Jonah Bolden

Jonah Anthony Bolden was born in Melbourne, Australia, to Bruce Bolden and Marie Yacoub. Jonah's father, Bruce, played professional basketball for 20 years in Europe and Australia. Bolden has one younger sister, Cairo. He grew up in Sydney, Australia, and began playing basketball for the Bankstown Bruins at five years of age. Bolden attended Homebush Boys High School in Sydney and represented his home state of New South Wales at the 2013 Basketball Australia Under-18 National Championships. The following year, he became the youngest player to represent Australia at the 2013 FIBA Under-19 World Championship. In August of 2013, Bolden moved to the United States for his senior year of high school. He began at Findlay College Prep in Henderson, Nevada, before transferring to Brewster Academy in New Hampshire. In January of 2020, Bolden and a group of fellow Australian NBA players teamed up with the National Basketball Players Association to contribute $750,000 toward relief and recovery efforts in the wake of Australia's deadly bushfires. Learn more about Bolden by following him on Twitter (@Jonahbolden43) and on Instagram (@jdot43). Bolden was born in Australia and made his way across the Pacific Ocean to play collegiately at UCLA. He was ineligible to play in his freshman season, so he sat out in 2014-15 and began practicing with the Bruins in January 2015. He tore his MCL in his right knee in May, but returned to the Bruins for his redshirt freshman season in 2015-16. He appeared in 31 games and started 11. The 6-10 forward averaged 4.6 points and 5.8 rebounds in 21.7 minutes. He had one double-double -- 10 points, 11 rebounds -- in a win over Gonzaga. Despite missing the deadline for the 2016 NBA Draft, the forward decided to forgo his final two seasons of eligibility and play professionally. He played for FMP in the Serbian League in 2016-17 and averaged 12.9 points and 7.2 rebounds. Bolden won the ABA League Top Prospect. He moved to Israel in 2017-18 and helped Maccabi Tel Aviv win the 2017 Israeli League Cup and 2018 league championship.