Monta Ellis out 3 months

Wow.

Source: http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=3556108

Before this I thought the Warriors had a like a 20% chance of making the playoffs... but now.. 0. Crap this is the worst news for Warriors fans right now, he'll be gone for the whole month of the regular season at least. Plus what if he loses some explosiveness?

So much fror my perennial fantasy player.

Mua-ha-ha, now I can get him dirt-cheap with Devin Harris in a fantasy league for the UBER SPEED COMBO!

Seriously though, sucks for the Warriors. Ellis was supposed to be their big scorer with Davis gone.

They actually had a good chance of making the playoffs before this, and now they have a very slight one. Though break for the Warriors. It will be a while before we get to see how well Maggette does replacing Baron.

It's only a month though, two with "shaking it off" no?

If anything it is good in that it will force the Warriors to address their short comings in the backcourt. They might find that Williams doesn't work, and go out and get some good players, making the team even better when Ellis returns.

This is sad to hear but it clears up more time for Marcus Williams... Finally getting a chance to prove himself!

Tough break for Ellis and the Warriors but the silver lining is that he'll "only" miss a month of the regular season itself. It's hardly an ideal situation but the timing would have been even less fortunate had he injured his ankle closer to the start of the season. Probably little comfort for Warriors' fans all the same though.

Chris Mullin said Ellis informed the club that he injured himself last Thursday playing pickup ball in his native Mississippi.

Uh-oh.

Monta Ellis, who doesn't turn 23 until October, is part of an elite group of guards 22 and younger who averaged 20 ppg and 50 percent shooting in a season. How he stacks up:

Player Season Age
Monta Ellis, Warriors 2007-08 22
Kevin Johnson, Suns 1988-89 22
Michael Jordan, Bulls 1984-85 21
Magic Johnson, Lakers 1980-81 21
David Thompson, Nuggets 1976-77 22

Not bad company.

Ellis is also known for his boundless confidence, as evidenced when he scoffed at reporters' recent suggestions that the switch from shooting guard to the point will be a problem.

"I'm going to improve every part of my game," Ellis said last month. "That's what I do. That's why I play basketball ... to improve and to become the best player [who] ever touched a basketball."

Well there u have it, Ellis is gonna be better than Jordan.
And on that bombshell, its time for us to go.

Monta Ellis continues to follow in Arenas' footsteps. First he is drafted in the second round as an undersized SG/past first PG, then wins MIP in his second season, picks up almost the exact same contract that Gil got after his rookie contract expired, and now he is injured.

Is he cocky/crazy too?

Is he cocky/crazy too?

*Waits for a story of Monta showering at halftime with his full uniform on *

Next season, he will start a blog and talk about how he bought a bunch of All-Star ballot boxes.

Wow. Warriors are now investigating how he got injured now because they dont believe his story. I dont think thats a smart thing to do. They are publicly putting forth their next franchise player who they just gave $66 as a liar to the public. Always keep your franchise player happy especially a cocky one like him who will take things personal

On the other hand, if something isn't quite kosher they have a right to investigate.

ESPN.com

Questions about how Golden State Warriors guard Monta Ellis sustained a serious ankle injury are only getting louder.

Multiple league sources have told ESPN.com that Ellis had several cuts and abrasions on his leg -- atypical of an injury sustained on a basketball court -- in addition to the high ankle sprain and torn deltoid ligament he suffered on Aug. 21.

The Contra Costa Times had earlier reported that the severity of the injury has the Warriors skeptical about the explanation they received from Ellis, who told the club he got hurt working out in his native Mississippi.

Ellis has not spoken publicly since his injury was revealed Wednesday and his agent, Jeff Fried, declined comment when reached by ESPN.com.

Just over a month after receiving one of the biggest pay raises in NBA history, Ellis underwent ankle surgery to repair the torn ligament last Wednesday in Alabama and will likely be sidelined until December at the earliest.

Two experts in sports medicine consulted by ESPN.com, granted anonymity because they aren't privy to the specifics of Ellis' condition, said that a torn deltoid ligament is rarely seen in basketball. The deltoid ligament, the sources explained, is on the medial (big toe) side of the ankle while the structures typically involved in a high ankle sprain are on the opposite (lateral) side of the ankle. Involvement of the deltoid suggests a more serious rotational injury than those commonly associated with the NBA, the sources said.

