Career: Bucknell (NCAA, 1994-98), Broceni Riga (Latvia-LBL, 1998-99), Telindus Oostende (Belgium-D1, 1999-2001), AEK Athens (Greece-ESAKE, 2001-02), CSKA Moscow (Russia-Superleague, 2002-05).
He will not be the first black player to wear a Russian national team jersey as Yaya Adamou and Victor Keirou have done it in youth competitions. But he will be the first American one, which would have sounded totally impossible ten years ago... But times have changed and last summer, president Vladimir Poutine granted him Russian citizenship based on an article in the federal law which states that a person of special merit before the Russian Federation may be accepted as a citizen of the Russian Federation, regardless of other standard criteria, such as living in Russia for a minimum of five years or knowledge of the Russian language... The end of a great journey for Holden who, after a four year career in Bucknell, was closed to giving up basketball when he was offered a 3.000 dollars a month contract by Riga in Latvia... Displaying great one-on-one skills and fantastic dribbling qualities, this quick guard dominated the opposition in Latvia and Belgium, gaining recognition on the European stage during the 2000-01 FIBA SuproLeague season (19.5 ppg)... Holden has not looked back since then becoming one of the Euroleague’s best point guards with CSKA Moscow, who have made it to the Euroleague Final Four the past three seasons.
