Former Golden State Warriors guard Monta Ellis recently spoke with SLAM Online. In the interview with Alex Squadron, Ellis recalled a moment when he gave some sound advice for Stephen Curry during the current Warriors superstar's early years in the NBA.
SLAM: Stephen Curry has talked about an encouraging call he got from you when he was struggling during his second year in the League. What do you remember about that?
ME: I know what you’re talking about. I had just got traded to Milwaukee. The fans were upset. Then they had this Chris Mullin night, where they retired the jersey or whatever, and they booed the owner. I think that kind of got to him because everybody was talking about me more than anything. A lot of people were saying they would’ve taken me over him. Being young, sometimes that’ll get to you. And I understood it. So I just called him and told him, Don’t worry about all of that, man. Just keep working hard. You’re in a great situation, it’s your team. There are going to be critics. You’re going to have people that are going to say what they’re going to want to say. Once you turn it around, I guarantee they are all going to be on your bandwagon. I just told him to keep working hard, man, and play basketball how he knows and stop overthinking it. Just play. As players, you get in that mode sometimes. I get that.
Curry and Ellis shared Golden State's starting backcourt for a little over two-and-a-half seasons. They had two promising young stars with them, however, Warriors management had to come down to a decision to choose between the two up-and-comers. Ultimately, the Warriors went with Curry after they traded Ellis to the Milwaukee Bucks midway through the 2011-12 season.
At the time, many Warriors fans didn't like the move. Ellis had turned into a 25-point scorer, while Curry was struggling with recurring injuries to his ankle. Luckily for Curry, Ellis did not have any ill feelings towards the trade, and still chose to help out his former teammate.
In the end, as history has written out, Golden State ultimately made the right choice by going with Curry. The former 7th overall pick in 2009 blossomed into a transcendental superstar for the Warriors, leading the Bay Area squad to three NBA championships in five years.
Follow Us
Subscribe