NBA.com: Felton Spencer Bio

An honorable mention All-American on the court and an academic All-American off it, Felton Spencer has used his size, smarts and rebounding skills to become a productive center in the NBA as both a starter and a reserve. The 7-foot, 265-pound Spencer finished his college career as Louisville's all-time field goal percentage leader at .628. He took over the center position as a senior in 1990-91 after Pervis Ellison joined the NBA. That season Spencer paced the Cardinals in scoring (14.9 ppg), rebounding (8.5 rpg), blocked shots (69) and field goal percentage (.681). In only its second draft since the club became a franchise, the Minnesota Timberwolves took Spencer with its first-round selection (sixth pick overall) in the 1990 NBA Draft. As a top draft choice and rookie starting center with the expansion Timberwolves, Spencer entered a tough situation. He responded by averaging 7.1 points and 7.9 rebounds and shooting .512 from the floor, good enough for a spot on the NBA All-Rookie Second Team. He shared time with another rookie center, Luc Longley, whom the Wolves selected immediately after drafting Spencer. Over the next two years Longley gained more minutes and Spencer's production decreased. After the 1992-93 season Minnesota traded Spencer to the Utah Jazz for center Mike Brown. In Utah, Spencer became the successor to Mark Eaton, and he provided the Jazz with solid scoring, rebounding and defense at the pivot position. In 1993-94, as a complement to John Stockton and Karl Malone, he averaged 8.6 points and 8.3 rebounds while shooting .505 from the floor. Spencer and the Jazz were on their way to greatness in 1994-95, but 34 games into the season he ruptured his left Achilles tendon and was lost for the year. Utah went on to win 60 regular-season games but failed to reach the NBA Finals. He missed the first 11 games of the 1995-96 season while recovering from his Achilles injury, but went on to play in the remaining 71, starting 70 and averaging 5.6 points and 4.3 rebounds in 17.8 minutes per game. He shot a career-high .520 from the field, tying Adam Keefe for the second-best mark on the team. On August 10, 1996, Spencer was obtained by the Orlando Magic for guard Brooks Thompson, forward Kenny Gattison and a first-round draft pick, after the Magic had lost Shaquille O'Neal to the Lakers as a free agent. But he played just one game for Orlando before he was traded to Golden State in the deal that brought Rony Seikaly to the Magic. He went on to play 71 games for the Warriors and do a solid job in the middle, ranking second on the team in rebounding and third in blocked shots. His role was diminished in 1997-98 by the arrival of second-year man Erick Dampier as the starter, as well as the drafting of rookie Adonal Foyle, and he saw relatively limited action as a reserve in 68 games. He played even less in 1998-99, averaging just 6.1 minutes in his 26 appearances off the bench.

1999-2000 REGULAR SEASON
Activated from the injured list on 1/25

1998-1999 REGULAR SEASON
Posted 11 points (5-6 FG) and 6 rebounds, in 14 minutes, in an 84-79 victory over the Dallas Mavericks on 2/19

1997-1998 REGULAR SEASON
Registered 10 points (3-3 FG, 4-5 FT) and 7 rebounds, in 15 minutes, against the Philadelphia 76ers on 1/17 Grabbed a game-high 13 rebounds, including 6 offensive boards, in a 103-92 win over the Dallas Mavericks on 12/16 Scored 6 points and grabbed 12 rebounds, in 17 minutes, against the Minnesota Timberwolves on 11/8

1996-1997 REGULAR SEASON
Spencer played the first game of the season for Orlando, getting four points and six rebounds, before he was traded along with Donald Royal and Jon Koncak to Golden State for Rony Seikaly, Clifford Rozier and a second-round draft pick. He played 72 games for the Warriors, starting all but six of them, and averaged 5.1 points, 5.7 rebounds and 0.69 blocked shots in 21.4 minutes per game. He ranked second on the Warriors in rebounding and third in shotblocking. He scored in double figures eight times and had 10+ rebounds eight times. His only double-double of the season came in a 111-104 loss to Utah on March 3 when he scored a season-high 14 points and hauled down 11 rebounds. He grabbed a season-high 13 rebounds in a 109-107 overtime win over Denver on April 10. Spencer's field goal percentage of .489 was third-highest on the team.

1995-1996 REGULAR SEASON
Spencer was still recovering from an Achilles tendon injury suffered the year before when the 1995-96 season began, and he sat out the first 11 games. He then appeared in the remaining 71 games for the Jazz, starting 70 in the pivot, and averaged 5.6 points and 4.3 rebounds in 17.8 minutes per game. Spencer scored in double figures 12 times, getting a season-high 16 points at San Antonio on Feb. 13. He ranked fourth on the team in rebounding, grabbing a season-high 11 at Cleveland on Dec. 21. Spencer shot a solid .520 from the field, a career-high figure that matched Adam Keefe for second-best on the club. In 18 playoff appearances, all starts, he averaged 2.8 points, 3.0 rebounds and 1.22 blocked shots in 15.3 minutes per game. His 22 total blocks were the most on the team. After the season he was traded to Orlando for Brooks Thompson, Kenny Gattison and a first-round pick.

