Sometime back in March or April, back when Monta Ellis was playing reasonably well, I had a few buddies over for some quality time while the girlfriend was away. So it goes without saying that we drank beer and talked sports for roughly 8-12 hours. Pretty much all of the conversations had that night have been long forgotten for obvious reasons, but one came back to my mind yesterday.
My buddy Carp’s brother Forrest is an unabashed supporter of the Portland Trailblazers, which automatically means he is of the belief that someday Brandon Roy will be better than LeBron James, Kobe Bryant and Tim Duncan combined. OK, maybe that’s a little bit of an exaggeration, but if you know any Blazers fans you know that joke isn’t too far off.
Anyway, Carp was recanting an argument between he and his brother where Forrest claimed Monta would never be a true superstar because he wasn’t intelligent enough. Carp, Mac and I spent about 20 minutes trying to think of an example of a dumb superstar to prove Forrest wrong.
And we couldn’t think of one.
So the man who once claimed, “I’m a Warriors…I’m always going to be a Warriors” may never be a head coach, announcer or even someone who reads an entire book after his playing career. That’s OK. But now, his lack of smarts is costing the Warriors almost as much as his “moped” accident.
For any of you who haven’t heard, Monta is really, really, REALLY unhappy about the Warriors drafting Stephen Curry. About as upset as Stephen Jackson is that the Warriors never traded Curry and others for another not-that-smart wannabe superstar, Amare Stoudemire (who, admittedly, is probably Stephen Hawking compared to Monta). How upset is Monta? Check out what he said yesterday to reporters, as documented by Matt Steinmetz:
Ellis was asked a relatively innocuous question about playing alongside rookie Stephen Curry, and responded emphatically that the two smallish guards weren’t going to be able to play together.
“Us together? No,” Ellis said. “Can’t. We just can’t. … Just can’t.”
Someone then jumped in and said to Ellis: “Do you understand, they (the Warriors and coach Don Nelson) say you can?”
“They say you can?” Ellis repeated. “They say you can … but you can’t. I just want to win and you’re not going to win that way.”
Now in a basketball I.Q. sense, Monta isn’t looking too badly here. Clearly a team pairing two skinny 6′3″ guys for long periods of time will get absolutely eaten up by any team with a decent 2-guard (which is pretty much every team in the league). However, often what you don’t say is as important as what you do say, especially when it comes to speaking to the media.
After an off-season marred by trade failures and a trade request from one of the team’s captains, the last thing the Warriors needed on their first day in the public eye in ages was their highest-paid player looking even more disgruntled than he did back in the days when Tim Kawakami was declaring he’d never play in a Warriors uniform again (which led to Monta’s “I’ll always be a Warriors” near-Bushism soon after).
So today Don Nelson was left to do what he does best these days: spin.
“The only way we’d be able to play together is certain matchups,” said Ellis, who, like Curry, is 6-foot-3 and in the 180-pound range. “That’s the only way.”
Coach Don Nelson talked to Ellis about his previous comments, and they agreed that teams with big shooting guards will make an Ellis-Curry backcourt improbable.
Ellis “didn’t say anything that was untrue,” Nelson said. “There will be plenty of times that they won’t be able to play with each other. I wouldn’t put them in a situation in which they couldn’t compete.”
This leads to the obvious question: if the Warriors wouldn’t get rid of Curry under any circumstances during the off-season, and Curry and Monta will only rarely share time on the court, how long will Monta be a Warriors? After the moped accident, his lost half-to-full step he displayed in the Spring in his return from ankle surgery and his latest public comments, it looks like the smart thing for the Warriors to do would be to get rid of both Monta and Jackson as soon as possible.
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palabra.
I agree, get rid of him. He’s not a leader in any sense. I’d much rather win 20 games without Scooter than 28 with him. I remember Fitz asked him a question in an interview that involved a “big” yet common word like allocate or administer. And Monta just laughed, not because the question was funny, but because he didn’t understand the word Fitz used. At least Larry Hughes could read at a high school level.
Any chance Curry doesn’t get the biggest ovation from the fans at Oracle?
2nd-biggest…
Fan Favorites on Opening Night (in order)
1. Ant Randolph
2. Stephen Curry
3. Ronny Turiaf
4. Andris Biedrins
5. Anthony Morrow
6. Monta Ellis
7. Stephen Jackson
8. Kelenna Azubuike
9. Brandan Wright
10. C.J. Watson
11. Speedy Claxton
12. Mikki Moore
13. Acie Law
N/A: Corey Maggette
we aren’t going to be good this year with the current roster. it is time to blow this thing up. i would watch just as many games (if not more) if our starting lineup consisted of curry, morrow, randolph, turiaf, and biedrens. that’s a team i can route for. Jackson completely over rates his own value, to the fault of Nellie, and believes that he is a number one. Realistically Jackson is, at best, a decent second or third option on the floor. doesn’t he remember that it was Baron taking and making all those big shots in 2007? he seems to be a bit delusional regarding his abilities and talents and the warriors have only fed into that delusion (and ego).
I think Jackson is afraid of his career being shortened by Nellie leaning on him too much.
Last season Jack missed 1 or more games and came back 7 times. In his comeback games, he averaged 41 mpg.
Jackson is a valuable player when he’s engaged and not asked to carry the load of a No. 1/2 guy. If he’s your 4th or 5th best player, you can win a title. If he’s playing for a coach who’s afraid to rest him even when he’s coming back from injury in relatively meaningless regular season games, ugghh…
“Big Shot Jack”, come on dude. Azubuike makes bigger shots.
Stephen Jackson fires pretty big (warning) shots outside of strip clubs.
Problem with the Warriors is the ownership that allows this dysfunction to trickle down to the players. Let the Empire of Oracle buy the damn team already. If Ellison runs the team like he does Oracle we could be in for the best run since OJ and his Ford Bronco….and for the record I am saying Chris Cohan has been as good for the warriors as George Bush was for international relations….
And if Ellison does buy the Warriors, would that make him a favorite for the next Nobel Peace Prize?
I think he already won for giving the warrior fans hope