Elias Valtonen (born June 11, 1999) is a Finnish professional

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular court, compete with the primary objective of shooting a basketball (approximately in diameter) through the defender's h ...

player for Baxi Manresa of the Liga ACB. He played

college basketball In United States colleges, top-tier basketball is governed by collegiate athletic bodies including National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA), the United States Collegiate Athleti ...

for the

Arizona State Sun Devils The Arizona State Sun Devils are the athletic teams that represent Arizona State University. ASU has nine men's and eleven women's varsity teams competing at the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I level as a member ...

. Valtonen is 2.01 m (6 ft 7 in) tall, and plays the shooting guard position.

Early life and career

Valtonen made his debut for

Korihait Korihait ( en, Basket Sharks) is a Finnish basketball team from Uusikaupunki. It was formed as Uudenkaupungin Urheilijat, shortly UU, in 1898 and has won one Korisliiga Finnish Championship (1990) and two Finnish Cups (1986, 1988). In 1994 UU had ...

in Finnish top league

Korisliiga The Korisliiga is the top-tier professional basketball league in Finland, comprising the top 12 teams of the country. In its current format, each team plays all other teams two times in the regular season, once at home and once away, for a total o ...

in February 2014, at the age of 14. He played five games in total during his rookie season, while the team finished last and was relegated. In the summer of 2015, Valtonen moved to Helsinki to play in the highly regarded academy team HBA-Märsky, coached by former NBA player Hanno Möttölä. Valtonen was invited to the

Jordan Brand Classic The Jordan Brand Classic is a high school All-Star basketball game played annually in April. The game's rosters feature the best and most highly recruited high school boys in the senior class including alumns like Chris Paul, Carmelo Anthony, Bl ...

Camp in 2015. He has been recruited by several American colleges, including

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolitan areas include, Peoria and Rockf ...

Arizona State Arizona State University (Arizona State or ASU) is a public research university in the Phoenix metropolitan area. Founded in 1885 by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, ASU is one of the largest public universities by enrollment in the ...

Arizona Arizona ( ; nv, Hoozdo Hahoodzo ; ood, Alĭ ṣonak ) is a state in the Southwestern United States. It is the 6th largest and the 14th most populous of the 50 states. Its capital and largest city is Phoenix. Arizona is part of the Fou ...

and

Utah Utah ( , ) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. Utah is a landlocked U.S. state bordered to its east by Colorado, to its northeast by Wyoming, to its north by Idaho, to its south by Arizona, and to it ...

. On October 13, 2017, Valtonen announced that he'd commit to Arizona State after his current season in Finland was finished with.

College career

Valtonen played collegiately at Arizona State for two seasons. He scored a career-high 10 points in a win over St. John's on November 23, 2019. He averaged 2.0 points per game as a sophomore. On March 17, 2020, Valtonen announced he was leaving Arizona State.

Professional career

On June 19, 2020, Valtonen signed with Tigers Tübingen of the

ProA Proas are various types of multi-hull outrigger sailboats of the Austronesian peoples. The terms were used for native Austronesian ships in European records during the Colonial era indiscriminately, and thus can confusingly refer to the ...

. On May 28, 2021, he has signed with Baxi Manresa of the Liga ACB.

Career statistics

College

, - , style="text-align:left;", 2018–19 , style="text-align:left;",

, 21 , , 0 , , 3.7 , , .556 , , .500 , , 1.000 , , .4 , , .1 , , .1 , , .2 , , .8 , - , style="text-align:left;", 2019–20 , style="text-align:left;",

, 19 , , 8 , , 14.3 , , .375 , , .500 , , .467 , , 1.8 , , .4 , , .5 , , .1 , , 2.0 , - class="sortbottom" , style="text-align:center;" colspan="2", Career , 40 , , 8 , , 8.7 , , .415 , , .500 , , .529 , , 1.1 , , .2 , , .3 , , .2 , , 1.4

References

External links

Arizona State Sun Devis bio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Valtonen, Elias 1999 births Living people Arizona State Sun Devils men's basketball players Bàsquet Manresa players Finnish expatriate basketball people in the United States Finnish expatriate basketball people in Germany Finnish expatriate basketball people in Spain Finnish men's basketball players Liga ACB players Shooting guards Sportspeople from Helsinki Tigers Tübingen players