Perry Ellis, on KU’s basketball staff, making rehab progress on resuming pro career
Perry Ellis normally would be working in the University of Kansas men’s basketball office adjacent to Allen Fieldhouse or finalizing lunch plans with members of the hoops staff at 11:50 a.m. on a weekday during the 2019-20 school year.
But Ellis, KU’s 26-year-old assistant men’s basketball video coordinator, instead was lounging in his Lawrence apartment heeding recommendations for social distancing with COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic concerns gripping the world.
“I’m looking at news, playing some video games,” Ellils said in a noon-hour phone conversation with The Star on Tuesday.
The fieldhouse closed for cleaning all week, Ellis would later drive to Lawrence’s OrthoKansas to work out under the supervision of Tyrel Reed, doctor of physical therapy who played guard at KU from 2007-11.
Ellis, a 6-foot-8 former KU forward from Wichita, is 7 1/2 months into recovery from patellar tendon surgery that stalled his pro hoops career this past season.
He hurt his right knee in the opening moments of the KU alumni team’s 87-63 loss to Sideline Cancer in the first round of The Basketball Tournament last July 25 at Wichita’s Koch Arena.
“It’s coming along. I can really do everything right now,” Ellis said. “I’m at 7 1/2 months out of surgery creeping up on eight. At six months I started doing a lot more. It’s been two weeks since I started jumping. My jumping, exploding, landing ... I’m doing pretty well with that.
“I’m about to start picking up doing some running. In the next couple days I may go out to the track to do these little sprints out there. It’s really feeling pretty good.”
Ellis — he was hired by KU coach Bill Self right before the start of the 2019-20 season to assist video coordinator Jeremy Case — credits Reed as well as Ramsey Nijem, KU’s men’s basketball director of sport performance, for assistance.
“He’s a great dude. We have a great relationship from the time he’s been here,” Ellis said of former Sacramento Kings trainer Nijem, who is in his first year at KU.
“I ask him questions, what he thinks about certain things regarding rehab and all that.”
Of Reed, Ellis said: “It’s been great working with him on the court. He’s played before. He knows good things for me to do. He gives me a lot of confidence when we are working out, just telling me everything is good, that the tendon (that was torn) is strong.
“If I’m having issues I ask him. He’ll say, ‘You’ve got to work through this and that.’ He’s been really helpful to me.”
Ellis — he’s played in the NBA G-League and in Australia, Italy, Germany and Turkey since leaving KU following the 2015-16 season — plans on resuming his pro career as soon as next season. Ellis had signed a one-year deal with a team in Japan just weeks prior to getting hurt last summer in Wichita.
“I think in the summer, it will be slowly getting back in some local pickup games at first to get a feel for it,” Ellis, a two-time first-team all-Big 12 selection and second-team AP All-America player his senior season at KU said. “The plan is around May or whenever I am ready to record a video. We will film a workout — running, sprinting, dunking, shooting, a full workout. My agent will send it out. That’s kind of the plan.”
Perhaps Ellis will net a lucrative contract in Europe or receive an offer to attend an NBA preseason camp.
“I mean it kind of depends on how this virus goes. I don’t know how overseas basketball will be, if it will still be shut down (just like the NBA). It’s going to be kind of a waiting game to see where I can play,” Ellis said.
Ellis, who made road trips with the KU team as a staff member this past season — he was allowed to sit on the bench — could conceivably continue working at KU.
“This has been awesome, being around the coaches again, going to all these different places, different hotels I’d been to (as a player), different arenas, just seeing them again, bringing back memories,” Ellis said.
“It was exciting,” he added of watching KU storm to a 28-3 record. “It was hard sometimes because you really want to play again and it makes you really want to play.”
Ellis said opposing fans pretty much left him alone.
“Maybe once,” he said of fans recognizing him and yelling insults. “At Villanova somebody said, ‘Get a real job’ or something like that. I thought there’d be more. It wasn’t bad at all.”
KU video coordinator Case said Ellis was a great help during his first season behind the scenes.
“Perry is one of those guys that understands basketball and has a really good basketball mind,” Case said. “It was really easy to teach him things we needed to do as far as film. He could see it almost through coach’s eyes without having to teach it.
“It’s always hard transitioning from playing to being a member of the staff,” added Case, who played at KU from 2004-08. “I think he did a great job handling the transition.”
Ellis said he enjoyed the season so much that he will consider coaching as a possible profession once he retires from playing.
“I don’t know if it would be coaching or training, I feel I could go either way,” Ellis said. “I feel it would be really fun to be able to train kids to get better. After watching our coaches do that I feel that could definitely be something I want to do.”
Self, who just completed his 17th season at KU, says Ellis has been a valuable asset to the hoops program.
“It stinks for Perry because obviously we wish he was in Japan making money, doing all that stuff he was scheduled to be doing,” Self said recently. “When he tore his patellar tendon it was basically a 12-month rehab. It took no time to get him back with the program working with our guys in video.
“He’s good at that. It’s something prepping him for (life) after basketball. I love having him around. When Perry played here he’d get the quietest 18 to 20 (points) every night. People forget he’s the ninth-leading scorer in the history of the school (with 1,798 points). He had an unbelievable career. He’s represented us so well, academically, in every way, shape and form. He’s been a good role model for our young guys.”
Ellis concluded a 20-minute interview by offering his advice for individuals affected by coronavirus during this trying time.
“I would say with everything slowing down, life is kind of put on a pause. It’s time to spend time with your family, take a deep breath, enjoy the life we do have,” Ellis said.
This story was originally published March 18, 2020 at 10:24 AM with the headline "Perry Ellis, on KU’s basketball staff, making rehab progress on resuming pro career."
