From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jon Robert "J.R." Holden (born August 10, 1976) (in Russian: Джон Ро́берт Хо́лден) is an American-born, naturalized Russian professional basketball player. The russian spelling of his name is romanized as Dzhon-Robert Kholden. He played NCAA Division I college basketball at Bucknell University from 1994-98. He has also been a member of the senior Russian national basketball team. He currently plays with CSKA Moscow of the Russian Superleague A.

Professional career

Holden was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. After graduation from Bucknell, he received a call from the basketball club ASK/Brocēni/LMT, located in Riga, Latvia, offering him $3,000 net income a month to join their team. He accepted and began a long and very successful career in European basketball.^[1]

Holden has played for teams in: the Latvian League (ASK/Brocēni/LMT 1998-99), the Belgian League (Telindus Oostende 1999-01), the Greek A1 League (AEK Athens 2001-02) and the Russian Superleague A (CSKA Moscow 2002-present).^[2] He has won national championships in each country. He was named the 2003 Russian Superleague A Player of the Year. He earned an Import Players Honorable Mention in the 2002 Eurobasket All-Europe Rankings. ^[3] Holden has won the Euroleague 2005-06 and the Euroleague 2007-08 season championships with CSKA.

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 NBA Europe Live 2006 promotional event.^[4] Coincidentally, Holden played college basketball in the state of Pennsylvania, where the 76ers are based.

Russian national team

Medal record
Competitor for  Russia
FIBA European Championship
Gold	2007 Spain	Russia

Holden's biggest achievement came in the 2007 FIBA European Championship (EuroBasket) final game against Spain, where he scored the winning shot that gave Russia the championship. 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 Olympics Basketball Tournament.

Personal

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 CEO 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.^[1]

Notes

External links

• Euroleague.net Profile
• CSKA Club Profile
• Basketpedya.com Profile
• "J.R. Holden", n°54 on Time’s list of "100 Olympic Athletes To Watch"