Mocked By His Own Teammate — The Cruel Truth About Pervis Ellison

No. 1 pick in 1989. Traded 363 days later, after just 34 games. Why did nobody ever tell him what he was doing wrong? Pervis Ellison was 18 when he took down 37-2 Duke in the 1986 national final and became the first freshman since 1944 named the tournament's best player. In 1989 Bill Russell made him the first pick of the NBA draft for Sacramento. A year later the Kings shipped him to Washington in a three-team trade, and a teammate's joke, "Out of Service Pervis," followed him for decades. This is a story about a quiet man judged behind his back. Scouts wrote him off as fragile and without fire, while a knee that had ached since college never made their reports. In Washington he answered with 20 points and 11 rebounds a night and the Most Improved Player award, yet his salary stayed at $2,300,000. Boston gave him 6 years, and his body sent the bill. What happens to a man when everything about him is settled without a single conversation, and what he chose to do with that in a New Jersey high school gym. Hoops Rebels — true stories of the players who wouldn't play along. Subscribe: @HoopsRebels Hoops Rebels is an independent channel and is not affiliated with, endorsed by or sponsored by the NBA, the ABA or any team. TIMECODES 00:00 — The No. 1 Pick Nobody Talked To 02:53 — The Night 18-Year-Old Ellison Toppled Duke 05:18 — The Ache No Scout Ever Saw 07:49 — Bill Russell Calls Ellison's Name 11:04 — How He Became "Out of Service Pervis" 13:43 — Dumped After Just 363 Days 15:16 — Ellison's Loud Answer in Washington 18:53 — The Knee Comes to Collect 21:42 — Broken by Furniture, Named Captain 23:36 — The Headline Reporters Never Got 25:22 — What Ellison's Son Said Out Loud #PervisEllison #NBA #HoopsRebels