The Globetrotter : After Season Overseas, LeRon Ellis is Back in the NBA

LeRon Ellis could have taken another cushy basketball job in Europe, schooled a few more Italians or Spaniards in the paint, swatted a few more shots into the fourth row and lined his bank account with a cool $300,000.

It would have been easy money.

Too easy.

Sizing up the European basketball landscape after one season, the 6-foot-10 Ellis saw too many NBA has-beens, or Continental Basketball Assn.-caliber players looking for heftier paychecks.

Ellis, a former Mater Dei High School standout, didn’t want to fall into that trap. Wasn’t it just two years ago that he was a first-round pick in the NBA?

He had lucrative offers to return to Europe--Ellis played in Spain and Italy last season--but didn’t want to risk sinking deeper into basketball oblivion.

He knew he had to make another serious run at the NBA, even if that meant a serious pay cut and reduction in playing time, because the longer he stayed in Europe, the harder it would be to return.

“Overseas careers are for guys who just can’t play here or guys who just want to make money,� said Ellis, whose father, LeRoy, was an NBA center. “I had offers to play in Europe, but I had to try to make it here instead of running overseas because of the money, which is what I did last year.�

That decision sliced his salary in half, but at least Ellis has his pride.

So what if he’s making the NBA minimum of $150,000, playing only 10 minutes a game and averaging 3.2 points and three rebounds for the Charlotte Hornets?

Ellis has shown he can make a positive contribution to a team in professional basketball’s premier league, which is a lot more than the Clippers thought he was capable of two years ago.

Remember that debacle? Ellis, who played at Kentucky and Syracuse, was the 22nd overall selection in 1991, but you knew something might be wrong when the pick was booed by Clipper fans watching the draft in the Sports Arena.

It was all downhill from there.

The Clippers were over the salary cap when they drafted Ellis and could offer him only $180,000, the NBA minimum for first-round picks that year.

Ellis held out for a week, pondered some opportunities in Europe, and eventually signed with the Clippers for $180,000, or about $300,000 less than the going rate for late first-round picks.

With a minimum salary came minimal playing time. Ellis played only 103 minutes in 29 games in 1991-92, averaging 1.5 points and less than a rebound per game. He was strictly an end-of-the-bench guy, a garbage-time player who seemed destined for the CBA.

The Cal-Hi Sports state player of the year in 1987 who once was labeled a “can’t-miss professional,� Ellis didn’t even come close with the Clippers. He was released at the end of the season.

“They didn’t give me a chance,� said Ellis, who averaged 23 points and eight rebounds to lead Mater Dei to the State championship in 1987. “I wish I would have went to a team that cultivates rookies, but the Clippers don’t.

“I look at (Charlotte rookie) Scott Burrell’s situation, and even though he’s been hurt, they still gave him a chance. He has started some games, and that’s good to see, because I know what it’s like to be on a team that doesn’t do that. I was a young, energetic (Clipper) rookie, I worked out hard trying to show them I wanted a chance, and they just let me sit.�

Ellis played the first half of the 1992-93 season in Spain, averaged 15 points and 10 rebounds and was leading the league in blocked shots when his team, in an effort to trim its payroll, decided not to pick up Ellis’ option for the second half of the season.

Ellis returned to the United States and played one game for the CBA’s Columbus Horizon--blocking six shots--before returning overseas to play for Hyundai Desio in the Italian League.

When he decided to give the NBA another try, the Hornets were a logical choice. Ellis had scored well at Charlotte in 1991 pre-draft tests, the Hornets didn’t have great depth at center and power forward, and Ellis trusted Coach Allan Bristow and Dave Twardzik, the team’s player personnel director.

“I felt I wasn’t going to get fed a lot of b.s.,� Ellis said. “I knew if I would make the team, they’d let me know, and if I wasn’t, they weren’t going to jerk me around. That’s why I went there.�

Good move. Ellis made the team as a free agent and appears to have solidified his position in the first two months of the season.

Though he won’t garner any All-Star votes, Ellis has been the Hornets’ second big man off the bench, behind starters Alonzo Mourning and Larry Johnson and reserve Kenny Gattison. He has bulked up from 225 to 240 pounds since 1991 and is not being outmuscled like he was in his rare Clipper appearances.

“I come in, rebound, set picks, roll to the basket, get up and down the floor on the fast break, hustle after loose balls,� Ellis said. “I haven’t exactly developed as much as I could the past two years, but I’m starting to come along with more playing time.�

Many thought Ellis’ basketball growth was stunted in college. He was a part-time starter as a freshman at Kentucky in 1987-88, when the Wildcats went 27-6 and lost to Villanova in the third round of the NCAA tournament, and he led the Wildcats in scoring with a 16-point average as a sophomore.

But that 1988-89 Kentucky team went 13-19, the school’s worst record since 1926-27, and was put on three years’ NCAA probation after the season.

Ellis transferred to Syracuse, where his average dipped to six points in 1989-90 and 11 in 1990-91, both seasons in which the highly touted Orangemen failed to advance past the third round of the NCAA tournament.

Some labeled Ellis an underachiever, but Ellis said his low productivity had more to do with the too-many-players, not-enough-balls theory. With teammates such as Derrick Coleman, Billy Owens and Steve Thompson, there simply weren’t enough shots to go around.

“I was thrown in with some real good players at Syracuse and had to play a role,� Ellis said. “I’m not a selfish player. I came in and did my job, and it was the other guys’ job to score.�

That’s how it is in Charlotte, and that’s how Ellis hopes it remains. Charlotte wingman David Wingate is expected to return from knee surgery in early January, and the Hornets will have to make a roster move, but Ellis is confident he won’t be released.

Mike Gminski, a 34-year-old center with a $1.8-million salary who has played in only four games, would seem a more logical cut, but, then again, the Hornets, because of the complicated salary cap situation, might want to keep Gminski’s salary slot in order to sign a free agent next season.

“I’ve only been in it one year, but I know it’s a business,� Ellis said. “I went through all the rigmarole you could go through the last two years, but I’m hoping this is a place I can grow. I feel comfortable here, and if I continue to get playing time in the same place, I know I can get better. I just hope it lasts.