Former NBA star Monta Ellis believes that he would have also won NBA titles in Golden State if he was the one occupying Stephen Curry's shoes.
Monta Ellis remains convinced that the Golden State Warriors would have achieved similar results if he were in Stephen Curry's position.
After becoming the new general manager of Alcorn State, Ellis dropped the bold claim that he could also have led Golden State to multiple NBA championships if he had been given the same title-caliber teams that Curry eventually played with.
"That's what I dealt with. And people know that," Ellis told Myron Medcalf of ESPN. "Real people that know basketball and all that, they know that. They know the team that I was dealt with.
"If you switched me and Steph out with the team that won the championships, it'd be the same thing. So you've got to take the good with the bad, and that's cool. It put me in a position to make money for me and my family. I ran with that."
Stephen Curry, Monta Ellis careers compared amid Warriors' historic success
Stephen Curry and Monta Ellis shared the court as running mates before the start of the Dubs dynasty.
As both players were small guards and exposed the Golden State Warriors' highly vulnerable backcourt defense, the franchise faced a tough dilemma. In the end, the Warriors chose Curry over Ellis, as the 2007 Most Improved Player was dealt to the Milwaukee Bucks in a 2012 trade for Andrew Bogut.
Initially, the Warriors offered Curry to the Bucks, but Milwaukee dismissed him due to his early-career, chronic ankle injuries, forcing Golden State to give up Ellis instead.
And the rest was simply history. With Curry at the forefront, the Warriors became a dynasty in the modern era. Klay Thompson served as the perfect backcourt co-star to Curry and with the eventual draft arrival of Draymond Green, Golden State went on to win NBA titles in 2015, 2017, 2018, and 2022 while setting the record for most regular-season wins with their historic 73-win 2015-16 campaign.
While Curry became an all-time great and a two-time NBA MVP, Ellis saw his career gradually decline upon leaving the Bay Area. His two seasons in Milwaukee failed to generate success despite him being the team's main star. From 2013 to 2015, he joined the Dallas Mavericks as a star partner for Dirk Nowitzki, but the team also failed to meet its desired contention direction.
Ellis signed a four-year, $44 million contract with Indiana in 2015 free agency, but his game fell off a cliff. Struggling to shoot efficiently while his explosiveness slowly faded, Ellis was eventually waived by the Pacers in 2017 and did not play again in the NBA at age 31.
In the end, given how things have brutally unfolded in Ellis' career, the Warriors can't be more thankful for choosing Curry, which catapulted the franchise to one of the legendary teams ever.
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