It is Pelle Larsson’s turn to step into the light in Arizona
TUCSON, Ariz. – It wasn’t that long ago Pelle Larsson bounced along on a team bus through Luleå, a coastal town nestled in Sweden’s northernmost county. He was off on his own, almost a thousand kilometers from Nacka, his hometown just east of Stockholm. As a 16-year-old, Larsson moved — north, far north, into the Arctic Circle — to pursue basketball at Riksbasketgymnasiet Luleå, one of the country’s specialized sports academies. In Sweden, this is what is required to hunt game.
“Man, we were way, way up there,” Larsson recently told a visitor.
Larsson was to board the bus for the post-training home. You know the kind. Tired, sweaty, looking out the window, darkness all around. In Luleå, however, these drives were different. There has always been a great opportunity. A flicker of light in the distance. Then a streak of emerald across the Nordic sky. The northern lights come out to play.
“Have you seen them?” asked Larsson.
The thing about the northern lights is that you have to put in some effort. It takes some time and patience to see them. But once you do, they stay with you.
– Yes, said Larsson. “Amazing, isn’t it?”
Nowadays, Larsson is out in the desert. The 21-year-old is in his second year at Arizona, a program once again loaded with talent. Last year, the Wildcats went 33-4, earned a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament and produced three high-end NBA Draft picks (Nos. 6, 18 and 33, respectively). This year, Tommy Lloyd’s program is going 8-1, winning the Maui Invitational in late November and, more recently, running the Big Ten favorite Indiana out of the gym in Las Vegas. The lone spot is a loss in Utah, which feels like a revelation. The Cats scored 66 points on the day – 31 below their eight-win average.
There is a lot to see in Arizona. Azuola’s Tubelis and Oumar Ballotwo massive young men, are dominant figures. Kerr Kriisa is among the Pac-12 leaders in assists and 3-point shooting. Courtney Ramey showing more than he ever did in Texas. Cedric Henderson is a good fit.
But then there is Larsson, the guy who does everything, as long as you know how to look for it. He will guard any position, fight through any screen, throw his body in any pile, do whatever needs to be done. Lloyd describes it as a “total endurance”. Larsson combines that with a fairly desirable overall skill set: shooting, passing, defending. As a NBA scout, speaking anonymously because he’s not authorized to speak publicly about prospects, puts it: “He’s just not bad at a lot. Usually you have to have some kind of superpower. Maybe he’s just so steady, but also super good.”
Against Indiana, Larsson emerged from the early season struggles to post 16 points, four rebounds and three assists. The performance felt like a release. In five previous games, Larsson was badly injured and looked uncertain. He shot 32 percent from the field and averaged 6.0 points, 3.2 fouls and 1.8 turnovers in 26 minutes per game. After every game, Lloyd would say that Larsson was the least of his worries. He held the 2022 Pac-12’s sixth man in the starting lineup, without wavering.
After the win in Vegas, Lloyd explained why.
“Maybe he’s just a little bit of a slow starter,” the second-year coach said. “Pelle’s care factor is 100 percent. He cares so much about his team. He cares so much about how he contributes to the team. There may be certain times when he is put in a position where he overthinks things a bit, puts too much pressure on himself.”
It was only a matter of time.
And that time might be now.
This would be the year that Larsson introduced himself to the wider basketball world. Outside of the NBA scouts who have had his name noted, he has flown under the radar in recent years, in part because of where he comes from.
According to RealGM.com, there are fewer than 20 Swedish players currently playing Division I basketball. Among them, only four play high major ball.
At the next level, the pool just shrinks smaller. Dramatically so. Jonas Jerebko is basically the only Swedish player to establish and maintain an NBA career. Jeffery Taylor and Miles Simon, who each kicked around the league for stretches, were both born in Sweden to American fathers. Joakim Noah’s mother is a former Miss Sweden, but he was born in New York and spent time as a child in France. Maciej Lampe and Damir Markota, who each had a cup of coffee in the league, were not born in Sweden, but later came to have Swedish citizenship.
That’s essentially it. There is currently no Swede actively playing in the NBA. Despite the globalization of the game and mass talent flowing to the US from Europe, Sweden remains modest in its production of players of international caliber.
The country revolves around football and ice hockey. always have done. Probably always will. Back in 2018, when Jerebko changed his number to 21 when he signed with the Warriors, it wasn’t a tribute to Kevin Garnett or Tim Duncan. It was a tribute to Swedish colleague Peter Forsberg.
– It is difficult to describe how small a world Swedish basketball is, said Larsson.
