After graduating high school from Meadowcreek in her hometown of Norcross, Georgia, basketball has taken Amber Holt around the world. She has played professionally in the United States, Poland, Israel, Hungary and South Korea. Before beginning her career professionally, Holt began her post-high school career at Southeastern Illinois.
Out of the gate with the Falcons, Holt immediately made her presence felt her freshman season. In her first season with Southeastern Illinois, the Norcross-native averaged a double-double posting 20.3 points per game and nearly 11 rebounds at 10.92 per contest. Then in her sophomore season, Holt raised the bar even higher as she upped her scoring average to 23.7 points per game and still averaged 9.5 rebounds a game. Her performances didn’t go unrecognized as she was named the Great Rivers Area Conference’s Most Valuable Player of the Year, NJCAA Region 24 MVP, All-Conference, All-Region and an NJCAA All-American in both the 2004-05 and 2005-06 seasons.
In 2006, her play helped elevate the 2006 Falcons squad to a fifth-place finish at the NJCAA Division I Women’s Basketball Championship.
From there, the two-time NJCAA All-American moved on to play basketball at Middle Tennessee State. Success on the court continued to follow Holt. In the 2006-07 season, she was one of 14 finalists for the USA Pan-American women’s basketball team. In her final season with the Blue Raiders, Holt averaged an NCAA-best 27.3 points per game. Her performance that season surpassed some of women’s basketball’s best such as Candace Parker (21.3 ppg), Angel McCoughtry (23.8), and Maya Moore (17.8).
Following her season to remember with Middle Tennessee State, Holt was drafted by the WNBA’s Connecticut Sun with the ninth overall pick in the 2008 WNBA Draft. Again Holt left a quick impression as she was named to the 2008 WNBA All-Rookie Team. She would go on to play three more seasons in the WNBA, one more with the Sun and two with the Tulsa Shock – now the Dallas Wings.
While just getting started in the WNBA, Holt began planting roots for her career overseas by playing in leagues in various European countries such as Poland, Israel and Hungary. While with Sopron of the Hungarian League, Holt helped contribute to three championships in 2009, 2011 and 2013. She was also recognized through various awards, such as Eurobasekt.com’s Import Player of the Year in 2009, Defensive Player of the Year in 2009 and 2010, and was on the first-team All-Hungarian League squad. In 2013-14, Holt added South Korea to her geographical basketball resume.
Currently the former Southeastern Illinois Falcon resides in Atlanta.
