Ely heads into free agency
Friday, May 15, 2009
By: Jim Eichenhofer, Hornets.com
The third installment of Hornets.coms player-by-player review of the 2008-09 season continues with a look at New Orleans backup center Melvin Ely. In his second year with the Hornets, Elys role was diminished from the previous season. He appeared in 31 games, was inactive for the playoff series vs. Denver and is now an unrestricted free agent.
From a personal standpoint, when I came up with our preseason plan to launch four new player blogs this season (the others were James Posey, Julian Wright and Ryan Bowen), I believed Elys inclusion was an absolute no-brainer. He is one of the funniest players in the NBA and has a distinct knack for storytelling. Hes the kind of interviewee where you can ask him one brief question and he will give you tons of extra and often humorous details that you didnt necessarily need to know but enjoy hearing (hence the title we came up with for his blog, Ely Elaborates). Whether it was him discussing his hairdo, his exotic pet collection or his nightmarish visit to the dentists office, you can always count on the seven-year NBA vet to keep things entertaining.
One thing we missed seeing after the voided trade with Oklahoma City was Melvin being reunited with his twin Chris Wilcox.