Justin Holiday wins a Championship

The Golden State Warriors defeated the Cleveland Cavaliers on Tuesday night to clinch the NBA Championship.  It was the first title for the Warriors in almost 40 years.  With the win former UW Husky Justin Holiday becomes the fourth Husky to win a ring.

Of the 31 UW basketball players to have played in the NBA according to Basketball-Reference, only James Edwards has won an NBA title before Holiday.  Edwards earned two with the Bad Boy Detroit Pistons and another as a Chicago Bull during the 1995-1996 season.  You might recall the Bulls beat the Seattle SuperSonics in the 1996 Finals.

UPDATED: Lars Hansen (played in the NBA in 1979) and Charles Dudley (1973-1979) are the only other two to win an NBA Title.  As you may infer from the year he played in the NBA, Hansen won the title with the Sonics.  Dudley won an NBA Title with the Warriors the last time the franchise won a title in 1975.

Holiday played sparingly for the Warriors during the Finals having only played just 2 minutes in Game 4 as the Warriors blew out the Cavs in that game 103-82.  Overall, Holiday played only in 5 playoff games averaging just 2.2 minutes per game.  He played 59 games during the regular season for the Warriors averaging 4 points in 11 minutes time.

Holiday made the Warriors this season after impressing in Summer League.  It’s the second NBA season for Holiday as he played in only a handful of games for the Philadelphia 76ers last season.

It’s a great achievement for Holiday as he started his professional career in Belgium and bumped around the D-League before catching on with the Warriors.

Champions!

A photo posted by Justin Holiday (@justholla7) on Jun 16, 2015 at 11:25pm PDT

Congratulations to @JustHolla7 and the Golden State Warriors on a great season and the NBA championship!!

— Lorenzo Romar (@CoachRomar) June 17, 2015