He has dad’s eyes. Dad’s smile. Dad’s sweet stroke. And, as it turns out, the same expression LaPhonso Ellis would flash with the Nuggets whenever he started feeling it on the floor.
“We’re not ‘photogenic’ basketball players,” Walter Ellis, a senior guard with the Grand Canyon Antelopes, laughed as we spoke by phone about the NCAA Tournament games in Denver this week. “If you see our faces, it looks like we’re just making the weirdest faces. It just does not look good.”
Young Walter, son of Ellis, the former Nuggets first-round pick and Front Range fan favorite, is 23 now. The older he gets, the younger Ellis noted, the more he starts looking like the old man. Acting like him, too.
“My dad used to do this thing that irritated me when I was younger, he’d wag a finger or wave his hand along to a song,” Walter recalled. “Or he would tap his fingers to the beat. And lo and behold, I’m 23 and I kid you not, now if I hear a song that I like, I’m making all kinds of body motions. I’m like, ‘Are you kidding me?’”
Funny how history has a way of coming back around again. The Old Man had just turned 24 on May 7, 1994, when he helped author one of the single greatest upsets in basketball history. And one of the most iconic sports moments ever witnessed along the Front Range: Nobody-gave-’em-a-chance Nuggets 98, Superlative Seattle Supersonics 94, capping the first-ever series win by an 8 seed over a 1 seed in the NBA Playoffs.
“Every time we go back to Denver or I run into people who were there or are from there, (that series) still means so much for everybody,” said Walter, whose 14th-seeded Antelopes (24-11) tangle with third-seeded Gonzaga on Friday at Ball Arena.
“That’s where it’s fun for me — going back and watching the tape and knowing how good that Sonics team was, and how hard it was and how big of an upset it was.”
Those Sonics had Gary Payton, Nate McMillan and Shawn Kemp. They won 63 regular-season games. Yet despite being down 2-0 after two humbling defeats in Seattle, the Old Man vowed he’d be back. That there’d be a Game 5.
These Zags have Drew Timme, Julian Strawther and Anton Watson. They’ve already won 28 games. Vegas is pegging them as 16-point favorites over GCU. Heck, Gonzaga, the Duke of the West, is one of those sexy sleeper picks to win it all.
Anybody up for a little déjà vu? Some busted brackets?
“We’d love (that),” Ellis chuckled. “We’re excited for it.”
Like his father, Walter’s never shied away from a challenge. Good thing, too, as No. 14s are just 22-122 in the Dance (.153) over the past four decades. Although nine of those wins have come in the last 17 years, most recently with Abilene Christian’s 53-52 shocker over Texas in 2021. Since 2015, the last four 3 seeds to be upset in the NCAA tourney have all come from the Big 12 — Texas (’21), West Virginia (’16), Baylor (’15) and Iowa State (’15).
“Denver always felt like home to me,” offered the younger Ellis, who comes into the Mile High City averaging 4.9 points and 2.3 rebounds per game. “It’ll be really special. Denver’s a really important city for my family. I’m really excited to get back.”
The younger Ellis, who transferred to GCU from Bucknell before the ’21-22 season, is shorter (6-foot-5) than his father (6-8) and more of a 3-point specialist. He notched two points and two boards and an assist in the WAC tourney title game, an 84-66 victory over Southern Utah that punched GCU’s ticket to Bracketville.
Walter just finished up his master’s in business administration, and has an eye on a financial adviser role or jumping into the wealth management field once his basketball days are done. He’s already dipped into entrepreneurship, launching his own clothing brand, No Bad, during the height of the 2020 pandemic.
“Now that NIL passed, we’ve sold (more than) 200 t-shirts,” he said.
The kid grew up in Indiana, but he loves mountain views. And loves playing at altitude. So do the ‘Lopes, who are 2-1 this season when hooping it up at 4,500 feet or more above sea level. They beat Wyoming in Laramie, 66-58, back on Dec. 3.
Hey, when you’re a 16-point ‘dog, you cling to any branch you can.
“It doesn’t level the playing field; it’s something you have to deal with,” Ellis said. “And if you’re not ready for it, you just get so much more exhausted earlier than you normally would be. We were gassed at Wyoming. We just didn’t care.”
Like father, like son.
“Gonzaga, obviously they play at a really fast pace,” Ellis said. “Timme is obviously one of the best players in the country. It’s really about what we always talk about as a team, controlling what we can control and playing our brand of basketball … it’s just another game for us. Go in with confidence and do what we need to do to get a win.”
LaPhonso in ’94. Walter in ’22. Wouldn’t it be great to see history rhyme at a Mile High?
“It does. It does repeat itself,” Walter replied. “We’ll see.”
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