Francisco Elson

Francisco Elson

No. 16   Philadelphia 76ers
Center
Personal information
Born	February 28, 1976 (1976-02-28) Rotterdam, Netherlands
Nationality	Dutch
Listed height	7 ft 0 in (2.13 m)
Listed weight	240 lb (109 kg)
Career information
College	California
NBA Draft	1999 / Round: 2 / Pick: 41st overall
Selected by the Denver Nuggets
Pro career	1999–present
Career history
FC Barcelona (1999–2001) Pamesa Valencia (2001–2002) Caja San Fernando (2002–2003) Denver Nuggets (2003–2006) San Antonio Spurs (2006–2008) Seattle SuperSonics (2008) Milwaukee Bucks (2008–2010) Utah Jazz (2010–2011) Philadelphia 76ers (2012–present)
Career highlights and awards
NBA Champion (2007)
Stats at NBA.com

Francisco Marinho Robby Elson (born February 28, 1976 in Rotterdam) is a Dutch professional basketball player for the Philadelphia 76ers of the NBA. Elson is the seventh Dutch player in the NBA.

Currently Elson is the captain of the Netherlands national basketball team in international basketball. He led the team in the 2007 euro-qualifiers. In 2008 Elson was once again the key player in the Dutch National Basketball team. In 2009 he will join the team again looking forward to qualify for the A-division in European basketball.

Personal

Elson is fluent in Dutch, Spanish, and English, and maintains an off-season home in the Netherlands. He is of Surinamese descent.

Career

Elson started his career at AMVJ Rotterdam (now Rotterdam Basketball) at the age of twelve. After a couple of years playing he stopped. His gym teacher at the Maria School asked him to return to the club at the age of sixteen. Played with, amongst others, Peter van Rij (Fairfield and Charleston Southern) in the junior team of coach Jan Bruin in 1975. Benched in first team Rotterdam Basketball.

Elson was a member of the Dutch Under-20 National Team. He played two seasons at Kilgore Junior College in Texas before completing his college at the University of California, Berkeley. As a senior he helped lead the Bears to the NIT Championship. Elson was drafted in the second round of the 1999 NBA Draft from Cal by the Denver Nuggets, but did not commence play with them until the 2003–04 campaign. He played four years in Spain:

• 1999–2001 with FC Barcelona averaging 3.4 points and 3.9 rebounds in 32 games for his first season and 6.9 points and 4.5 rebounds in 34 games for the second.
• 2001–02 with Pamesa Valencia averaging 4.1 points and 4.4 rebounds in 34 games.
• 2002–03 with Caja San Fernando averaging 9.7 point and 8.2 rebounds in 34 games.

Over his first two seasons with Denver, he averaged 3.6 points and 3.1 rebounds per game. In 2005–06, his third season with the Nuggets, Elson played in 72 games, starting in 54 games. He averaged 21.9 minutes, 4.9 points (on 53.2% shooting) and 4.7 rebounds per game.

Elson gained notoriety during Denver's 2004 playoff series with Minnesota through his physical attempts to contain Kevin Garnett. Elson knocked Garnett into the seats behind the basket with a hard foul early in a game and later in the game was hit in the groin by Garnett. Elson caused controversy when he described Garnett as "gay" for the groin shot. Elson later apologized to the gay and lesbian community for his comments.

In July 2006 Elson signed a 2-year US$6 million contract with the San Antonio Spurs.

On February 21, 2008, Elson was traded by the San Antonio Spurs along with Brent Barry to the Sonics in exchange for Kurt Thomas.

Elson later signed a two-year, $3 million contract with the Bucks. He was Andrew Bogut's primary backup.

On February 18, 2010, Elson was traded to the Philadelphia 76ers along with Jodie Meeks in exchange for Primoz Brezec and Royal Ivey.

On September 15, 2010, Elson signed a multi-year veteran contract with the Utah Jazz.

On January 27, 2012, Elson was signed by the Philadelphia 76ers to provide the team with front-court depth because of injuries at the position.

NBA career statistics

Legend
GP	Games played	GS	Games started	MPG	Minutes per game
FG%	Field-goal percentage	3P%	3-point field-goal percentage	FT%	Free-throw percentage
RPG	Rebounds per game	APG	Assists per game	SPG	Steals per game
BPG	Blocks per game	PPG	Points per game	Bold	Career high

Regular season

Year	Team	GP	GS	MPG	FG%	3P%	FT%	RPG	APG	SPG	BPG	PPG
2003–04	Denver	62	14	14.1	.472	.000	.667	3.3	.5	.6	.6	3.5
2004–05	Denver	67	11	14.0	.468	.333	.570	3.0	.5	.5	.6	3.7
2005–06	Denver	72	54	21.9	.532	.200	.662	4.7	.7	.8	.6	4.9
2006–07	San Antonio	70	41	19.0	.511	.000	.775	4.8	.8	.4	.8	5.0
2007–08	San Antonio	41	3	13.0	.419	.000	.833	3.3	.4	.2	.3	3.5
2007–08	Seattle	22	2	12.7	.341	.000	.462	3.0	.4	.3	.3	3.0
2008–09	Milwaukee	59	23	16.6	.491	.250	.846	3.9	.5	.6	.6	3.4
2009–10	Milwaukee	11	0	5.6	.308	.000	1.000	1.2	.2	.1	.0	.9
2009–10	Philadelphia	1	0	4.0	.500	.000	.000	1.0	.0	.0	.0	2.0
2010–11	Utah	62	1	9.8	.478	.000	.839	1.9	.5	.3	.2	2.2
Career		467	149	15.4	.478	.188	.700	3.5	.6	.5	.5	3.5

Playoffs

Year	Team	GP	GS	MPG	FG%	3P%	FT%	RPG	APG	SPG	BPG	PPG
2003–04	Denver	4	0	15.0	.583	.000	.500	2.3	.5	.5	.2	3.8
2004–05	Denver	1	0	6.0	.000	.000	.000	3.0	.0	.0	.0	.0
2005–06	Denver	5	2	15.0	.600	.000	.000	2.2	.4	.8	.0	1.2
2006–07	San Antonio	20	8	11.5	.591	.000	.700	3.1	.1	.4	.3	3.3
Career		30	10	12.4	.581	.000	.682	2.8	.2	.5	.2	2.9

External links

• NBA.com Player bio
• YouTube: Elson Video

Awards
Preceded by Raemon Sluiter	Rotterdam Sportsman of the Year 2003	Succeeded by Koos de Ronde
Preceded by Robin van Persie	Rotterdam Sportsman of the Year 2007	Succeeded by Robert Lathouwers