Edward Richard Basden (born February 15, 1983) is an American professional basketball player with Telekom Baskets Bonn. Rather than his scoring abilities, he mostly known by his defensive capabilities.
Basden, from Upper Marlboro, Maryland, played high school basketball at Eleanor Roosevelt High School, where he played against his now former teammate at Chicago Mike Sweetney. He originally committed to play college basketball at UMass but was released from his letter of intent following the resignation of Minutemen head coach Bruiser Flint, and Basden then committed to play for Charlotte. During his career with the 49ers he was named Conference USA Player of the Year in 2005, and Defensive Player of the Year in 2004 and 2005. In his senior season he was also named National Defensive Player of the Year by many college basketball analysts. 49ers fans loved him for his defensive intensity as well as his powerful crowd-pleasing dunks. He is the Conference USA all-time leader in career steals.
Basden went undrafted in the 2005 NBA Draft, but was invited to play on the Chicago Bulls Reebok Summer League team, where a strong performance earned him a two-year contract with the Bulls. He appeared in 19 games for the Bulls in 2005-2006, averaging 2.1 points per game.
On August 18, 2006, Basden was traded by the Bulls to the Cleveland Cavaliers for center Martynas Andriuskevicius. He was later signed by Fenerbahçe of Turkey. He is averaging 8.4 points, 5.3 rebounds and 3.3 assists in 25 minutes for Fenerbahçe in Euroleague. After Fenerbahçe, he played for Cholet Basket until February 2008, when he was signed by Telekom Baskets Bonn of Germany.