He would know. Larsson grew up in it. His father, Christian, played in the Swedish professional league and was on the Swedish men’s national team in 1995. Those teams produced many of the kids that young Pelle ended up playing with and against as a kid in Stockholm. Christian coached some of Pelle’s youth teams.
Tommy Lloyd commented that Pelle Larsson could challenge for the Pac-12’s defense player. Larsson brought up his father, former Swedish pro Christian Larsson, who boasted about D. Larsson also brought up last year’s NCAA tournament loss to Houston as something to reflect on. pic.twitter.com/OhuKYfZ9NY
— Javier Morales (@JavierJMorales) 11 October 2022
Larsson, a proud Swede, played for the Swedish national team in this summer’s FIBA World Cup, where he was tasked with checking Luka Doncic in a qualifier against Slovenia. Already in 2019, he suited up for Sweden in the FIBA U18 EC.
It was at these European Championships when Larsson was named to the all-tournament team and received some attention from American coaches. One was Andy Hill, an assistant at Utah. Thus began Larsson’s investment in American basketball. He ended up turning down professional options in Europe and moving to Salt Lake City to play NCAA basketball, just like his older brother. Vilgot Larsson played in Maine from 2019 to 2021.
When he came to Utah, Pelle Larsson immediately showed that he could hang in the United States. He started 18 of 25 games as a freshman, averaging 8.2 points, 3.2 rebounds, 2.8 assists and hitting 46 percent of his 3s. That summer, head coach Larry Krystkowiak was let go, leading Larsson to the transfer portal. It was at the same time Arizona brought Lloyd on board as his new head coach. Larsson knew Lloyd’s well-deserved rep for coaching international players and accepted an offer to join him in Tucson. He broke his foot in the 2021-22 preseason, but returned to carve out a role as a key backup for a 2021-22 Arizona team that won the Pac-12 and went 33-4.
While Larsson’s talent has been obvious, his American adaptation has been a process. We are all a product of where we come from. Larsson is no different. He is Swedish and describes himself as very: humble, reserved, hard-working. In the United States, he quickly realized that such a disposition made him vulnerable.
– In Sweden, when you grow up, you learn that you shouldn’t brag or think that you are better than someone else, Larsson said. “You should be humble, do your part and move on with your life. It’s sad, but that’s how it is. But then I came (to the United States), and the mentality is so different. I noticed right away that every guy is the main character in his own life. It was something I had to adapt to and be more aggressive.”
It is not easy to see yourself differently. It is something Larsson has had to work with. When he came to Arizona, he told those inside the program that his dream is to play in the NBA, but since it is rare for Swedes to make it to the league, he would be satisfied with a nice professional career overseas. Make some money, have a good life.
Those in Arizona didn’t understand the logic.
Chris Rounds, the program’s strength and conditioning coach, looked at Larsson one day and said, “OK, not many Swedish players make it to the NBA. But many Arizona players do. So maybe you should consider yourself an Arizona basketball player.”
“That’s when I kind of switched,” Larsson recalled. “I thought, oh, they’re right. Guys from Arizona go to the NBA. Maybe I shouldn’t compare myself to guys from Sweden anymore. Maybe I should compare myself to the guys from Arizona.
It will take work. Larsson has a lot to improve. He is prone to foul play. He tries to do too much, too often. It’s on the track. Off the pitch, Larsson tends to push himself to the brink. The fracture in the foot was the result of overexertion. Larsson has been so dedicated and driven for so long that he knows no other way.
“We’re training his mind to understand that he has the tools to play at the next level, but now he has to fine-tune the whole process,” longtime Arizona coach Justin Kokoskie said. “Some things he’s good at. He does everything nutritionally, has a clean diet, does everything in the weight room recovery-wise. But he also has to tone it down. Off days are there for a reason. If we don’t force him to lift, him to force himself to train on his own.”
Larsson is still trying to find his place. But he will get there.
“The tip of the iceberg,” Lloyd said of Larsson’s performance against Indiana. “There’s a lot more we’ll see from him going forward.”
It’s just a matter of getting everything out of him. It’s about making him a basketball player in Arizona.
If there’s anyone to listen to on the subject, it’s Kriisa, the Wildcats’ megaphone. In addition to being Arizona’s point guard and provocateur, Kriisa is also Larsson’s closest friend on the list. Kriisa was born in Estonia, not far from Sweden. He gets Larsson better than anyone else.
And here’s what Kriisa had to say: “Maybe, last year, he was a little bit in the shadows. But he’s ready to come out.”
Out in the open. Out in the light.
It won’t be hard to see.
(Illustration: Sean Reilly / The Athletic; Photos: Rebecca Noble, Sean M. Haffey and Ronald Martinez/Getty Images)