As many old-school NBA fans know, Dale Ellis is one of the best three-point shooters of the 1990s. In a time when the three-point shot wasn’t as admired, Ellis made it cool to be able to knock it down from beyond the arc. Before he became a scoring machine in the NBA, Ellis grew up as a natural athlete playing basketball, baseball, and football in the sandlots near his childhood home. At the behest of his mother, Ellis was forced to grow up with the other young men who basically lived and breathed outdoor sports.
Recently, Dale Ellis took the time to sit down with Fadeaway World’s Nick Mac to discuss his upbringing, college days at the University of Tennesee, and of course, his journey to and through the NBA. He discussed his transition from big man to perimeter savant from college to the NBA and the many legendary battles he had with the likes of Michael Jordan, Alvin Robertson, and teammate Derek Harper in the NBA.
Below is the full transcript from the discussion between Nick Mac and former NBA All-Star Dale Ellis.
Nick Mac: “Good Afternoon, Dale. Thanks for taking the time to speak with me.”
Dale Ellis: “Thank you for having me, Nick. Let’s do this!”
Nick Mac: “Well, I would like to get started with your early life a bit. When did you first say to yourself that you wanted to be a basketball player and when did that dream start to become a reality?”
Dale Ellis: “Well, as a kid that’s all it is, just dreaming. I played a lot of sandlot sports like football, baseball, and of course, basketball. I grew up in government housing so once you walk out your front door, you are right in the street and there were kids playing a ton of games. My mother was the one that pushed me to go outside. She said if I kept opening and closing the door, I was going to stay inside with her. I enjoyed basketball the most and around 12 was when I started saying I was going to play professional basketball but you really don’t have a clue at that age.”
Nick Mac: “When did it start to settle in as a real possibility?”
Dale Ellis: “Well, when I got into middle school, I dropped all the other sports and started playing organized basketball. It was a challenge because it was the first time I had ever played organized sports. I enjoyed it despite the challenges and I knew right then that this is what I wanted to do.”
Nick Mac: “What was the process like in choosing Tennessee as your school?”
Dale Ellis: “That was the toughest decision of my life. I have a twin brother who played as well and I had a dozen schools offering a package deal to bring both of us in. My high school coach and coach of the football team pushed me toward Tennessee because they knew it was the best opportunity for me. I do not think I could have made a better decision.
Nick Mac: “Yeah, I would say that worked out fairly well for you.”
Dale Ellis: “It sure did. It was tough but I played for Coach DeVoe who demanded excellence from us every day. It didn’t matter if I had 30 points yesterday it was what do you have for me today?”
Nick Mac: “A sign of true leadership.”
Dale Ellis: “Absolutely”
Nick Mac: “So let’s talk about the night of the 1983 NBA Draft a little bit. Did you know that you were going to go in the Top 10 and how were your nerves that night?”
Dale Ellis: “My nerves were up and down. I was actually projected to be the number three pick for the Rockets. I was the SEC Player of the Year two years in a row and they had two picks at the top of the draft. They selected Ralph Sampson with the first overall pick and decided that I wasn’t what they were looking for. I fell a bit to nine and the Mavericks. Dallas selected me because I was the best player available but they didn’t actually need me. They already had Mark Aguirre and Sam Vincent. I was drafted as a post-up player. A power forward like I had been in college. The Mavericks had no idea I could shoot the ball from the perimeter. Nobody in the NBA did because there was no three-point line in college or high school at the time.”
Nick Mac: “So the power forward position was your most comfortable position heading into the NBA?”
Dale Ellis: “Absolutely. I got one call throughout the entire process and that was from the Chicago Bulls. They asked me if I could play power forward. Of course, I said yes but not knowing what the level of competition was like at that position at the next level. It was impossible at that position in the NBA. I had even played some center in college and matched up with Sampson in the NCAA tournament and Virginia knocked us out of the tournament.”
Nick Mac: “So, in Dallas, there was a logjam at your perimeter position and there wasn’t much time for you on the court. When you get to Seattle for your fourth season, you averaged over 20.0 PPG and were named the NBA’s Most Improved Player. Was that just about getting more opportunity or was that something coach Bickerstaff brought out of you?
Dale Ellis: “It was definitely about getting more opportunity. Definitely about being in the right place at the right time as well. I was an in-between player between small forward and shooting guard. Dallas probably looked at me like I was too small to play the forward and I didn’t have the ball-handling skills to be a guard. I got to Seattle and Bickerstaff took advantage of my shooting ability. He noticed right away that I could shoot the ball so he switched me to the shooting guard position.”
Nick Mac: “Speaking of your ability to shoot the ball. You shot over 40.0% from the three-point range for your career. Do you look at today’s game and say, man, I wish that I was born just a little bit later?”
Dale Ellis: “I always joke about being born too early. The game is a lot different now. It doesn’t matter your size, even if you’re a 7-footer, they want you to be able to make shots from deep. When I watch the game, it reminds me of how I grew up playing. A lot of freelance. There is no such thing as a bad shot now, a lot of the shots you see today, a coach is benching you in my era. When I came into the NBA, the three-point line had only been there for two years. Many guys took that shot as a desperation shot when the clock was running down or just to win a game. To come out and just jack up threes was not a strategy we had at all. The hand-checking rule where guys can’t even reach out and touch you today makes it easier as well. Basketball is nothing but spacing and it is much easier to create space if a guy can’t put his hands on you. I played with guys that had great hands, like Alvin Robertson and Derek Harper, who could force you in one direction or the other and play to their strengths. Guys couldn’t get their shot off when those guys would force them into unfavorable situations.”
