Monta Ellis unplugged
Warriors guard Monta Ellis splits a pair of Rockets defenders during their game in Oakland on Thursday night, December 3, 2009.
CHRISTOPHER CHUNG / PDPublished: Sunday, January 10, 2010 at 2:06 p.m.
Last Modified: Sunday, January 10, 2010 at 2:06 p.m.
OAKLAND – The idea was to talk about the All-Star game. Standard stuff. Monta Ellis is having an out-of-this-world season and maybe he'll be an All Star, the Warriors' first since Latrell Sprewell in 1996-1997.
He deserves to be an All Star: sixth in the NBA in scoring before Sunday's games, second in steals, second in minutes. He has taken the Warriors on his back and lifted them to whatever success they've enjoyed.
So Ellis and I were going to talk about all that. I sat courtside in one of the seats reserved for Warriors players during games. Ellis sat next to me and I asked why he's playing better since Stephen Jackson left.
“It might look that way because when he left I started playing well,” he said, “but when he was here I wasn't really in game shape yet. I still had a few problems that was going on but once he left I just sat down with my wife. She was like, ‘Just go out and give it your all,' and so I just put everything behind me, everything in the past, everything that was going on at the time and just got back to playing basketball.”
“When you say you put everything behind you,” I asked, “can you give me an example of what you put behind?”
Ellis stared straight ahead. “The past,” he said. “I'm just going to leave it at that. I don't want to get into details. I don't want to bring nothing back up. I've been doing good so far with it behind me. Everything is good right now.”
I backed off. There is a rhythm to interviewing and I could revisit themes later.
I asked if he thinks he's one of the best guards in the NBA.
“Yes, I feel that,” he said.
I asked, “Do you feel your name could be mentioned in the same sentence as Kobe Bryant, Dwyane Wade, elite people like that?”
Ellis laughed a long time, an inner laugh. “It really doesn't matter to me,” he said. “If I ever get to that point, and it's OK if I don't, hey I know one day when I retire when you ask, ‘Who was Monta Ellis?' people would know.”
We kept talking. We talked about his stepped-up defense this season.
He said he's always been a good defender. “Not to criticize none of my teammates, but when Stephen Jackson left who was there left to guard the best player? I know I can do it, so I just wanted to take on the role of guarding the best player.”
Then I tried again. “I got the feeling after you broke your ankle you were angry at management. Has that anger made you a better player?”
Again Ellis stared straight ahead. “When I was going through what I was going through I wasn't playing to my potential. When you angry that means you frustrated, that means that you not in the right state of mind. People asked, ‘Monta, will he be the same?' I listened and I laughed because I know me. Everybody goes through it when the best player gets hurt - it was a crazy reason why I was injured. So they (management) had just invested a lot of money in me, so I felt where they was coming from. How it went down it was like a daddy-and-son disagreement. Eventually, the son get over it and the daddy get over it and they move on.”
Ellis had mentioned daddy-and-son relationships. They are on his mind because he is a father now. Monta Jr. is seven months old and when I asked about his son, Ellis smiled.
“And that's another thing that just changed my whole mindset,” he said “was going home and just seeing him lightened my day up. Life is too short to be holding grudges. I sat down and had a talk with my wife and she was like, ‘Just go out there and have fun and just get back to doing what you're doing,' and that's what I did.”
“Has being a dad made you more of a grown up?”
“It has. Now that you have your own son everything you do now not only affects you. It affects your family, that's your son, your wife. That's someone (his son) who's going to look up to me. You want to set a great example. My father me and him have a great relationship but he never was in my life. I always wanted to have a relationship with my son and be there in his life till I be put in the ground. It's amazing, it's a blessing, it's a different responsibility. I always was taught what's wrong is wrong, what's right is right. I was raised by my grandma and my granddad. My whole life is different than a normal 24-year-old because I was taught different. I always was hanging out with older people so I do things like an older person would do instead of a 24-year-old. Having a son you have to do that because, like I said, it not only affects you no more. It affects him and it affects your wife.”
I said I didn't know his grandparents brought him up.
“My dad he was a police officer in Houston, Texas,” Ellis said, “and my mom she was raising three boys by herself so she worked three jobs. It wasn't like she wasn't in my life. She was just trying to provide for me and my brothers. I always talked to her about anything. She would come home from a long day at work, she'd be tired, she'd be like, ‘Monta, grease my scalp, wash my hair.' And I used to do that.”
We had come this far and I decided to go all the way. I asked about NBA players and guns. I thought he might brush me off - he brushed off nothing.
“The situation with Gilbert (Arenas) I don't know it,” he said. “I'm not going to comment on that. But players with guns, if you're going to have a gun at least have it registered. You have to understand where you are. If you're in a state where they don't allow guns then why have it? And if you do have it, have it in a safe somewhere. Put it up. Don't be around showing it off. You have to think about whose lives you're going to affect. If you got a child the decision that you make with a gun it's going to affect that child. It's going to affect your family.
“Because we are targets. Everybody knows that. When you go out sometimes people come at you because they know if you do something to them really you're a cash cow. If you do something and retaliate then either you going to jail or you going to get killed or they going to sue you for it. Through all this stuff with the football players getting shot, people breaking in their house and robbing them, couple of guys in the NBA (robbers) even coming in their house and robbing them, I mean being a man you want to protect your family. Be smart.”
I agreed with him. The Constitution grants us the right to bear arms and in this I am a strict constructionist like Ellis. “In a way it all goes back to being a good father,” I said.
“Yes, my granddad, he used to have a lot of guns,” Ellis said. “There were a lot of things he taught me. One was, if you have a gun and you have kids, get a safe. Another thing he taught me, if you have a gun and if you going to use it, that's the only time you draw it. If you're not going to use it don't ever draw your gun. Because that's a threat to another person's life and if he retaliates on you and kills you, he can get off on that because his life is in danger. That's self-defense. Gilbert, it's a mistake he made. My prayers go out to him and his family, I hope he overcome it but it's something he may have to live with now.”
That's what Monta Ellis and I talked about courtside at Oracle Arena.
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