Spencer Howells Nelson is an American-born Azerbaijani naturalized former professional basketball player. At 6'8", he played at both small forward and power forward, although he was mainly considered a power forward.
High school
Spencer attended Pocatello High School and was named the Idaho A-1 Player of the Year as a senior in 1998. He averaged 22 points, 11 rebounds, five assists and two blocks per game as a senior. Hit 43.3 percent of his three-pointers and sank 73.0 percent of his free throws as a senior. As a junior, he averaged 14.1 points, 10.3 rebounds and shot 62.5 percent from the field. Earned second-team all-state honors and first-team all-region honors as a junior. Spencer had a notoriously loud and raucous group of fans in high school he named "The Sixth Man" which provided a home court advantage even on away games. Spencer's abilities were not limited to the basketball court as he was a four-year letterwinner in tennis, claiming the men's doubles state championship in 1998 and finishing third in mixed doubles in 1997.
After graduating in 2005, he was not drafted in the 2005 NBA Draft. However, he was invited to try out for the Utah Jazz. He was an immediate fan favorite because of his success at Utah State. Despite playing well, Nelson was not chosen for the final roster, but was immediately offered a spot playing for GHP Bamberg in Germany. In 2006, instead of seeing if he'd make the final roster for the Jazz, Nelson chose to play for Benetton Treviso, a team that he made an outstanding performance against while playing with Bamberg in the Euroleague in a 92-85 home win. Nelson's good performance helped the team qualify for the top 16 phase, the first ever German team to accomplish this achievement.
After spending one season with Treviso, mainly coming from the bench, Nelson transferred to Climamio Bologna, also in Italy. On 26 January 2010 he stated that GHP Bamberg was his favourite professional club he played for. He also told a local radio station to send greetings to the fans of his former club. In July 2010 he signed a contract with CB Gran Canaria in the Spanish ACB, where he played with former Utah State teammate Jaycee Carroll during the season 2010/11. In September 2013, he signed with the Italian club Montepaschi Siena for the 2013–14 season. On November 13, 2014, he signed with Reyer Venezia Mestre for the 2014–15 season. On July 14, 2015, Nelson announced his retirement from professional basketball. Nelson returned to Utah State as an assistant coach on August 23, 2016.
Personal
After he retired from playing basketball, Nelson worked at Cicero Group in Salt Lake City, Utah, where he ran the company's private equity group. Nelson is married to Julie Clayton Nelson.
