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, 2002-07)

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Once relatively unknown, it’s hard to fathom that two years after landing in Russia American-born J.R. Holden would be granted Russian citizenship by none other than President Vladimir Putin. “An orthodox American basketball product for export – an undersized shooting-guard with streetball style of play.” These were the first and - as everybody soon realized – the wrong assessment by Russian experts of Holden. In five years at CSKA he proved himself to be an elite Euroleague point guard and a defensive nightmare for any opponent. Quiet and calm off the court, Holden is a thunderous storm while on it thanks to his blinding quickness and uncanny ability to score. However, after his average performance at EuroBasket 2005, skeptics were there again when Holden agreed to put on the national team jersey for the 2007 EuroBasket qualifying round. With no Andrei Kirilenko, the critics assumed Holden would struggle. Instead he lit up opponents to the tune of 23.0 pointer per game.