiday predicted Blake Griffin would win tonight's dunk contest. "Dude's been dunking since he was, like, 6" . . . Line of the day came from former La Salle player and current San Antonio rookie Gary Neal on his coach Gregg Popovich. "He's a straight shooter. He yells at everyone the same, whether you're future Hall of Famer Tim Duncan or undrafted rookie Gary Neal." *

The Associated Press contributed to this report.