What Monta Ellis told Steph Curry after trade from Warriors to Bucks

Steph Curry and Monta Ellis had a special bond.

And that connection continued after the Warriors traded Monta to the Milwaukee Bucks in March 2012.

In a recent conversation with SLAM, Monta discussed a conversation he had with Steph shortly after he was shipped to the Eastern Conference:

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"The fans were upset. Then they had this Chris Mullin night, where they retired the jersey or whatever, and they booed the owner. I think that kind of got to him because everybody was talking about me more than anything. A lot of people were saying they would’ve taken me over him. Being young, sometimes that’ll get to you. And I understood it.

So I just called him and told him, 'Don’t worry about all of that, man. Just keep working hard. You’re in a great situation, it’s your team. There are going to be critics. You’re going to have people that are going to say what they’re going to want to say. Once you turn it around, I guarantee they are all going to be on your bandwagon.'

I just told him to keep working hard, man, and play basketball how he knows and stop overthinking it. Just play. As players, you get in that mode sometimes. I get that."

That's some sage advice from the NBA's 2006-07 Most Improved Player recipient.