Elliott, Sean M.
Basketball
b. Feb. 2, 1968, Tucson, AZ
Highly recruited after averaging 33.4 points and 14.1 rebounds a game in his senior year at Tucson's Cholla High School, Elliott elected to go to the University of Arizona. A four-year starter at forward, he broke Lew Alcindor's Pacific Ten Conference scoring record with 2,555 points. Elliott was a consensus All-American in 1988 and 1989 and won the 1989 John Wooden Award as the college player of the year.
The 6-foot-8, 205-pound Elliott was the third player chosen in the NBA college draft and joined the San Antonio Spurs for the 1989-90 season. He was named to the league's all-rookie second team.
The Spurs traded him to the Detroit Pistons for Dennis Rodman in 1993, but he returned to San Antonio the following season.
Late in the 1998-99 NBA season, Elliott learned that he needed a kidney transplant. Nevertheless, he helped lead the Spurs to their first NBA championship. With 9.9 seconds remaining in the second game of the Western Conference finals, Elliott hit a 3-point shot while almost falling ouit of bounds to beat Portland, 86-85. The Spurs went on to sweep that series and beat the New York Knicks in the championship series.
On August 16, 1999, Elliott underwent a transplant operation, receiving a kidney donated by his brother, Noel. Exactly seven months later, on March 16, 2000, Elliott returned to action with the Spurs, and he averaged nearly 20 minutes a game through the end of the season.
However, he was troubled by injuries during the 2000-01 season and decided to retire. He has since become a television analyst.