Former star giving back

Former Golden State Warrior Joe Ellis played with and against some of the greatest players in NBA history. Rick Barry. Oscar Robertson. Elgin Baylor. Jerry West. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Bill Russell. Wilt Chamberlain. Just to name a few. Ellis, 66, enjoyed a solid eight-year career -- all with the Warriors --averaging double figures three times. His best year came in the 1969-70 season, when he averaged 15.8 points and 7.8 rebounds per game. Far removed from his playing days, Ellis is still involved in the sport, giving basketball lessons to kids and teenagers as a freelance consultant. A resident of Foster City for the past 38 years, Ellis hooked up with the Peninsula Jewish Community Center (PJCC) three years ago as a basketball consultant. "I've been training young people for quite a while and I thought this would be a great place to teach youngsters since it's a couple of minutes from my house," said Ellis, who is going to run a basketball camp for kids in the third to sixth grades starting June 28 and running through July 2. He also leads a variety of classes and leagues at the PJCC throughout the year. "A couple of goals is to help kids develop some discipline and having them learn and follow directions. But the biggest concern (especially for the youngest kids) is keeping them focused. If they walk away from one of the programs having learned that along with a couple of skills, I would consider that a success. But the most important part is they enjoy themselves." Ellis, who also gives private lessons, loves working with kids because it keeps him young. Any time he can bring a smile to a kids' face, it brings him joy and reminds him of the time when he was growing up and how much fun he had playing the game. "I have a ball (teaching kids)," Ellis said. "If I didn't enjoy it, there is absolutely no way I would be out there doing this. I enjoy just watching them take baby steps and see the look in their eyes, especially when they do something they didn't think they could do." If nothing else, Ellis can give kids a valuable lesson in maximizing your potential, because that's exactly what he did in a standout playing career. Born in Oakland, Ellis played for one of the nation's best high school basketball programs in McClymonds, graduating in 1962. Back then, middle school ran through the ninth grade, so Ellis' first year at McClymonds was as a 10th grader. Just how great was McClymonds? Ellis played for the junior varsity team as a sophomore because he knew he wouldn't get much playing time in his first year. You're talking about a future NBA player folks. "They had some pretty good players who kept me off the varsity," Ellis said. "Paul Silas (former NBA standout) was a senior when I was a sophomore." Back in Ellis' prep playing days the Northern California tournament -- which was called the Tournament of Champions -- wasn't divided by divisions. So unlike today's watered-down high school basketball playoff tournaments, the TOC involved the best of the best. And there was no doubt McClymonds was the alpha dog. In a remarkable eight-year stretch, McClymonds won the TOC eight consecutive years, winning 110 of 111 games over that span. Ellis was part of that run in his junior and senior seasons, and he was named the TOC MVP in '62. After a brilliant career at the prep level, Ellis did likewise at USF. A 6-foot-5, 175-pound guard/forward, Ellis enjoyed four spectacular years for the Dons. Ellis was inducted into the USF Hall of Fame and in 2006 named one of the 50 legends on the Hill Top, no small feat considering once upon a time USF was a men's basketball powerhouse. When Ellis was a member of the Dons, they gave John Wooden's UCLA teams consistently tougher competition than just about any other program in the nation. Ellis made all conference all four years, and garnered honorable mention All-American honors once. Despite being a standout player at the college level, Ellis didn't really have any idea if or when he would get drafted. But one day late in his senior year, then-USF coach Pete Peletta told Ellis he had been drafted as the 13th overall pick in the second round -- in that year the NBA consisted of 10 teams -- by what was then the San Francisco Warriors, who relocated to Oakland five years later and took up the moniker Golden State. "I was elated," Ellis said. "I hadn't even thought of being drafted or playing professional ball. I wasn't shocked, but a the same time, it was kind of a surprise. The Warriors had a long history of drafting local guys, but I was having so much fun playing, the draft didn't even cross my mind." Ellis played eight years before the Warriors put him on waivers after the '73-74 season. No other team picked him up, so Ellis went overseas and played a year in Belgium before retiring. Ellis has no regrets on his pro career, even though Golden State won the NBA championship the season after he was waived. "That's life," Ellis said. "Every thing is about timing." Although Ellis said he still had a couple of good years left in him, he was tired of being so far away from his family. And he didn't want to continually try out for teams, just hoping to latch onto a squad with no guaranteed spot on a roster. So, at the ripe old age of 31, Ellis called it a career. For pro athletes, retirement tends to be an extremely tough transition to the next chapter in their life. For years they played a kids' game in front of thousands of people, intoxicated by the adrenaline rush created by the pro athletic arena. "(Retirement) is more of an emotional adjustment," he said. "I think most athletes don't ever think that time is going to come. It took me about a year to actually get it (the jones of playing) out of my system." But Ellis has fond memories of his NBA-playing days. Ellis said his biggest strengths centered around his quickness and jumping ability. While he played with and against some of the NBA's all-time best, Ellis said "The Big O" (Robertson) and "Mr. Clutch" (West) stand out because they controlled the game and got any shot they wanted, when they wanted. "There was no way of stopping them," Ellis said. "You look at Oscar, and here was a guy getting triple doubles before they were even keeping stats of that. Then they started taking them and he averaged a triple-double for an entire season. That's pretty good. And with Jerry, he had the quickness, the size and could do it all. He was so graceful and of course made all the clutch shots. And he wasn't mean about it, either. He would make a shot on you, but wouldn't be the type to get in your face afterwards and let you know it." Although Ellis relishes how the game was played in his era, he can't say the same about today's NBA. Like a lot of basketball purists, Ellis said he doesn't recognize a game in which players routinely palm the ball and take two and a half to three steps and somehow not get called for traveling. It's because of the decline of fundamental skills from today's players along with the bottom-line, money-driven machine sports has become, that Ellis rarely watches the NBA -- including the finals. "I can't sit and watch it," he said. "No. 1, it takes too long, and I don't like all the theatrics." That's because Ellis quietly went about his business, doing his work and producing on a consistent basis. "I'm pleased with my career and how I played," he said. "I played consistently and produced consistently, and that's all anyone can do. Against the big boys, I could hold my own." Ellis is in a different environment now, teaching a younger generation of kids -- some of whom don't even reach his knees -- life skills and how to play the game.