From Lowell Cohn at the Santa Rosa Press Democrat: Monta Ellis is developing into one of the best guards in his league. He has a shot at being an All Star and he certainly is playing at an All-Star level. On Friday I sat with him at courtside after the morning shootaround. We discussed his improved play, his stature as a player, how he overcame his rift with Warriors' management and we discussed NBA players and guns. I want to stress that last point. Ellis is not against NBA players owning guns. He is against foolish use of guns. He insists gun owners have permits and he says guns should be kept at home in a safe. I stress all this because some people reading this interview may disagree with Ellis and make a big deal of it. Others may think I set him up. I didn't. I happen to agree with him. The Constitution gives Americans the right to bear arms and in this case I am a strict constructionist. I guess Ellis is, too. I hope you enjoy this interview. I will write a column about Ellis for Monday. Q: Why are you playing better since Stephen Jackson left? A: It might look that way because when he left I started playing well, but when he was here I wasn't really in game shape yet. I still had a few problems that was going on but once he left I just sat down with my wife. She was like, "Just go out and give it your all," and so I just put everything behind me, everything in the past, everything that was going on at the time and just got back to playing basketball. Q: When you say you put everything behind you can you give me an example of what you put behind? A: (long pause) The past. I'm just going to leave it at that. I don't want to get into details. I don't want to bring nothing back up. I've been doing good so far with it behind me. Everything is good right now. Q: Do you feel you are one of the best guards in the league? A: Yes, I feel that. Q: Why? A: Stats speak for themselves. Not only that, I go out and compete against the top guards in this league. That's probably the only thing the top guards have over me is they have a winning record. But we're young, we're still getting to know each other. The young guys are still trying to learn this league and make a name for themselves. We've been having our ups and our downs, but as far as my stats and any other guard in this league my stats match up just as well as theirs. Q: Do you feel in a discussion your name could be mentioned in the same sentence as Kobe Bryant, Dwyane Wade elite people like that. A: (Ellis laughs.) Q: It's making you laugh that question? A: Yeah. (Ellis laughs a lot more.) Q: Why are you laughing? A: You can say it. It really doesn't matter to me. I'm going to continue to go out and do what I do and keep being me. If I ever get to that point, and it's OK if I don't, hey I know one day when I retire when you ask, 'Who was Monta Ellis?' people would know. Q: You are a better defender this season. Why? Have you committed yourself this season to playing harder defense? A: I always could play defense. That was my thing coming into the NBA. My high school coach was always about defense first and offense second. So I always could play defense. If you go back and look at when Coach Nelson first got here I used to pick my guy up full court. I used to draw a lot of charges and had a lot of steals I believe that year. I always had defense. It's just this year, not to criticize none of my teammates, but when Stephen Jackson left who was there left to guard the best player? I know I can do it so I just wanted to take on the role of guarding the best player. I had a choice to step up and play that defensive role as well. Q: I got the feeling after you broke your ankle you were angry at management. Here's my question. Has that anger made you a better player? Have you been able to focus that anger? You seem really fierce on the court. A: When I was going through what I was going through I wasn't playing to my potential. When you angry that means you're frustrated, that means that you not in the right state of mind. You're not yourself. I sat down and said, 'Put everything behind you and just move on.' That's when I came back to being the Monta who everybody know. People asked, Monta, will he be the same? I listened and I laughed because I know me. Everybody goes through it when the best player gets hurt and the management - it was a crazy reason why I was injured - so they had just invested a lot of money in me, so I felt where they was coming from. But at the same time from my end, me being the player in that situation how it went down it was like a daddy-and-son disagreement. Eventually, the son get over it and the daddy get over it and they move on. The past in the past, last year is last year. Q: You came back to being Monta this season? A: Yeah. Q: Tell me about your son, Monta, Jr. A: He's 7 months old, best thing that ever happened to me. He was born June 5 in Memphis, that's where his mom's from. The only thing I do now is go to practice and go home and be with my family. It's a different feeling. And that's another thing that just changed my whole mindset was just going home and everything that was going on on the court just seeing him just lightened my day up. Life is too short to be holding grudges or be angry. I sat down and had a talk with my wife and she was like, 