Do you long for some great throwback NBA and NCAA footage of superstars of the past featuring some of the game’s best players? Do you miss watching games in which the jump shot was an art form and not an afterthought? Longing to see some of the hardwood’s greatest grudge matches of teams wearing some of the league’s ugliest uniforms? If you are a fan of the game from back in the day, this is the series for you. Welcome to Vintage Video.
It’s been some time since the highly popular Vintage Video feature has been seen on TheHoopDoctors.com, It’s been nearly 4 months to be exact. Last time, we were showing you an amazing video of current NY Knick Ama’re Stoudemire dominating his high school competition by literally blocking shots with his elbows. While I’m not exactly sure why it went on a little hiatus, the feature is back with a vengeance, this time around shedding some light on Golden State’s Monta Ellis, who once scored 65 points, then 72 points, against a rival opponent back in in high school.
Appropriately given the nickname “Mississippi Bullet” for his blazing speed and ability to score at will, 6th year guard Monta Ellis is quickly establishing himself as one of the league’s most exciting and explosive players. In fact, he already ranks as high as #21 on our Top 25 NBA Player Rankings heading into the ’10-’11 season and is one of the very few players in all of the NBA to rank among the Top 20 in scoring, steals, assists, and 3 point shooting.
But long before making a name for himself in NBA arenas, Monta was nothing short of being considered a local legend in his native Jackson Mississippi. In his senior season at Lanier HS, Ellis averaged an impressive 38.4 ppg, 7.9 rebounds, 6.8 assists, 4.5 steals, while shooting more than 48% from behind the arc, en route to sharing Parade Magazine HS POY honors in 2005 with former Ohio State standout Greg Oden. He led Lanier to the state finals as a four year varsity starter, leading his club to the 4A State Championship in ’02 and ’05.
He finished his high school career 2nd all-time in Mississippi HS history, amassing 4,167 points in his storied career. Where Monta really made a name for himself was against top tier competition where he regularly dropped 40 or more points on opposing teams. Two such examples was when he scored 42 points against Oak Hill Academy, then led by Atlanta’s Josh Smith, setting a mark for the most ever points scored against the fabled prep school. He also scored 42 against current 76er Lou Williams and South Gwinnett HS as a senior.
But his most legendary scoring outputs have come against Greenwood HS where in consecutive games against the rival school, he scored an unbelievable 65 points, then not to be out-done….72 points. The legend has it that after scoring 65 on Greenwood, many opposing players taunted and bragged that Monta wouldn’t even reach the 20 point plateau in the rematch.
Monta obviously took offense to Greenwood’s taunts and single-handedly out-scored the entire opposing team by dropping 72 points, including 49 in the 2nd half….
You can check out more great HS footage of Monta here.
Allen Moll has been a lifelong NBA and NCAA College Basketball fan who watches and studies games religiously, and coaches youth basketball in his native Lehigh Valley region of Pennsylvania. Allen also provides content to Bleacherreport.com, Upperdeckblog.com, in addition to being a tenured NBA and NCAA columnist for TheHoopDoctors.com.