1994-1995 REGULAR SEASON
Spencer seemed on track for his best season as a pro in 1994-95 when he ruptured his left Achilles tendon after 34 games and missed the remainder of the campaign. As the Utah Jazz's starting center for those 34 games, Spencer averaged a career-best 9.3 points to go with 7.6 rebounds and 0.94 blocks per contest. He shot .488 from the field and .793 from the foul stripe. The Jazz won 60 games in the regular season but sorely missed Spencer in the playoffs. Facing the Houston Rockets in the first round, Utah couldn't find an answer to Rockets center Hakeem Olajuwon, who led his team to a five-game series victory.

1993-1994 REGULAR SEASON
With Mark Eaton on the injured list for the entire year, Spencer stepped in as starting center on the Utah Jazz in 1993-94. After coming over in an offseason trade that sent Mike Brown to the Minnesota Timberwolves, Spencer provided the Jazz with some scoring punch from the pivot position, never one of Eaton's strong suits. In 79 appearances-all as a starter-Spencer posted career-high averages of 8.6 points and 8.3 rebounds per game. He ranked fourth on the team in minutes played (2,210), second in rebounding, and second in field-goal percentage (.505 ). He scored in double figures 24 times during the year, with a high of 22 points against the Warriors at Golden State on December 11. He also grabbed a career-high 18 rebounds against the Sacramento Kings on February 18. Spencer's steady contributions in the pivot helped Utah all the way to the Western Conference Finals, which the Jazz lost to the Houston Rockets in five games.

1992-1993 REGULAR SEASON
Spencer found himself surrounded by six new faces at the start of the Timberwolves' fourth season. It was no surprise that the new mix took time to jell, and after a 1-12 December, Minnesota finished the season with the NBA's second-worst mark at 19-63. Spencer's job was to rebound, but rookie power forward Christian Laettner more than doubled Spencer's total (708 to 324). Of course, Laettner played and started in 81 games, while a groin injury in February cost Spencer time and left him starting 48 games and playing in 71. On the offensive end it was a season to forget for the 7-foot center. He averaged a career-low 4.1 points and scored in double figures in only six games. This was Spencer's final season in Minnesota, and he left the Timberwolves with averages of 6.0 points and 6.6 rebounds in 213 games.

1991-1992 REGULAR SEASON
Spencer missed a total of 21 games with two separate ailments. On December 3 in a game against the Phoenix Suns he suffered a fractured ethmoid bone in his right eye, and that shelved him for two weeks. Then he badly sprained an ankle on February 2 at Cleveland against the Cavaliers and sat out 14 more games. Prior to the ankle sprain he had averaged 12.8 points, 5.6 rebounds, and 2.0 blocks in the five previous games, including a season-high 20 points against the Detroit Pistons on January 23. He shot .590 from the field during that stretch, but after the ankle injury his production dipped to 5.8 points per game on .367 field-goal shooting in the final 24 contests. He finished the year averaging 6.6 points and 7.1 rebounds. Spencer led Minnesota in rebounding in 9 of the last 12 games, including a season-high 16 boards against the Utah Jazz on April 5. He also victimized the Jazz for a career-high 7 blocks on January 11.

1990-1991 REGULAR SEASON
The Minnesota Timberwolves selected Felton Spencer with the sixth overall pick of the 1990 NBA Draft, hoping they had found the franchise's center of the future. It was a gamble, because Spencer had played behind Pervis Ellison for three years at Louisville and had become a starter only as a senior. First impressions weren't bad. Along with fellow newcomers Derrick Coleman of the New Jersey Nets and Lionel Simmons of the Sacramento Kings, Spencer was one of three rookies to total at least 500 points and 500 rebounds. He finished the year as the league's No. 7 offensive rebounder (272) and set club records (keep in mind, the Timberwolves were only in their second year) for rebounds (641) and blocked shots (121) in a season. Overall, Spencer averaged 7.1 points on .512 field-goal shooting while starting 46 of 81 games. His best months were December, January, and February. He started in all but one game in December and led the Timberwolves in rebounding (7.9 rpg) and blocked shots (36). After averaging a club-best 9.5 rebounds and shooting .618 from the field in January, Spencer posted four double-figure rebounding efforts in the last six games of February.