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"He was on a moped" - How Monta Ellis' lie cost him $3M and changed Warriors' future
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- "He was on a moped" - How Monta Ellis' lie cost him $3M and changed Warriors' future
There was a time when the Golden State Warriors' future wasn't centered around Stephen Curry. Before he was drafted, the keys to the franchise were in Monta Ellis ' hands, who had been with the team since he was 22.
The Warriors even believed in Ellis so much so that they signed him to a $66 million contract extension in 2008, reinforcing his place as the franchise's future. However, not long after Ellis signed the contract, everything changed. All because of a moped.
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A few weeks after putting pen to paper on the extension, Ellis suffered a major ankle injury that would sideline him for months. But what made the situation worse was that he lied about what happened.
Longtime NBA insider Brian Windhorst remembered how it all unfolded and how it eventually led to Ellis and the Warriors' relationship deteriorating, and to him planting the seeds for his replacement and Golden State's championship future.
"Monta Ellis was playing with the Warriors. He was pretty much their franchise player at that time. It came out that he had a really bad ankle injury over the summer, like in August or September of the off-season. I don't remember if he needed surgery, but he was out months," Windhorst recalled .
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"It was one of those injuries right away they knew he was going to be out 3-4 months," he added.
Moped crash
The severity of the injury immediately raised questions about what really happened, as Ellis had significant damage to his left ankle and needed surgery. There was something about the injury, however, that did not look right to the organization,
Windhorst recalled that most people, including Golden State, saw that the injury didn't appear to have been sustained while playing basketball. Eventually, Ellis would admit to lying about how he sustained the injury and to having actually violated the terms of the extension he had just signed.
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"I remember that when the Warriors looked at it, they were like, 'This is not a basketball-looking ankle.' Normally, in basketball, you roll your ankle outside. This one, he's like inverted," he shared. "It's not that it never happens, it was just very unusual that it would be this bad."
"It turned out he was on a moped when it happened," added Ellis.
Ellis' injury was unfortunate, but his knowing violation of the standard contract terms governing player conduct and his failure to engage in dangerous off-court activities created a significant problem for the organization.
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Ellis would admit to what happened and said he lied because he panicked after just signing the largest contract of his life. Despite his admission, the Warriors suspended him for 30 games without pay, leading to an estimated $3 million in lost salary.
However, the most damaging loss wasn't the salary. The whole controversy created a rift between Ellis and the Warriors and indirectly led to his removal as the face of the franchise, with his replacement by a player who would change both the franchise and the league.
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Butterfly effect
With their franchise player out for most of 2009, Golden State finished with only 29 wins, which led to the eighth pick in the Draft, where they selected Curry out of Davidson . Though Ellis would continue to be the Warriors' main man and ball out in the following seasons, the whole moped was ultimately the beginning of a transition period as Chef Curry continued to improve.
Ellis would get traded to the Milwaukee Bucks in 2012, cementing Steph as the franchise star. Alongside Klay Thomp[son and Draymond Green, Steph would change the league forever, initiating a 3-point revolution and creating a dynasty in Golden State that won them four rings.
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Meanwhile, while the moped controversy didn't destroy Ellis' career, it still led the Warriors to lose trust in him and trade him. He would remain a solid scorer until his retirement in 2017.
Ultimately, Ellis' impact on Golden State during their rebuilding years can't be overlooked. It just so happens that a single lie helped fracture his place as the Warriors' center and open a better path for the undeniably greatest Warrior of all time to emerge and change the league forever.
This story was originally published by Basketball Network on Oct 4, 2026, where it first appeared in the Old School section. Add Basketball Network as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
