Evgeny Pashutin, CSKA guard (2002-03), CSKA assistant coach (2004-08), CSKA head coach (2009-10):
All the glorious CSKA victories have been reached thanks to the management – Sergey [Kushchenko] and Andrey [Vatutin], coaches Dusan [Ivkovic] and Ettore [Messina] but J’s and Tray’s contribution cannot be overestimated. They won the Euroleague twice; they collected all the titles possible in Russia. And they are phenomenal persons. They led the young players, other teammates by their example. They are the guys with big hearts, high-class pros.
I know J for a longer, I played together with him in my first year with CSKA. He is a leader on and off the court, the winner, the brain, the foundation, the motor of the team. The roster changed, coaches changed, but Holden was a constant value. J was more than a player for me. We spent six years on the team together and we had an invisible connection between us. It was obvious from the very first game that he is a true leader. I love him very much as a player and a person. He is a reliable, unbelievably talented athlete. His shot to give the first European gold to Russia gave us a lot of joy. Hopefully we will have more gold medals of Eurobaskets and Olympic Games, but this page was opened by these guys – Andrey Kirilenko, Victor Khryapa, others, and J dotted it all, he returned our country to European elite.
Trajan is an excellent shooter, reliable partner, pro, the man of high intelligence, the mind of a professor. He had a steady hand, he was not afraid to take the responsibility.
My only season as a head coach provided a lot of proofs to my words. It is enough to recall the Euroleague playoffs series against Caja Laboral, the deciding game in Vitoria where JR and Trajan pushed us to the Final Four. In a harsh, bone-to-bone battle, when the team plays don’t work, the player’s class, character is important, he should take the responsibility and to lead the team to a victory. Or you can recall the bronze game with Partizan where Langdon scored 32 points and Holden made just another game-winning shot.
Holden and Langdon added to each other, they pushed each other on a next level both in life and basketball. I’d like to wish them to become excellent coaches or managers because no one understands, reads the game as they are. I wish them to have their next career as bright as their playing career. All the best to them and their families, words of appreciation for what they did for CSKA and Russian sports. I am happy that I had a chance to work together with them.
