The world's best non-NBA team

J.R. Holden is regarded as the best point guard in Europe by his coach, Ettore Messina. Bob Martin/SI Ian Thomsen's Mailbag Ian Thomsen will periodically answer questions from SI.com users in his mailbag. Name: Email: Hometown: Question: SEND

The Euroleague Final Four that opens Friday in Madrid is, in my opinion, the world's top basketball event. I've attended more than a half-dozen of them and found the event to combine the unpredictability of the NCAA tournament with a quality of play that exceeds that of many NBA teams.

In February, I spent a week with CSKA Moscow for a story that appeared in last week's Sports Illustrated. CSKA, the team of the Red Army dating back to the Soviet era, is favored this weekend to win its second European championship in three years. Put CSKA in the NBA and it would finish ahead of teams like Miami, Seattle, Memphis, Minnesota and the Knicks. Athletically, CSKA would have difficulty, but its level of teamwork and the experience and depth of its roster would surely enable it to prevail against rebuilding NBA franchises.

Here are five people who have helped CSKA emerge as the world's best basketball team not in the NBA ...

1. J.R. Holden. The 31-year-old American has become the best point guard in Europe, according to CSKA coach Ettore Messina, who doesn't make such claims casually.

Holden is as surprised as anyone by this ascension. Raised in Pittsburgh and schooled in West Virginia, where he earned but two college scholarship offers, Holden graduated from Bucknell in 1998 with a degree in business management and was interviewing for a financial services job when a basketball agent from Finland called with an entirely unexpected offer of a five-day, $400 tryout with a team in Riga, Latvia.

"I'd never made $400 in a week,'' Holden said. "I said, 'I'll be at the airport tomorrow.' '' He packed up a large green trunk and told his mother he was flying to Latvia.

"I said, 'Mom, I'm going to play in this professional basketball league overseas,' " Holden recalled. "She's like, 'You're going overseas to play basketball? Who does that?' '' Then he told her about the $400. "She said, 'Be safe and call me when you get there.' ''

Over the next four years, the 6-foot-1 Holden worked his way up through the leagues of Belgium and Greece to sign with CSKA in 2002. He has established himself while sharing the backcourt with 30-year-old Theo Papaloukas, a 6-5 Greek point guard who will be celebrated this weekend as one of the top 35 players in the 50-year history of the European club championship.

"He's very quiet, very reserved,'' Messina said of Holden. "I owe him a lot for the patience that he has, because sometimes in my rotation I am giving more attention to other players, and I took for granted this contribution from him. And I put him a little bit on the side in terms of attention [in the offense], and he never quit or never showed any sign of being angry or whatever. He managed to keep everything inside and still do his job. Honestly, I've learned a lot from him.''

Russia offered Holden a passport in order for him to serve as point guard of its national team, and this summer he'll be opposing the United States at the Olympics in Beijing. The Russians earned the invitation last summer by upsetting the host Spaniards in the final of the European national championships. Trailing by one point in the final minute, Holden stole the ball from Pau Gasol, then tried to pass it to a Russian teammate. He passed it right back. Andrei Kirilenko, the eventual tournament MVP, was waving Holden to the basket.

"So now I was thinking, OK, it's one-on-one, let's just do what we do best,'' Holden said. His contested jump shot with 2.1 seconds left gave Russia a shocking 60-59 victory in Europe, one that promised to maintain political interest and money in Russian basketball for years to come. It made little difference to the Russians that the championship had been won by an African-American point guard and coach David Blatt, a Jewish American who had spent 21 years playing or coaching in Israel.

In February, I followed CSKA to the Final Four of the Russian Cup in Kazan, which is headquarters of the vast Russian oil and natural gas reserves. The team was exhausted, worn down by a month of travel and the demands of being expected to win every game, which is a burden NBA teams don't face. CSKA was on the verge of losing the semifinal when Holden nailed a jumper in the final seconds to steal the victory. As he walked into the team hotel an hour later, there was no telling from his expression whether he had made or missed the shot.

"Some people shy away from these situations,'' he said. "You have to be able to accept not being the hero. If I miss this shot, am I going to be able to take it? Some people can, and some people can't.''

2. David Andersen. The 6-11 Andersen is a European free agent this summer whose NBA rights belong to the Hawks, who drafted him in the second round in 2002. He would be an excellent complement to Al Horford's post game because Andersen can stray out to the perimeter as a face-up jump shooter, and he has the playmaking skills associated with European big men.

Andersen is an Australian with a European passport (one side of his family comes from the Danish city of Aalborg). He lives with his younger brother Grant in a Moscow apartment provided by the club; the unit once belonged to an Army general, as evidenced by its unusually thick doors and video security system.

"It's solid, man,'' Andersen said. "CSKA looks after its players very well -- bomb-proof doors.''

Andersen joined Bologna in the Italian league as an 18-year-old, which means he's been playing major European basketball for a decade. He spurned scholarship offers from UCLA and other colleges to ultimately establish himself as one of the best big men in Europe. He makes $1.65 million net -- the "net'' meaning that the club pays his taxes, rent and even provides him with a car and driver. Therefore, a competitive offer from the NBA would have to be $2.4 million, but Andersen's price is likely to rise higher as the top clubs bid for him this summer.

"It's always been a dream of mine, ever since I was young,'' he said of playing in the NBA. "In Australia, European basketball is not really known; I'm pretty sure hardly anyone in Australia is aware that I play on one of the premier European teams. Playing in the NBA would put me more on the map with the people in Australia.''

Andersen seems like the type who could enjoy himself anywhere.

"Sometimes you're on the roads,'' he said of living in Moscow, "and you see the big black Mercedes followed by another big black four-wheel drive with the security detail, and they're hanging out the sides [of the car windows] with their machine guns. Don't know who they are, but they're weaving back and forth through traffic and the car is sticking right to the ass of the other car and you see the guys sitting in the back window with their guns. I'm like, Steer clear of that.''

I asked Andersen for his best story about basketball in Europe.

"When we won the championship [with Bologna] in Italy, the fans went crazy and rushed the floor, and guys are cutting down the nets literally two seconds after the game's done,'' he said. "Not even before the game's over they're rushing the court, and we were trying to get off the floor and literally people were trying to rip our shirts off our backs. We nearly had to fight people off us, it was a riot kind of thing. I remember Marko Jaric, who plays in the NBA [now with the Timberwolves], he was the unfortunate one to be caught in the middle of the court when everyone rushed it, and he came into the locker room with nothing but his little jock strap. No shoes on, nothing. We had fans yelling back [through] the window outside our locker room, 'Hey, give us something!' And we'd drop out a sock or something out the window, and they'd all cheer.''