By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
Tha 22 years old Australian native is currently playing for Maccabi FOX Tel Aviv but has already passed through three countries on the way there. He started by learning from his father, the Australian league star Bruce Bolden, and when it was time went to high school and college in the United States. His first professional contract was ins Serbia with FMP. After a year there he got to where he is now.
He is averaging 7 points and 6 rebounds per game in the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague this season.
Here is what he had to say about his journey so far and what Maccabi needs to do in order have an even more successful season in an interview with EuroLeague.net:
“We had a team meeting without coaches and just players. We spoke about what we need to do and how we need to approach the game, I think our biggest thing is halfcourt defense. We need to buckle down and focus on that.”, Bolden started.
This season you join a long list of distinguished players from Australia to stand out in the EuroLeague. How aware were you of the level of European basketball and the accomplishments of those players when you were growing up?
“I only started hearing about the EuroLeague and the fans in Europe when I moved to high school in the States. That kind of broadened my horizons, just within where the Australian players were at in the world, and I started hearing from the Australian players on the national team where they were coming from. I think Joe [Ingles] at the time was in Barcelona and a couple other players were in Europe.”
Your road to the top level in Europe was unusual with multiple stops in America and one year with FMP in Serbia before coming to Israel. How did each of those stops help you grow as a person and a basketball player to get where you are today?
“They helped me tremendously. I never expected to leave college, UCLA being the college that it is, to go play over in Belgrade, Serbia, and then getting drafted. Then again, I didn’t expect to be overseas for another year. It definitely helped me grow tremendously as a man, as a person, on the court and off the court, becoming more independent, having to fend for myself. Last year was kind of that stepping stone for me coming from college where everything was kind of given to you. You’re at one of the top colleges in the world. You have tutors to help you with your academics, you have food on demand, you have coaches always texting you to see if you’re good. And then you get to a place in Belgrade, Serbia; it wasn’t Red Star, it was the team under, FMP, so it still wasn’t even the top. So you have to grow up and I would kind of tell myself that. I got over there an within a week I realized that it wasn’t what I expected or what I had imagined, but I made this decision to come here. I could have still been at UCLA, I could have still been in college as a junior, but I made this decision and had to live with it and push through it.”
Click here for the rest of the interview.
Photo credit: EuroLeague