Cuts, abrasions lead some to question cause of Ellis' injury
By Marc Stein

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.

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?

Posted by Nalod:

He gotta choke the coach first.

Got to hand it two Marbury, at least he only injures his brain in the off season.

Got to hand it two Marbury, at least he only injures his brain in the off season.

Warriors' Ellis admits he lied about injury
By Marcus Thompson II

The saga surrounding the left ankle of Warriors guard Monta Ellis has taken a step toward a conclusion. The Contra Costa Times has learned that Ellis has admitted to the Warriors that he wasn't truthful about how he hurt his ankle, and the two sides are in talks about how to put the situation behind them.

According to a team source, the Warriors now know that Ellis' ankle injury _ which was repaired during surgery on Aug. 27 _ was not sustained "in a gym," and "it happened out doors and not while playing basketball."

The source did not reveal what Ellis told Warriors management he was doing when he got hurt, only that he "was scared to tell the truth at first," but eventually did.

At first, Ellis told the team he was working out in Jackson, Miss., when he injured his ankle on Aug. 21, tearing a deltoid ligament and suffering a severe high ankle sprain. But he has been in regular communication with Chris Mullin, the executive vice president of basketball operations, with whom Ellis has a close relationship.

The team can fine and/or suspend Ellis if he injured his ankle by participating in a prohibited activity, such as motorcycle riding or snowboarding. Should he somehow not be able to play again, the Warriors could terminate the six-year, $66 million contract they signed Ellis to in July.

Ellis will be out for a minimum of three months.