New report casts more doubt on Ellis' story-It's time to come clean, Monta

Posted by Tim Kawakami on September 3rd, 2008 at 10:19 am

Monta Ellis is in some deep trouble now.

He should've known that this would happen, he should've anticipated that if
his ankle injury-and reportedly, the abrasions around it-looked like a
motorcycle injury, then people would wonder about any explanation that he
hurt it in a pick-up basketball game.

I don't think Ellis will be released or taken to court, unless his injury is
career-threatening (and that's a whole other monstrous can of worms for
him). But I don't think the injury is career-threatening.

I think the Warriors still are counting on him down the road. I don't think
they're going to write off his career. I know they're not going to do
anything that drastic at this point.

But this is a big deal. A HUGE deal. And Monta would be best served if he
and his advisers finally realize:

If he has lied, it is time to stop lying. If he wants to be trusted, it's
time to be start being worthy of that trust. It's time to come clean.

Marcus Thompson II first reported that the Warriors had serious questions
about Ellis' explanation after the Aug. 21 injury, which probably will keep
Ellis out at least through December.

Now, the crusher: A new ESteinPN report this morning, which details
information from multiple sources that Ellis' injury does not appear to be
similar to any kind of basketball-related damage.

Let's recalibrate the big picture:

1) Ellis' injury is very severe, or else the Warriors wouldn't be taking the
steps to figure out how it happened. There are insurance issues and
team-wide issues (if Ellis is out for the year, that changes things).

If this was something that doctors think would only last until November,
then I doubt the Warriors management goes this far with Ellis. This is much
more than that.

2) Ellis might have suffered the injury in a manner that could violate the
terms of his new $66M contract. That would be foolish behavior out of
anyone, but especially a 23-year-old who just got an NBA franchise to bank
on him for the long-term.

This is Kellen Winslow/Ben Roethlisberger-level stupid, and that is stupid.
Is this the man you want running your team for the next six years, even if
he gets healthy? Which is now a question mark?

Put it this way: If Ellis was 31 instead of 23, I think the Warriors would
already have the release papers ready to go. But he is 23. So it's
different.

3) Who is Ellis? Is he a reckless problem-child? Or is he just an
accident-prone guy who had a bad moment this summer?

I do think he's accident-prone, no matter what-he has suffered weird
injuries just about every summer now (two years ago hurting his ankle at a
Summer League practice when he reacted as if he'd broken it; last year
hurting his neck after banging into a teammate at training camp).

For $66M. even if Ellis gets back reasonably healthy, the Warriors will have
to hold their breaths every day with him, particularly, it seems, at summer
time.

But for $66M, the Warriors also should expect that Ellis won't act stupidly
when he's away from Warriors HQ and that he won't lie to them.

4) The Warriors are properly taking a pro-active stance on this. (Anybody
doubting MT-2 now? What an idiotic ESPN.com headline two days ago that
implied the Warriors were NOT investigating this, by the way-thank God they
have ESteinPN to get things right over there).

I don't think they're doing it in order to punish Ellis or suspend him or
release him and save $66M. I don't think they're doing it because they think
Ellis is a lost cause.

I think they're doing due diligence on this injury because they don't WANT
Ellis to be a lost cause. This is a wake-up call for the Warriors just as
much as it is for Ellis.

Monta is young and acts very young. He just got $66M and we can all guess
that he was not ready for it, not even close to it. Who would be? Monta is
not LeBron, Dwyane Wade or even Baron Davis, I must say.

The Warriors probably should've known this. I think they did know this,
might have been thinking about how to calm Monta down over the long-term and
WHAM, he suffers this injury under mysterious Mississippi circumstances.

So now is the time for the Warriors to act, obviously too late to prevent
some damage.

If Ellis and the Warriors can figure out how to handle this injury and
aborted potential cover-up, then I think, in a year or two, when he's 25 or
26, Ellis will be better for it. He might even earn his money.

But he has to come clean, if he has lied. Or else this will hang over his
head for longer than 6 seasons.

Does Ellis want to become an NBA star. or another NBA cautionary tale?