Monta Ellis had a great relationship with Steph Curry during his stint with the Golden State Warriors. On his interview to Slam Magazine, Ellis revealed what he said to Curry, after Monta got traded to the Bucks in 2012.
“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.”
Ellis was a fan-favorite in Bay Area, in which he played during the first seven years of his career averaging 20.5 points and 5.6 assists per game during that span. The fans didn’t like that the Warriors traded Ellis as Steph Curry was just in his third year, dealing with several ankle injuries, with no one expecting to be a two-time MVP that time.
