Jon Robert Holden

Holden attended and played high school basketball Wilkinsburg High School, in Wilkinsburg, Pennsylvania, and at Linsly School, in Wheeling, West Virginia.

After high school, Holden played NCAA 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/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 played for teams in: the Latvian League (ASK/Brocēni/LMT 1998–99), the Belgian League (Telindus Oostende 1999–01), the Greek Basket League (AEK Athens 2001–02) and the Russian Superleague A (CSKA Moscow 2002–2011).[2] He won national championships in each country. He was named the 2003 Russian Superleague A Player of the Year by the website Eurobasket.com. He also earned an Import Players Honorable Mention in the 2002 Eurobasket.com website's All-Europe Rankings.[3] Holden 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]

Holden's biggest achievement came in the FIBA EuroBasket 2007 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 men's basketball tournament.

After he retired from playing professional basketball, Holden became a scout, for the NBA's Detroit Pistons and the Philadelphia 76ers.[5] He is currently the Director of Player Personnel for the Brooklyn Nets of the NBA.

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]

In a September 2012 interview Holden stated that Dušan Ivković is one of the best coaches ever.[6]

Jon is married to Aireka Holden. They reside in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. They have a daughter and son.

Note: The EuroLeague is not the only competition in which the player participated for the team during the season. He also played in domestic competition, and regional competition if applicable.

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