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Perry Ellis off to fast start in Australia

By Stan Unruh

TRARALGON, AUSTRALIA - SEPTEMBER 09: Perry Ellis of the Kings controls the ball during the 2017 NBL Blitz pre-season match between Melbourne United and the Sydney Kings at Traralgon Basketball Centre on September 9, 2017 in Traralgon, Australia. (Photo by Scott Barbour/Getty Images)
TRARALGON, AUSTRALIA - SEPTEMBER 09: Perry Ellis of the Kings controls the ball during the 2017 NBL Blitz pre-season match between Melbourne United and the Sydney Kings at Traralgon Basketball Centre on September 9, 2017 in Traralgon, Australia. (Photo by Scott Barbour/Getty Images) /
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Former Kansas Basketball standout Perry Ellis made his Australian basketball debut.  He is leading the way for the Sydney Kings.

Perry Ellis left the United States for Australia on the final day of August. He arrived in Sydney a week ahead of the start of the National Basketball League’s exhibition season. If you’ve traveled that far around the world, you know the time change and jet lag are tough on the brain and body.  Adjustment to the time change showed in Perry’s first game.  On the other hand, maybe he didn’t like wearing purple?

Perry did not get going on offense in the opener.  In just over 21-minutes in the Kings’ exhibition loss to the Brisbane Bullets, Perry scored 6 points on 3-11 shooting. Equally important, he also grabbed 6 rebounds. Not bad but not what Kansas basketball fans know Ellis can do.

The former Jayhawk star did get rolling the next night and established himself as a team leader and scorer in a win over Melbourne.  His 20 points on 58 percent shooting led the Kings to the win. He contributed 20 more points the following night in a loss to the Illawarra Hawks.

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Andrew Gaze, the man considered the greatest basketball player ever in Australia is Ellis’ coach.  You may remember Gaze played college ball at Seton Hall in the mid 80s. Gaze’ brief NBA career included a handful of games for Washington and San Antonio.  On the other hand, Gaze did win the Australian NBL MVP award 7 times before becoming a head coach.

There is another  opportunity for Ellis to show off against NBA talent next month. Sydney plays what the team web site calls a historic preseason game against the Utah Jazz October 3. Kansas basketball fans will always love Ellis. I hope he gets another opportunity to join an NBA roster. For now, I’m glad he is off to a great start for his new team.

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