Malik Ellison takes every opportunity to smile as he lives out his NBA dreams at summer league
Ellison, a South Jersey native and son of former No. 1 overall draft pick Pervis Ellison, spent last season playing for the G League's College Park Skyhawks. He's now with the Sixers at summer league.
LAS VEGAS — Malik Ellison picked up journaling at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic as a way to express and organize his thoughts for when he eventually writes a book about his basketball career.
Within those entries, he constantly reminds himself to smile “all day, every day.” That was easy for Ellison on Sunday, when he moved into the starting lineup for the 76ers’ NBA Summer League game against the Brooklyn Nets. Yet he hopes his infectious energy on the defensive end and with his teammates permeates through his entire stay in Las Vegas — and provides a reminder that life dreams are accomplished this week even for players who are a long shot to make an NBA roster.
“We’re all blessed to just be here, to be able to perform and play the game we love,” Ellison told The Inquirer following the Sixers’ 91-84 loss at the Thomas & Mack Center. “I’ll never take that for granted. So I think [I am] just carrying that positive mentality to the locker room around the guys, just being who I am and being that connector and that glue guy.”
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Ellison got increased opportunity because Julian Champagnie, Michael Foster and Aminu Mohammed were among the Sixers who did not play in the second game of a back-to-back set. Ellison said he found out in the pregame locker room that he would start, and made sure to take in his surroundings when he stepped on the floor for pregame warmups.
The 6-foot-6, 215-pound Ellison then finished Sunday’s game with eight points on 4-of-7 shooting, five rebounds and three blocks in 25 minutes. That performance came after he did not enter Saturday’s loss to the Toronto Raptors until the final two minutes.
“He’s a smart player,” said Sixers assistant coach Dwayne Jones, who is serving as the summer league team’s head coach in Las Vegas. “He plays hard. He brings that level of intensity. He’s physical and he just stayed ready. Even the couple games where he hasn’t played, he stayed ready.
“He’s been locked in and he’s been a true pro this whole time, and it’s been great to see his work pay off.”
This is the latest step on a winding basketball voyage for Ellison.
He is the son of 1989 No. 1 overall draft pick Pervis Ellison, who also coached Malik in high school at Life Center Academy in Burlington, N.J. Malik then played college basketball at St. John’s, Pittsburgh and Hartford, where he averaged 18.7 points and 9.7 rebounds per game during his final season in 2019-20. He then spent last season playing for the Atlanta Hawks’ G League affiliate, the College Park Skyhawks, where he averaged 10.6 points and 5.1 rebounds over 14 games and learned how to seize his opportunities in more limited minutes.
“It’s kind of just humbling, and you kind of have to learn how to maximize in a small period, a small window that you get during the game,” Ellison said. “That’s what I’ve been trying to focus on … doing the most that I can do in that little bit of time that I get.”
Ellison then worked out at a Sixers free-agent camp, where Jones said Ellison “definitely caught our eyes” with his active defense during five-on-five games. The invitation to join their summer league team is “1000%” more special, Ellison said, because he grew up as a Sixers fan who loved Allen Iverson and the number three.
“It’s crazy how it comes all full-circle,” Ellison said. “Being able to play for this organization, and hopefully one day play for their main roster, would just be a dream come true for me.”
A lot has changed and progressed for Ellison, which is another reason he enjoys journaling. It gives him the opportunity to look back at entries and recognize that shift. Take last year, for instance, when he contracted COVID-19 just before summer league, which prevented him from playing.
He let out his negative emotions in writing back then.
But Sunday’s entry is sure to make him smile.
“[I’ve] been dreaming about this moment,” Ellison said. “To be able to get my opportunity today, to play minutes in the big gym in front of a big crowd, it was great. It brought a lot of energy to me.”