Wednesday, October 26th, 2011 at 12:35 pm  |  15 responses

Videos: Best of Monta Ellis

On his 26th birthday, we celebrate The Mississippi Bullet with a gallery of highlights.

by Eldon Khorshidi / @eldonadam

For Monta Ellis, nothing came easy.

Coming out of Lanier High School in Jackson, MS, the 19-year-old lanky guard plummeted to the 40th pick in the 2005 Draft, where the Golden State Warriors took a chance on him. Due to knee surgery, Ellis was unable to play in the summer league circuit, and when the 2005 season began, he found himself at the end of the Warriors bench. It all made sense. After all, the 40th pick should feel lucky to even make an NBA roster, right?

Wrong. Fast-forward six years and you have a player who consistently ranks top-10 in the NBA in scoring and steals, as well as top-20 in assists and three-point shooting. Dubbed “The Mississippi Bullet” for his blazing speed, the 6-3, 185-pound guard always finds a way to slither into the paint and make a play at the rim. Ellis’ uncanny ability to score in bunches and hit difficult shots has placed him among the best shooting guards in the League, and in 2007 the Warriors took notice, signing Ellis to a six-year, $67 million deal.

In honor of his 26th birthday today, we’ve compiled 15 of the best moments of Ellis’ career thus far. There’s some memorable single-game performances, a few nifty moves and vintage tape from his high school days. Considering he’s only approaching his prime, you can bet this won’t be the last time you see the Warriors star all over our highlight reels. Until then, happy born day, Monta!

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  • Ismael Posted: Oct.26 at 12:55 pm
    “The Mississippi Bullet” is an awesome nickname for Monta.

  • Enigmatic Posted: Oct.26 at 1:04 pm
    LOL I saw this on the homepage and thought “wait, Monta Ellis is number 3 on the SLAM top 50?”
    Ha, haven’t had my coffee yet…

  • Max Posted: Oct.26 at 1:05 pm
    It’s just so nice to see him drive to the hoop in slo-mo.
    I guess he would be a pretty good fit in Orlando.

  • marc Posted: Oct.26 at 1:36 pm
    i would have love to see him go against AI in his prime. 2K make it happen lol

  • golden state Posted: Oct.26 at 1:50 pm
    man i remember this baby faced, no tats, 19yr old kid come into the league as baron’s little side kick. such an efficient scorer. i know a lot of people around here would like the warriors keep steph and trade monta but not me. I would love to see monta finish his career as a warrior. we basically saw this kid grow up before our eyes. happy bday monta

  • Showtime Posted: Oct.26 at 2:17 pm
    This dude really can be top 10 talent, if only start producing W’s. happy G day my dude

  • nbk Posted: Oct.26 at 2:21 pm
    It’s Andrea Bargnani’s birthday too. Shouldn’t y’all do a montage of his letting defenders too the hoop? Maybe, CGI a Matador Outfit on him? happy birthday bargs

  • Max Posted: Oct.26 at 3:11 pm
    ^Lol

  • kamikaze Posted: Oct.26 at 5:12 pm
    video 6 has one of the illest handshakes i ever saw. probably would break my fingers tryin’ that one.

  • jmoney Posted: Oct.26 at 5:33 pm
    he shaking up GD it aint no ill handshake stupid

  • chris Posted: Oct.26 at 10:11 pm
    thats my boy, to hard to gaurd yeah!!!! happy B-day man!!!

  • Pearl Posted: Oct.27 at 12:15 am
    How cool is that – you treating us to these video highlights of Monta on his B-Day! Monta is just awesome! I really enjoyed the Phoenix games where he had Nash falling over his own feet trying to stop Monta from driving to the basket. We gotta keep him on the team.

  • Hursty Posted: Oct.27 at 9:00 am
    Love seeing the Aussie flag at the 2.11 mark of the 46pt game against Houston haha

  • GETREAL Posted: Oct.27 at 11:46 am
    Monta is so underrated!

  • datkid Posted: Oct.27 at 12:23 pm
    monta is so similar to allen iverson… to me at least.

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