While Rolling Stone recently declared Kevin Durant(notes) better than Kobe Bryant(notes), Warriors guard Monta Ellis(notes) has his own opinion on who should be ranked as the NBA’s three best players.

“I’m going to say LeBron James(notes) [third],” Ellis said recently. “He can do it all, pass, score, defend, block shots. No. 2, I would have to say, me. I can do a whole lot of things: defend, score, make passes, do whatever I need to do.

“No. 1, I’d say Kobe Bryant. There isn’t one player that can stop Kobe one-on-one. He has a lot of stuff. He can defend. And of course, he won four championships.”

LTrain23 wrote: Exactly, lol.

The thing I found most hilarious is his claim that he can "DEFEND and PASS"... I didn't think Monta had those two elements in his game? haha..

I mean, if he did whatever he had to do, I'm guessing the Warriors would have more than 20 wins..

Ellis probably isn't even in the top 3 players in the state of Cali right now..

Kobe, Pau Gasol, Lamar Odom, Tyreke Evans, Stephen Curry, Baron Davis and Eric Gordon are all players I'd rather have.

LTrain23 wrote:
Kobe, Pau Gasol, Lamar Odom, Tyreke Evans, Stephen Curry, Baron Davis and Eric Gordon are all players I'd rather have.

SQ_Crazies wrote: He's 34% from behind the arc, which is better than Kobe. I wouldn't call him one of the absolute 3-ball worst shooters in the league. He averages 3.9 TO's a game, Kobe is 3.2 and LeBron is 3.45. You don't call them turnover prone. And he averages 25 PPG. Give the man some credit at least.

All of these stats can be found on ESPN.com or NBA.com, useful tools to help your cred FW. Or you could join the big leagues and refer to real stat sites.

SQ_Crazies wrote: He's 34% from behind the arc, which is better than Kobe. I wouldn't call him one of the absolute 3-ball worst shooters in the league. He averages 3.9 TO's a game, Kobe is 3.2 and LeBron is 3.45. You don't call them turnover prone. And he averages 25 PPG. Give the man some credit at least.

All of these stats can be found on ESPN.com or NBA.com, useful tools to help your cred FW. Or you could join the big leagues and refer to real stat sites.

Keebler wrote:

SQ_Crazies wrote: He's 34% from behind the arc, which is better than Kobe. I wouldn't call him one of the absolute 3-ball worst shooters in the league. He averages 3.9 TO's a game, Kobe is 3.2 and LeBron is 3.45. You don't call them turnover prone. And he averages 25 PPG. Give the man some credit at least.

All of these stats can be found on ESPN.com or NBA.com, useful tools to help your cred FW. Or you could join the big leagues and refer to real stat sites.

SQ owns FW again.

Hb31187 wrote: Ellis isnt the 2nd best player hell no.

But some of you are making him sound like a bum...Hes a damn good player

And Footwedge do you ever get sick of being wrong? 33% from behind the Arc isnt good...but its not terrible lol. If you want the worst 3pt shooting guard in the league, go watch Andre Miller

SQ_Crazies wrote: Why the hell am I worried about career numbers? Monte Ellis isn't basing what he said on the past--he's basing it on this season. He's clearly improved his game this year and he's a damn good player. You don't average 25 a game if you aren't a damn good player in this league. The list of people to have ever averaged that in a season is filled with stellar names.

Cleveland Buck wrote: Monta Ellis is a volume shooter just like Kobe, only Ellis isn't half as good. He scores 25 a game on 22 shots. He's talented, but he's not a very good shooter, and gets stats by dominating the ball for a bad team in a wide open offense. If he was forced to try and fit in for a winning team, he would score 12 points a game and probably come off the bench.