For six and a half seasons, Monta Ellis was wildly popular among Warriors fans.
When he was traded to Milwaukee in the middle of the 2011-12 season, Warriors fans showered new owner Joe Lacob with boos during a halftime ceremony honoring .
But trading Ellis, Ekpe Udoh and Kwame Brown for Andrew Bogut and Stephen Jackson is arguably the beginning of the Warriors' turnaround.
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SIGN UP HERE The subtraction of Ellis allowed Stephen Curry to flourish. Bogut was the center the Warriors had spent years searching for.
The Warriors went from 23 wins in 2012, Ellis' final season in Oakland, to NBA champions three years later.
[RELATED: Curry questioned whether he would be able to play again]
In an interview on SiriusXM NBA Radio Tuesday, Ellis admitted that if he were still on the Warriors, they probably wouldn't have had the same success over the last three years.
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"I think everything happens for a reason. If I were there, we wouldn't have won a championship. Like I said, everything happens for a reason," Ellis said.
Ellis cited the narrative that the backcourt with Curry was too small to win.
"When they moved one of us, look what happened. So they moved me, they win a championship. They've got a bigger lineup with Klay (Thompson) at the 2 (shooting guard) and then they've got Harrison Barnes to back him up, so what I said was true. Like I said, if me and him were still there, it would be hard for us to win there with us being small in the backcourt," Ellis said.
Ellis spent one full season in Milwaukee, then moved on to Dallas for two seasons before signing with Indiana this past offseason. He made the postseason each of the last three seasons since leaving Oakland, but his teams did not advance past the first round.