HE IS ALL of 19 years old, the youngest player in the NBA.

He is making an ungodly amount of money for someone his age - $1,514,280 - yet he is still required to stop and pick up doughnuts for his teammates. He is lonely at times, bored, too, and missing many things he loved on the other side of the country.

Life as an NBA rookie has been tough for 76ers guard Jrue Holiday (yes, even with all that money).

The look on his face after being deactivated for the first game in Orlando was, well, similar to a teenager being told he couldn't take the family car to go on a date. Holiday was visibly upset after being informed of the decision about an hour before the game that his pro debut would be put on hold.

Just like any job, it's a learning experience, and one Holiday is learning how to cope with.

"It's been different," he said after a recent practice. "My teammates have been great. I really don't have anyone to hang out with here, but it's been great. I'm living my dream."

Certainly, the dream would include a little bit more playing time. Holiday has played in only six of the team's 11 games for a total of 47 minutes. He had a career-high eight points in a home loss against the Phoenix Suns. He has only seven other points on the season. He has demonstrated very good court sense, has been a tough one-on-one defender, and shown the ability to score from inside and out.

But he's mostly shown those skills in practice, certainly not what he expected after being selected by the Sixers with the 17th pick after spending a season at UCLA.

After his senior season at Campbell High School in Chatsworth, Calif., Holiday was named Gatorade's national player of the year. He was considered the No. 1 or No. 2 overall talent coming out of high school, and was projected to be a top-five pick in the NBA draft, had the rules permitted him to enter.

A combo guard who could play both backcourt positions, Holiday chose UCLA partly because it was close to home, partly because of coach Ben Howland, and because of the rich tradition. He started all 35 games in his lone season as a Bruin, averaging a pedestrian 8.5 points, 3.8 rebounds and 3.7 assists in 27.1 minutes a game. His backcourt mate was point guard Darren Collison, who was in his fourth year with Howland. Holiday was basically on the court because of his talent, though without a true position.

Now he finds himself in the league he's always dreamed about being a part of. But it hasn't exactly matched what he thought it would be. Yet.

I want to play," he said. "I'm a basketball player, and I want to be out on the floor and I want to play. I want to get out there and give it my all. I'm waiting my turn and giving it my all in practice, trying to show them that I'm ready to be out there on the court."

The court is home. Few other places here on the East Coast feel that comfortable for Holiday.

Asked what he does when he's at home in the city, he replied: "Not much. I go to practice; after practice, it's probably 1 or 2 o'clock, so I get something to eat. I might rest or hang out with my dad or my grandma [who lives with him] and then come back to the gym later to get some exercise or lift. I try to do extra things to try to stay ready.

"In college, I could go home pretty much any time I wanted to, and I could hang out with friends wherever I wanted to. Definitely, the environment's different here, just the weather. It was gloomy today. I'm thinking I'm going to be waking up and it's going to be sunny. It's a little different, but I'm adjusting well."

His future, according to coach Eddie Jordan, is bright. Jordan has said that Holiday could become one of the best players ever to play in his Princeton offense. But for now, it's just life as a rookie, which includes much razzing from the vets.

"They'll have me go to the grocery store and buy something crazy," he said. "I have to bring doughnuts before every shootaround at home games. I go and get the doughnuts that I want and eat them before I bring the rest. So it works for me.

"The toughest part is probably being by myself. I mean, my dad has been here a couple of weeks, and my grandma is here. But I really don't have friends like I did back in college to just hang out with. I'm young and am in Philadelphia, and not knowing what to do or [not] being old enough to do some stuff. You can't play video games all the time. But I talk to my teammates all the time. They all went through that. They help me a lot in telling me not to be frustrated with it. I try to be extra sharp, do the extra work and improve, so that I'm ready."

Strange but true