Background
Holden was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
basketball player association football player
Holden was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
At 1.85 m (6"1") tall, he could play at both the point guard and shooting guard positions, but he primarily played at point guard. Moreover, he reached eight consecutive Euroleague Final Four tournaments, a record he shares with his former CSKA teammate Theo Papaloukas. His consistency at the highest level of European basketball earned him a selection in the Euroleague 2001-2010 All-Decade Team.
His buzzer beater to beat heavily favored Spain in the final of the tournament, is part of European basketball history.
Holden played National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I college basketball at Bucknell University with the Bucknell Bison, from 1994 to 1998. After graduation from Bucknell, holden received a call from the basketball club ASK Group (a software company)/Brocēni/LMT, located in Riga, Latvia, offering him $3,000 Netto income a month to join their team
He accepted, and began a long and very successful career in European basketball. Holden played for teams in: the Latvian League (ASK Group (a software company)/Brocēni/LMT 1998-1999), the Belgian League (Telindus Oostende 1999-1901), the Greek First Rate (at Lloyd's) League (AEK Athens 2001-2002) and the Russian Superleague A (CSKA Moscow 2002–2011).
Holden started for CSKA Moscow against the Philadelphia 76ers in an exhibition game in October 2006, in Cologne, Germany as part of the EA Sports National Basketball Association Europe Live 2006 promotional event.
He scored the final winning basket with 2 seconds left in the game. He was also named to the Russian squad for the 2008 Beijing Olympics men"s basketball tournament. On October 20, 2003, Holden became a Russian citizen by decree of President Vladimir Putin.
This move was brought about by new Russian Basketball Federation regulations restricting the number of foreigners, and specifically Americans allowable on Russian League teams.
In response to the move, CSKA Basketball Chief Executive Officer Sergei Kushchenko hatched the idea of Holden acquiring citizenship. Moscow mayor Yury Luzhkov and the Russian State Sports Committee both wrote letters in support of the decree.
Holden currently maintains dual American and Russian citizenship. When giving an interview to mvp.rs, Holden stated that Dušan Ivković is one of the best coaches ever.
He was also a member of the senior men"s Russian national basketball team, which he helped lead to the International Basketball Federation EuroBasket title in 2007, Russia"s first ever Gold Meda