http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=3638098 OAKLAND, Calif. -- The Golden State Warriors are punishing Monta Ellis not long after they rewarded him. The Warriors suspended the injured guard for 30 games without pay Saturday for violating his lucrative new contract by getting into a moped accident. Ellis, who agreed to a six-year deal worth $66 million in July, severely sprained his ankle in a low-speed crash in late August. The suspension will cost the guard slightly less than $3 million. The Warriors counted four preseason games in the suspension's length, which means Ellis can't return to the club until after Golden State's 26th regular-season game, against Indiana on Dec. 17. Ellis, who recently underwent surgery to repair a torn ligament, was unlikely to return before then anyway, but the suspension means the guard won't be paid during his absence. Ellis' agent, Jeff Fried, met with Golden State officials during the week to settle Ellis' punishment. Ellis compounded his mistake by initially lying to the Warriors about the accident. He told Chris Mullin, the Warriors' top basketball executive, that he hurt himself playing pickup ball in his native Mississippi, but came clean about the accident several days later.
Hopefully this is a lesson that other NBA players can learn from. Don't make stupid mistakes or it could end up costing you a lifetime's worth of money (regular person "lifetime").
If the result is he doesn't get paid for time off because of his own stupidity it seems like a fair resolution to the situation.
To me it seems like Monte felt bad and he basically told his agent to do what he could to pay back the GS Warriors for his mistake, they made a very conservative estimate on how many games he'd miss either way and chose to pay GS that money back in the form of a 30 game no pay suspension.
