Monta Ellis is an American professional basketball player. He was born on October 26, 1985 in Jackson, Mississippi.
Ellis plays the point guard and shooting guard positions for the Golden State Warriors of the NBA. He is 6 ft 3 in (1.91 m) and his listed weight is 185 lb (84 kg).
After graduating from Lanier High School Ellis entered the 2005 NBA Draft. He is famous for being a prolific scorer and taking difficult shots. Ellis was named as Parade Magazine High School Player of the Year 2005. He scored career-best 72 points in a game against Greenwood High School.
Ellis was selected by Golden State in the second round of the 2005 NBA Draft and was also named NBA’s Most Improved Player in 2006-07. Another important highlight of Ellis’s basket ball carrier is that he was the first American high school player drafted by Golden State and was one of 10 high school players selected in the 2005 NBA Draft. Ellis was also named Mississippi’s “Mr. Basketball “in 2005.
The important highlights of Ellis’s NAB carrier are like so that he was drafted by the Warriors in the second round overall 40th in the 2005 NBA Draft. He was considered as one of the players to watch during the 2006 summer league, but was unfortunately unable to compete due to knee problems. Ellis signed $67 million contract extension with the Warriors, on July 2008 and became the highest paid player on the team.
During his 2006-07 seasons Ellis hit his first career game-winning shot as time expired to give the Warriors a 110–109 victory over the New Jersey Nets. On April 2007, he received the NBA’s Most Improved Player Award. In 2008, Ellis scored a career-high 39 points against the New Jersey Nets exactly one year to-the-day of his first ever game-winning shot.
In January 2011, Ellis made a game-winning jumper over Brandon Rush for the Warriors while going on an isolation play. Two days after he made a game-winning jumper, he made a jumper against the Sacramento Kings and send the game to overtime.
Ellis launched the “ME8 Foundation” to assists families and children in Jackson, MS and the Bay Area during the summer of 2010, also was an active participant in the Warriors’ community outreach efforts during his first five seasons in the NBA. Monta is married and is the father of one son, Monta Jr., who was born in the Summer of 2009. Ellis with fellow NBA player Maurice Williams hosted the Mississippi Celebrity Basketball Game at Jackson State University in summer 2008.