Energetic Holt wants to be long-term Bullet

From the moment he first stepped onto an NBL floor the infectious energy Jacob Holt plays with was obvious and now the rookie big man already knows that he couldn’t imagine himself playing anywhere but the Brisbane Bullets.

Following off-season hip surgery, Holt missed the first 11 games of this season with the Bullets before making his debut against the Tasmania JackJumpers on November 8 and he's had a significant impact ever since.

That has included stepping up for 32 points and 14 rebounds in the past two matches following the concussion to starting centre Tyrell Harrison as he finds his groove in the NBL and living in Australia for the first time.

It's been quite the ride already for Holt even just 13 games into his career given he joined the Bullets in the pre-season having not long before receiving his Australian citizenship, and then underwent hip surgery.

He missed the first 11 games of the season and then showed some encouraging signs coming into the line-up as a rookie big man behind Harrison, and now suddenly in his absence his role and minutes and production have sky rocketed.

Above everything, he feels grateful for the situation he finds himself in.

"A word that stands out to sum it up is grateful and I'm grateful to even be able to come back from the injury like I have," Holt said.

"The hip surgery I got is something where return to sport is done well, but just to see that happen and go through that has been huge for me.

"And I think the development the staff has done with my game over a short period of time has helped me with my transition from college to the NBL.

"And I'm grateful for my teammates because they have also helped me in this transition, but for me it's been a good time and I know the winning and losing has not been what you want as a fan, but the development I've gotten as a rookie in this league I don’t think any other team I could match that. The support I get from all these guys is huge."

While in an ideal world Holt wasn’t still recovering from the hip surgery in the early parts of the season, the blessing through it was that it allowed him to learn about the NBL before having to get out to play.

For someone completely new to the league, that helped to get him ready for when he made his debut on November 8 against the JackJumpers.

"Just by watching practice and that alone is so much different to college practice, and then I remember watching my first NBL game and thinking what a completely different pace it is, and a completely different atmosphere to college," Holt said.

"I remember even things like having to get used to having music being played during the games and in college it's nothing like that.

"But in the time I was out, I really got to analyse it from the sideline and see what the league's about, and how good it is. I think it definitely helped me just with the visualisation and confidence-wise to see all the guys competing, and the level that it's at."

What has stood out above everything else even beyond his physical presence and what he can do around the rim or stepping out to shoot as a big man is the infectious energy he provides for the Bullets.

That's something that comes naturally to Holt but it also stems just from how grateful he feels to be getting to live out his dream of playing professional basketball.

"Well for me it's like I'm just so competitive and I put in so much work, and the fact that I can get out there and for a pro job you're playing basketball, this is an insane lifestyle that I'm not taking nothing for granted," Holt said.

"The fact that I'm even Australian is a story in itself so all these things have lined up and from my coach being Australian in college to getting the passport and to playing in the NBL, I think it's been such a good and thankful journey that I've been on that every time I'm out there, I know it could have gone so many different ways.

"But it's probably gone the best possible way so why not go out there and give it your all, and whatever happens, happens."

Holt had never seriously thought about the fact that his mother had Australian heritage until he got to college and started to come into contact with some Aussies, and then when he was on tour with a Sacramento State team down under and happened to come across Bullets assistant Greg Vanderjagt.

Ironically it was when sitting in the stands at an AFL game that Holt started exploring if he could become an Australian citizen given the fact his mother was born in Australia - with her parents having emigrated from Croatia - before moving to Canada. 

In the end, the whole process was done inside 12 months meaning after graduating from college, he was eligible to play in the NBL as a local and the Bullets swooped.

"It's so funny actually and I transferred from Santa Clara to Sac State for my sophomore year and my head coach there was DP – David Patrick," Holt said.

"He's the assistant for the Boomers and there was a strong Australian pull, but it wasn’t until going into my senior year where Michael Czepil was my next head coach and we were on this Australian tour.

"We hit like Brisbane and we hit Gold Coast, and Sydney and Melbourne, and we played a bunch of games which is where I met Vandy or at least I got on his radar.

"That's when he remembered me telling him about my mum being Australian so I should really look into it and then I was watching Dusty's (Martin) 300th, the AFL player. I was there in the stands and I was looking up if I was eligible for citizenship.

"Then because of the way my mum was born and the time she was meant I was eligible so from that point on I was getting all the documents and everything done.

"Then I finally submitted that in October 2024 and it didn’t come back until like May 2025 so the fact that it came that fast and it all happened was crazy for me, and it all worked out for a reason."

After growing up in Ladner, British Columbia, Canada, Holt attended high school in Vancouver before moving Stateside and starting his college career with the Santa Clara Broncos before transferring to Sacramento State.

By the time he got to his senior year, he knew he wanted to pursue professional basketball afterwards and ended up going for 16.3 points and 6.9 rebounds while shooting the three ball at 35 per cent.

Then when he was weighing up where to start his professional career, knowing the hip surgery would delay his start to any season, for so many reasons the Bullets and the NBL became the ideal destination.

"So for me in my senior year I really wanted to play my best basketball and I think I did, and I was able to showcase what I could be on the college level," Holt said.

"Then after ticking the box on that, it was about what the next step was and I thought it was going pro.

"I initially was trying to get my Croatian passport and I'm still trying to get that, and that was the route I was going to go before the Australian came up and happened so fast.

"So then I wanted to jump on that and I saw that the NBL was at least a top five league in the world so I wanted to part of it, and the fact I could play as a local was huge.

"Then even with the injury, if you go over to Europe they're not to let you rehab or recover with them, they want you ready to play right away so that made the Australian thing even more favourable because the Bullets were prepared to back me in for two or three years.

"The first one was always going to be about seeing how I go with the injury and hopefully can pay at some point, then the next year would be the year where I come in to play a key role and I'm thankful I got healthy early and now it's going better than I hoped."

In the big picture, Holt had never spent time in Australia aside from that tour while in college, but now that he's settled in Brisbane, he couldn’t imagine living anywhere else and with the basketball home he's found with the Bullets, doesn’t want to play anywhere else.

"I love it and I think it's such a blessing with the situation I'm in and I can't thank the organisation enough, the Brisbane Bullets enough and everyone has been so friendly," Holt said.

"The fans have welcomed me in and I'm honestly just enjoying it so much. This is such a fun place to play and such a good league to play in, and you're playing against top of the top players from around the world.

"So as a 22-year-old who wouldn’t want that opportunity and it's good in so many ways.

"Not only do I love Australia, but I love Brisbane and the Bullets, and Queensland I would say is the most beautiful state in Australia, and the organisation has been so good to me that I would love nothing other than to stay here long-term and hopefully be a Bullet for my whole career."