Milwaukee Bucks: Monta Ellis found trade from Warriors to be “heartbreaking”

When Monta Ellis was traded to the Milwaukee Bucks from the Golden State Warriors, he wasn’t exactly thrilled by the news that he was on the move.

The Milwaukee Bucks have come a long, long way over the course of the last few years.

If a player was traded to Milwaukee today, while the weather may not exactly be at the top of anyone’s wishlist, they could look to a significant list of positives and would seem unlikely to need too much convincing about the upside.

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A trade to the Bucks would now mean getting to play alongside a truly generational player in league MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo, joining one of the NBA’s very best teams as they contend for championships, playing under two-time Coach of the Year Mike Budenholzer, and getting to play in some of the league’s most state of the art facilities between Fiserv Forum and the Froedtert & Medical College of Wisconsin Sports Science Center.

Of course, that wasn’t always the case.

In the early part of the decade, a trade to Milwaukee was enough to leave players devastated. As I touched on in a deep dive into the 2012-13 season on Monday, J.J. Redick was brought to tears upon finding out he was being traded to the Bucks.

As it turns out, Monta Ellis, who would be one of Redick’s teammates when he arrived from Orlando later in that season, was similarly disappointed when he found out his next career stop after the Warriors would be with the Bucks.

Speaking with Wes Goldberg of The Mercury News on Monday’s episode of Locked On Warriors, Ellis shared his reaction to finding out he’d been shipped away from Golden State in a deal that saw Andrew Bogut headed in the opposite direction.

Asked of his reaction to the trade, Ellis responded by describing it as “heartbreaking.” From there, the guard continued:

"“It was the turning point of my career. I felt like I was owed the opportunity to know what was happening. The killer part was I had just talked to them before I left the hotel and they told me they weren’t going to trade me.”"

Perhaps even worse, Ellis viewed the fact that he was traded to Milwaukee, specifically, as an intentional attempt to hurt him on behalf of the Warriors’ management:

"“Didn’t call my agent, didn’t tell me nothing. Anything. It was just messed up how they did it…and for them to send me to Milwaukee, where they sent me, it was kind of like they were trying to stick it to me – like they were trying to hurt me or something.”"

Ellis finished out the 2011-12 season with the Bucks, played for the franchise in 2012-13, and then departed for the Dallas Mavericks in free agency.

The truth is the deal didn’t really work out for either Ellis or the Bucks, and given the Warriors went on to become a juggernaut with Bogut, it’s no real surprise that Ellis may still be harboring some ill will all these years later.