OAKLAND — As the final regular season game in Oracle Arena history, Sunday was an evening of tributes. One came via Stephen Curry, who showed up to the arena in a Monta Ellis jersey, the final uniform in Curry’s end-of-year trend of wearing throwback jerseys of former Warriors.
The decision to wear Ellis’ jersey was an interesting one, considering Ellis famously said that the two “can’t play together” after Curry was taken seventh overall in 2009. Curry says he has nothing but respect for Ellis, however, as he explained during his postgame presser.
“Obviously a lot of history that Monta was able to be a part of in the ‘We Believe’ era and then when I got here my rookie year, he was that guy,” Curry said. “I think for me, representing him on the last game it meant a lot because we were in that backcourt together, an obviously when he was traded it was a tough time in terms of the transition of the organization and things like that, and I wanted to pay honor to him in terms of his story, coming out of high school, and doing what he was able to do.
“He was an Oakland fan, a Warrior fan, beloved guy, so only right to have him on the last night of the regular season.”
Ellis sent some love back Curry’s way on Instagram.