Do you remember Jon Robert Holden? He is a basketball guard born in the USA but playing with the Russian national team thanks to his career in Russia, where he was for named Player of the Year in 2003.

He was also Russia’s key player when they took the gold medal against Spain in the last Eurobasket.

Becky Hammon’s situation is similar. She is a basketball guard, born in the USA but playing with the Russian national team thanks to her “one-winter career” in Russia. She took Russian citizenship at the start of this year and now holds dual nationality.

Her sudden switch to play for Russia caused controversy and Hammon was criticised by Anne Donovan, one of the most decorated figures in women's basketball and coach of the 2008 United States Women's Olympic Basketball team, who accused Hammon of not being a “patriotic person”.

Hammon’s career in the WNBA is star quality without any doubt. She plays for the San Antonio Silver Stars, who are nowadays leading their conference and the whole WNBA competition.

Her averages per game this year are 17.4 points, 1.2 steals and 4.7 assists, and she is the seventh top scorer, seventh top passer, third top three-point shooter, second in free-throws with 93.2 per cent, and third in time on court.

It’s interesting to compare these figures with the NBA guys. Seventh NBA top scorer last regular season was Kevin Martin, seventh top passer was Baron Davids, second best free-throw shooter was Chauncey Billups, and the third player in minutes was Lebron James.

At the age of 31 last year Hammon was surprised when she was not included in the US team for the Beijing Olympics, and she immediately accepted a Russian Federation invitation to be part of their national team.

Playing against the US in the Olympics was difficult for her. She had to endure words such as “traitor” and “anti-patriotic” and even closed her eyes during the playing of the American national anthem, seeing the stars and stripes as foreign.

She missed the six first shots she made, but her 10 points at the end of the game were enough to make her understand that, even in the Russian uniform, even playing against the US, she just plays basketball.

Hammond has become more and more important to the Russian team and was a key player in helping them to reach the medal play-offs against Spain in the last game.

She now faces another match against the US team fighting for the medals. One victory out of the two next games will be enough for her to touch her dream.