Ellis Moped Incident = 30 Day Suspension

The Golden State Warriors high-scoring guard, Monta Ellis, was injured in a motor cycle accident this past summer, hurting his ankle. While that is bad news in itself, Ellis then chose to lie to the team about the incident. Ellis told the Warriors he hurt himself playing pickup ball in Mississippi, but then came clean about the injury days later. Due to his lie, Ellis has now been suspended 30 games by Owner Chris Cohan, which will cost the guard a cool 3 million dollars.

When you see a headline about Ellis being suspended, you'd assume it was due to a fight in a preseason game, using drugs or some sort of off-court arrest/fan altercation. But for something that could have easily been avoided, Ellis has benched himself for almost half of an NBA season. Will the team be hurt by this? They might have been, as he was the second-leading scorer for the NBA's highest-scoring team last season, averaging 20.2 points, 5.0 rebounds and 3.4 assists, helping his team try to make the final playoff spot. Ellis underwent surgery to repair a torn ligament and wouldn't be able to return to action to mid-December anyways.

In case you're wondering about the rule book, according to NBA.com: "Ellis violated Paragraph 12 of the NBA's uniform player contract, which prohibits a player from engaging "in any activity that a reasonable person would recognize as involving or exposing the participant to a substantial risk of bodily injury," including "driving or riding a motorcycle or mo-ped."

Other past motorcycle incidents in sports that are well known include Pittsburgh Steeler QB Ben Rothleisberger, and former Chicago Bulls/Duke guard, Jay Williams. Rothleisberger was able to recover from injuries he sustained, while Williams attempted to rehab but never was able to make an NBA return.

Read more about Ellis' Suspension by the Warriors at NBA.com