Nick Mac: “Wow. So I Want to switch gears a bit. I Do not know if many fans realize the effort and discipline it takes to reach the levels you did. Can you describe a bit of your daily routine to us?”
Dale Ellis: “When I first got to the league, I was excited and really wanted to improve my game. I understood that I had to put a lot of time in order to do that. You look at an NBA game and see those guys on the bench. All of them can play basketball and a lot of it is just getting opportunities. I would get to practice early and shoot around or play some one-on-one. I played one-on-one with Derek Harper every day. It was intense and if you didn’t know us, you would think we were getting ready to fight, but after the workout, we are going to get lunch together. In my later years, I would get to practice early as well and work on my shot. I’d shoot threes and wouldn’t stop until I made 100 of them.”
Nick Mac: “With 17 years in the NBA, how did you keep your mind and body so committed to the game you love?”
Dale Ellis: “Well, I stepped away from the game as much as possible. I wasn’t one of the guys that followed the game like a lot of my teammates who would sit and watch games in their hotel rooms together. I’d rather watch a good movie. In the offseason, I wouldn’t pick up a basketball until two weeks before camp started. I played tennis. The hand-eye coordination, and lateral movement, I loved the game. I loved watching Bjorn Borg and John McEnroe got at each other. Two polar opposites who gave it everything they had every single match. When camp started, I was excited about basketball again and ready to go.”
Nick Mac: “As the first man in NBA history to reach 1,000 career three-pointers, you made quite a mark on the game. Is there anything at all you would change about your NBA journey?”
Dale Ellis: “You know, you don’t think about what you are doing when you are doing it. As the years have gone on, I have thought a lot about the things that I would change. One would be to be more of a student of the game. I wish I would have studied it a bit more. I wish I could tweak my faults a little bit more than I did. What I did was try to perfect my skills didn’t work as hard on my flaws as I should have. My attitude was I put in the work and I’m not going up against anybody, they have to go up against me. Drop that idea that I gotta go play Michael Jordan tonight. My attitude was Michael has to go up against me and let me see if I could bring it and we battled constantly. Speaking of Michael, when he came into the league, he wasn’t a great shooter but when he came back from his hiatus after a year or so, he’s got a shot now and you have to play up on him more, which made it extremely difficult to guard. He came back with a fadeaway and he continued to improve on his game constantly.”
Nick Mac: “Speaking of Jordan, We always hear about the first time they play against or meet Michael, he has this mythical glow about him. Did you get that impression?”
Dale Ellis: “It was the air in the arena that caught me. The excitement in the arena and buzz in the air. It was easy to get up and play Jordan and the Bulls. The most difficult thing for me was to get up off the couch before a game that we knew you were going to win by 30, like the Clippers, who were the worst in the league at the time. You have to trick yourself to get up for something like that. But Jordan and Chicago, that was easy. You knew the arena was going to be full. The attention was going to be on him and me because we were going to play against each other. Now, people get to see what I can do. Let’s see what Dale can do against the best. I wanted to challenge myself every time I stepped on the court.”
Nick Mac: “Was it easy to find that motivation for games that were hard to get excited for? Maybe a fan says something or whatever the case may be.”
Dale Ellis: “No, that’s maturity. You’re laying on the couch thinking man, I really don’t wanna play this game. I’m tired. But when you walk into the arena and hear the buzz of the crowd and smell that popcorn, it gets you going. When you hear about the fans being the sixth man on a team, they are. They get you excited about playing basketball and we had great fans in Seattle, the best fans in basketball.”
Nick Mac: “We have two more fan questions for you here Dale. If you could make an all-time starting five, who would it be and who is the greatest basketball player of all time?”
Dale Ellis: “You know, guys ask me all the time about who is the greatest basketball player ever and it is so tough to answer. Think about it. How can anyone say that Bill Russell isn’t the greatest player ever? I can’t say that because I never watched him play. I know he has a lot of championship rings and was the best of his era. I can say Michael Jordan is the best in my era but I do not know who the best ever is. The starting lineup is tough as well. I like Michael. I like Larry. I like Magic. I had the chance to run up and down the court with Stockton in the All-Star game and it was easy playing basketball with him. All you had to do was run the floor. You got a guy like Malone running on the other side and now I am shooting wide-open jump shots. That’s a difficult question to give a definitive answer.”
Nick Mac: “Well, I want to thank you again for sitting down with me and sharing your wisdom on the game.”
Dale Ellis: “Thank you, Nick. I really enjoyed myself today.”
The Basketball Legend Of Dale Ellis
As you can see, there are a few things to take away from our interview with Dale Ellis. One is the energy and enthusiasm with which he speaks about the game of basketball. Ellis had a smile on his face almost the whole time we spoke as we chatted about the game and reminisced about his glory days with the SuperSonics. You can tell right away that he had pure love and passion for the game of basketball, which is something that he exuded for 17 years in the NBA.
The other is how much we need to honor players like Dale Ellis in today’s world. In an era where the three-point shot wasn’t sexy, Ellis made it so with his pure shooting stroke and knowledge of where to be at every moment on the court. Eliis was Curry, Reggie, and Ray before they were themselves, and it is about time that we start honoring players like him for what they meant to the game of basketball and give him the proper respect he deserves for the road he paved to get where the game is today.
We sincerely appreciate and respect you as a reader of our site. It would help us a lot if you follow us on Google News because of the latest update.
Thanks for following us. We really appreciate your support.