'Just go out there and have fun and just get back to doing what you're doing,' and that's what I did. Q: Has being a dad made you more of a grown up? A: It has. I think about this all the time. I always used to call my dad "Dad." Now that you have your own son everything you do now not only affects you. It affects your family, that's your son, your wife, your immediate family that you're bonding with. That's someone (his son) who's going to look up to me. You want to set a great example. My father, me and him have a great relationship but he never was in my life. I always wanted to have a relationship with my son and be there in his life till I be put in the ground and I want to be the one to teach him how to take his first step, teach him how to take his first jump shot, teach him how he should go about girls, and get his education. It's amazing, it's a blessing, it's a different responsibility. At the end of the day I'm going to tell you (his son) 'You're wrong (if he has to). I'm going to love you to death.' But I always was taught what's wrong is wrong what's right is right. I was raised by my grandparents, my grandma and my granddad. My whole life is different than a normal 24 year old because I was taught different. I always was hanging out with older people so I do things like an older person would do instead of a 24 year old. Having a son you have to do that because, like I said, it not only affects you no more. It affects him and it affects your wife. Q: You were brought up by your grandma and grandpa, not by your mom and dad. A: My dad he was a police officer in Houston, Texas and my mom she was raising three boys by herself so she was always at work. She worked three jobs. It wasn't like she wasn't in my life. She was just trying to provide for me and my brothers and she was always working. We never had time to really just bond but me and my mom through all the three jobs we was like brother and sister. I always talked to her about anything. She would come home from a long day at work, she'd be tired, she'd be like, "Monta, grease my scalp, wash my hair." And I used to do that. I was pretty much with my grandma and granddaddy because that's who I stayed with. My mom she stayed there too but like I say she had three jobs so she was always working. Q: Are your grandma and grandpa still alive? A: Yes. They still tell me what I'm doing right, what I'm doing wrong. When I was going through what I was going through last year, if they felt like I was wrong they were telling me I was wrong. I would listen. Q: After all the stuff happened with Gilbert Arenas, and it's still happening, someone said maybe 75 percent of NBA players own guns. If it's true, what do you think about it? A: The situation with Gilbert I don't know it. I'm not going to comment on that. But players with guns you got to be smart about it. If you're going to have a gun at least have it registered. You have to understand where you are. If you're in a state where they don't allow guns then why have it? And if you do have it, have it in a safe somewhere. Put it up. Don't be around showing it off. Be smart about it. You have to think about whose lives you're going to affect. It's not you no more you're living for. If you got a child the decision that you make with a gun it's going to affect that child. It's going to affect your family. Because we are targets. Everybody knows that. When you go out sometimes people come at you because they know if you do something to them really you're a cash cow. If you do something and retaliate then either you going to jail or you going to get killed or they going to sue you for it. Through all this stuff with the football players getting shot, people breaking in their house and robbing them, couple of guys in the NBA (robbers) even coming in their house and robbing them, I mean being a man you want to protect your family. I don't have a problem with it but if you got a gun keep it in the house. Don't carry it around with you if you're in a state where you know you can't carry a gun. Be smart. Q: In a way it all goes back to being a good father. A: Yes, my granddad, he used to have a lot of guns. There were a lot of things he taught me. One was, if you have a gun and you have kids, get a safe. Another thing he taught me, if you have a gun and if you going to use it, that's the only time you draw it. If you're not going to use it don't ever draw your gun if you're not going to use it. Because that's a threat to another person's life and if he retaliates on you and kills you, he can get off on that because his life is in danger. That's self-defense. I don't have a problem with NBA players having guns and NFL players but if you're going to have them keep them in the house. Gilbert, it's a mistake he made. My prayers go out to him and his family. I hope he overcome it but it's something he may have to live with now. I know I knocked Monta earlier but I feel bad because I did not know then the things that Monta reveals here. I can do nothing but root for Monta now. As a father and husband myself, heart-warming to see how much those things mean to him. And what a job by his grandparents raising him (and his hardworking mom). I love his answer to the gun issue, you can tell his grandpa raised him correctly, even though I hate handguns.