In a conference call last week with local reporters, Warriors executive vice president of basketball operations Chris Mullin said that Ellis informed the club that he injured himself playing pickup ball, but Mullin acknowledged that the details were unclear.

The Warriors have declined further comment beyond refuting part of the Contra Costa Times' Saturday report, which said that the team's athletic trainer, Tom Abdenour, had been dispatched to Mississippi to further examine Ellis. Abdenour, according to the team, is in South Africa as part of the NBA's annual Basketball Without Borders camps.

If Ellis is found to have sustained his injuries by taking part in non-basketball activities prohibited in his contract, Golden State could theoretically attempt to void the new six-year, $66 million deal signed by the 22-year-old on July 24. But such a drastic step is considered highly unlikely as long as the injuries cause no lasting damage, given Ellis' standing as perhaps Golden State's most prized asset in the wake of Baron Davis' free-agent defection to the Los Angeles Clippers.

The more likely punishments -- assuming Ellis makes a full recovery from his injuries -- are a fine or, at worst, a suspension.

A similar scenario played out in the 2006-07 season when Los Angeles Lakers forward Vladimir Radmanovic admitted to suffering a separated shoulder while snowboarding in Utah during the All-Star break, some five days after initially telling the Lakers that he slipped on an icy street while carrying a coffee. Radmanovic was fined $500,000, nearly 10 percent of his 2007-08 salary of $5.6 million.

Ellis' new contract calls for him to earn a flat $11 million in each of the next six seasons. That's after Ellis made $770,610 last season to complete a modest three-year deal he received as a second-round pick in 2005.

The 6-foot-3 guard earned that huge bump by averaging 20.2 points, 5.0 rebounds and 3.9 assists last season, after winning NBA Most Improved Player honors in the 2006-07 season when he averaged 16.5 points, 3.2 rebounds and 4.1 assists. Ellis seemed to understand his importance to the team's post-Davis future when he shared at a news conference in late July that Davis recently "told me it was time to hand over the torch."

It's been a difficult offseason for the Warriors, starting with Davis' verbal commitment to sign with his hometown Clippers on the very first day of free agency. The solace for Golden State is that Ellis has a history of making strong, fast recoveries from major injuries.

Despite a decorated high school career, Ellis slipped to No. 40 in the 2005 draft, largely because of a knee problem that scared teams off. But he has since proven more productive in the NBA than any of the 10 players drafted out of high school that year, which was the last time high school players were eligible to be selected. That group includes No. 6 overall pick Martell Webster (Portland), No. 10 Andrew Bynum (Los Angeles Lakers) and No. 18 Gerald Green (drafted by Boston, now with Dallas).

Ellis also suffered what initially appeared to be a serious knee injury during a summer-league practice in 2006, then endured a scary fall early in training camp last October that resulted in a neck sprain and required him to be immobilized and carted off the court. In both cases, though, Ellis missed minimal time. He appeared in 77 and 81 games, respectively, after the two injuries.

The plot thickens. I doubt they'd go so far as to try and void his contract since that would be cutting off their nose to spit their face but I expect they'd at least fine him if it turns out he wasn't honest about the nature of the injury.

Warriors' Ellis admits he lied about injury

Ouch. I hope it wasn't while snowboarding with Radmanovic

the Vlad Rad incident was pretty easy to call. he was in Utah visiting Vlade Divac and there isn't anything to do in Utah except ski and snowboard.

I'm really curious to know what Monta Ellis was doing in his hometown outdoors that would cause a ligament tear and a high ankle sprain.

I know Monta. I haven't talked to him in over a year but I'm going to have to get in touch with him to find out how this happened.

I know Monta. I haven't talked to him in over a year but I'm going to have to get in touch with him to find out how this happened.

0.0 you do??? holy....any chance of getting him to autograph his jersey and sending it to me?
hes one of the young players that i look up to

Maybe he tried jumping over a car and failed..

Congrats on finally getting 1,000 posts Martti. Can't wait to see Monta's fine.

i didn't know snowboarding was a banned activity. sucks for nba players who gotta wait till retirement to snowboard or skii. what other activities are banned other than motorcycling and snowboarding? let me guess, ping pong?