Justin Holmes, first overall pick, gives Gryphons football-powered edge

Justin Holmes did more than arrive as the Gryphons’ first-round pick. He became the kind of football-born player SlamBall keeps rewarding: big enough at 6-foot-3 and 235 pounds to absorb contact, quick enough to win space, and aware enough to turn a loose possession into points. Holmes was the No. 1 overall selection in the June 28, 2023 draft, and he justified that status by leading the league in offensive face-off percentage among players with at least eight attempts, going 15-for-16 for a 93.8 percent mark.

That success shows exactly which football traits travel best in this sport. Holmes’ contact tolerance matters when a face-off starts as a collision and ends as a race to control the ball. His body control matters when a drive lifts off the trampoline floor and a scorer still has to finish through traffic. His field vision matters because SlamBall possessions turn fast, and Holmes repeatedly showed he could recognize the opening before it vanished. That was not theory. In one regular-season game, he put the Gryphons ahead for good with a late slam against the Wrath and four seconds left on the clock.

The football foundation was real before he ever stepped onto a SlamBall court. At Oakmont High School in Roseville, California, Holmes built a profile that looked built for violence and space alike, catching 120 passes for 1,891 yards and 25 touchdowns in his career. His senior year was even sharper, with 55 catches for 822 yards and 10 scores. At San Jose State, he kept producing, finishing with 99 receptions for 1,192 yards and five touchdowns from 2016 through 2019, and he caught a pass in 20 consecutive games from late 2015 through the third game of 2017.

That background matters because Holmes was never just a size-speed experiment. He also lettered in basketball and competed as a hurdler and jumper in track and field, which helps explain why he fit SlamBall so quickly when the league returned for its first organized season in two decades. The 2023 comeback featured eight teams over a four-week run in Las Vegas at Cox Pavilion, and Holmes became one of its cleanest crossover success stories. A league preview called him Justin “Juggernaut” Holmes and had him at 14-for-14 on offensive face-offs at that stage, while a weekly roundup put him at 13.7 points per game and 4-for-4 on face-offs in Week 2.

Holmes’ route also reinforces why SlamBall keeps circling back to football backgrounds. His younger brother, Isaiah Holmes, won the 2017 Pac-12 men’s high jump title, and Holmes is a cousin of former San Francisco 49ers wide receiver Brandon Lloyd. After college, he spent time with the Iowa Barnstormers, later played for the Bay Area Panthers in 2022, and then returned to the trampoline floor with the Gryphons. The result was simple: in a league built on speed, leverage and fearlessness, Holmes gave the Gryphons a football-powered edge that translated into winning possessions.