JR Holden was born in the US so why is he playing for the Russian basketball team

Question

I thought only players born in a particular country are eligible to play for their country's olympic team. Can someone please explain?

Answer 1

huh?

Answer 2

this is just like the becky hammon thing she grew up in america but played basketball in russia in the wnba off season. so she had dual citizenship. same thing for jr he got his russian citizenship in 2003 so he could pick to play for the usa or russia he obvioulsy chose russia because he plays for one of the teams there. you were right in saying that he was eligible to play for usa but he could play for both usa and russia

Answer 3

JR Holden has been playing professionally in Russia since 1998.  The Russian League was trying to restrict the number of Americans/Foreigners playing in their league so in 2003, President Vladimir Putin gave JR Russian citizenship.  So now he is a dual citizen of both Russia and America.

Answer 4

If you get citizenship in a country you can represent them.  I don't know but I'm assuming JR Holden went over there to play because he got a better contract offer from a Russian team than anything in the NBA

Answer 5

If they can gain citizenship into that country they can play for that team. Chris Kamen of the Clippers is American, but he is a legal citizen of Germany, so he is playing on their National Team.

Answer 6

Not if they're a citizen of that country. Then they can play for whoever that please.