Pelle Gustav Gösta Larsson (born 23 February 2001) is a Swedish professional basketball player for the Miami Heat of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He played college basketball for the Utah Utes and the

Arizona Wildcats The Arizona Wildcats are the sport, athletic teams that represent the University of Arizona, located in Tucson, Arizona, Tucson. The Wildcats compete at the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) NCAA Division I, Division I (NCAA Divis ...

Early life and career

Larsson grew up in

Nacka Nacka () is the municipal seat of Nacka Municipality and part of Stockholm urban area in Sweden. The municipality's name harks back to a 16th-century industrial operation established by the Crown at Nacka farmstead where conditions for water mil ...

, Sweden, and is the son of Christian Larsson, a former member of the

Sweden men's national basketball team The Sweden men's national basketball team ( sv, svenska basketslandslaget) represents Sweden in international basketball competition. The national team is controlled by the Swedish Basketball Federation. Sweden has qualified for the EuroBasket ...

. As a youth, he played for the local

Skuru IK Skuru IK is a sports club in Skuru in Nacka, Sweden, established on 22 October 1922. The club runs basketball, gymnastics, handball and swimming activity, previously even bowling and ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey) is a team spo ...

basketball team before moving north at age 16 to join

BC Luleå BasketballClub Luleå is a 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 ( ...

. He played two seasons with RIG Luleå and BC Luleå in the

Swedish Basketball League Svenska Basketligan, or the Swedish Basketball League (SBL), is the premier league for professional basketball in Sweden. The league was originally established in 1992 as Basketligan and was known as that prior to the season of 2006–07, but whe ...

, being named the league's star of the year in his first season at the top level with averages of 7.6 points, 2.8 rebounds, 1.9 assists and 0.8 steals per game.

College career

Larsson moved to the United States in 2020 to play for the Utah Utes. He became a starter seven games into his

freshman A freshman, fresher, first year, or frosh, is a person in the first year at an educational institution, usually a secondary school or at the college and university level, but also in other forms of post-secondary educational institutions. Ara ...

season and averaged 8.2 points, 3.2 rebounds, and 2.8 assists per game; he was 50.0% on 3-point field goals in conference games which was the third-best in the

Pac-12 The Pac-12 Conference is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference, that operates in the Western United States, participating in 24 sports at the NCAA Division I level. Its College football, football teams compete in the NCAA D ...

, and he was second in the conference with 88.3% of his free throws made. He announced a transfer to Arizona following his only season at Utah. In his first season at Arizona, 2021–22, Larsson was named the Pac-12 Sixth Man of the Year and appeared in all 37 games, averaging 7.2 points, 3.4 rebounds and 1.8 assists per game. He played in all 35 games and had 18 starts in 2022–23, averaging 9.9 points and 4.3 rebounds per game. He initially entered the 2023 NBA draft but later announced he was returning to Arizona for his

senior Senior (shortened as Sr.) means "the elder" in Latin and is often used as a suffix for the elder of two or more people in the same family with the same given name, usually a parent or grandparent. It may also refer to: * Senior (name), a surname ...

year in 2023–24.

Professional career

Miami Heat (2024–present)

On June 27, 2024, Larsson was selected with the 44th overall pick by the

Houston Rockets The Houston Rockets are an American professional basketball team based in Houston. The Rockets compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member team of the league's Western Conference Southwest Division. The team plays its ho ...

in the

2024 NBA Draft 4 (four) is a number, numeral and digit. It is the natural number following 3 and preceding 5. It is the smallest semiprime and composite number, and is considered unlucky in many East Asian cultures. In mathematics Four is the smallest c ...

, however, immediately on draft night, he was traded to the Miami Heat in exchange for

AJ Griffin Adrian Darnell "AJ" Griffin Jr. (born August 25, 2003) is an American professional basketball player for the Atlanta Hawks of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He played college basketball for the Duke Blue Devils. High school career Gr ...

via a three-way trade with the Atlanta Hawks. On July 2, he signed with Miami.

National team career

Larsson has represented Sweden at the under-16, under-18, and senior levels, including averaging 6.3 points in

2023 FIBA Basketball World Cup The 2023 FIBA Basketball World Cup will be the 19th tournament of the FIBA Basketball World Cup for men's national basketball teams. The tournament will be the second to feature 32 teams. For the first time in its history, the World Cup will be ...

qualifiers.

Career statistics

College

, - , style="text-align:left;",

2020–21 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen b ...

, style="text-align:left;", Utah , 25 , , 18 , , 26.6 , , .467 , , .463 , , .883 , , 3.2 , , 2.8 , , .7 , , .5 , , 8.2 , - , style="text-align:left;", 2021–22 , style="text-align:left;", Arizona , 37 , , 2 , , 20.7 , , .478 , , .363 , , .813 , , 3.4 , , 1.8 , , .8 , , .2 , , 7.2 , - , style="text-align:left;",

2022–23 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen b ...

, style="text-align:left;", Arizona , 35 , , 18 , , 27.4 , , .472 , , .356 , , .835 , , 4.3 , , 3.1 , , .8 , , .2 , , 9.9 , - , style="text-align:left;", 2023–24 , style="text-align:left;", Arizona , 36 , , 36 , , 30.1 , , .519 , , .426 , , .750 , , 4.1 , , 3.7 , , .9 , , .2 , , 12.8 , - class="sortbottom" , style="text-align:center;" colspan="2", Career , 133 , , 74 , , 26.1 , , .490 , , .397 , , .813 , , 3.8 , , 2.8 , , .8 , , .3 , , 9.6

References

External links

Arizona Wildcats bioUtah Utes bio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Larsson, Pelle 2001 births Living people Arizona Wildcats men's basketball players Houston Rockets draft picks Swedish men's basketball players Utah Utes men's basketball players