Very few players go out on their own terms and at the peak of their powers, but that's the case with former Sydney Kings, Illawarra Hawks and Saint Louis Billikens forward Cody Ellis as the Warwick Senators championship captain looks forward to a break from basketball.
Basketball was always in his blood. Growing up the son of Perth Wildcats legend Mike Ellis, Cody always seemed destined to follow in those footsteps even if that pressure never came directly from his supportive parents.
But once he started playing his junior basketball with the then Stirling Senators, now Warwick, and then commitment to basketball over Australian Football, a lifetime of basketball did seem to be the destiny for Ellis who ended up growing into a 6'8 frame to become a power forward most of his career.
That journey firstly took him to the Australian Institute of Sport, before a four-year college career at Saint Louis University and then led into the beginning of his NBL career at the Sydney Kings and Illawarra Hawks, and to return to play then SBL and now NBL1 West at the Warwick Senators.
Along the way, Ellis played 127 games in the NBL including in a Grand Final for the Hawks against his hometown Wildcats and that came after his 112 NCAA games with the Billikens where he won a WCC championship, was named to the Atlantic 10 All-Rookie Team and named Sixth Man of the Year as a senior.
Then with the Senators, he finished his career a championship winning captain from 2020 while amassing 211 games and along the way averaging 18.4 points, 6.2 rebounds and 3.2 assists a game while knocking down 556 three-point bombs.
However, it hasn’t always been a smooth ride and there's been dark times and occasions when basketball quite simply wasn’t kind to Ellis. That's why at age 33 and feeling it might have been becoming a bit of a grind, he decided that the 2023 season in the NBL1 West at the Senators would be his last.
Playing well right to the very end
Going out on your own terms and while knowing you are still playing at the top of your game, and have a little left in the tank is the way that Ellis always pictured himself retiring rather than waiting until he had a broken down body forcing his hand.
While the 2023 season didn’t end as he hoped with an elimination final loss to the Joondalup Wolves, he had a brilliant night with 25 points, three rebounds and three assists while draining 6/12 from three-point range and 7/7 from the foul line.
He made the last shot of his career too ending the game with his sixth triple of the game and while a championship to finish with was the dream, he'll be content with how it ended.
"I look back on it with a bit of frustrations honestly. It sucks to lose your last game but there's not a whole lot of people who can say that they won their last game. To say that I made my last shot is pretty cool and not many people can say that so that's pretty special," Ellis said on Hoops Heaven's Basketball Hustle.
"Something that I wanted to do for sure was to go out still playing at a good level. I didn’t want to be one of those people that others looked at and wondered why he was still playing. I don't think that I physically was probably ready to retire, I still think my body could play for a couple more years.
"I think the last few games probably proved that a little bit but it's pretty cool to be able to go out on my own terms. That's something that I did want so that's something that is pretty special."
Main reason to decide to retire
Ellis' relationship with basketball is a bit of a complicated one. On the one hand, it's given him amazing life experiences, he has put together a career on court the envy of most and it's the reason he met his wife Lauren and they now have a son, Chase, together.
On the other hand, basketball hasn’t always been kind to him and that's why at age 33 despite having a body that could still continue playing, he knows the time is right to retire and spend more time on the golf course and focusing on other things in life.
"It's probably just the mental drain that it's had on me really since college days even. Basketball has been the best thing that's ever happened to me, but also one of the worst if that makes sense to anyone," he said.
"It's given me some unbelievable opportunities that I would not have gotten anywhere else if I went down any other path. I got to travel the world, I got to meet some of my best mates who are still in the States, and all my teammates over that time have been unreal.
"Going to Saint Louis, meeting my wife Lauren and having our son Chase, that stuff wouldn’t have happened if I didn’t go down the basketball path.
"It's been an interesting few weeks reflecting back a little bit and the ridiculous outpouring of congrats when I actually announced it on my social media was crazy. I didn’t think I'd get a quarter of that. It was pretty cool and pretty special."
The rollercoaster ride with basketball
When Ellis now reflects on the last 20 years of basketball which ultimately led him to the AIS, then Saint Louis and the NBL along with SBL/NBL1 West, and it's been quite the ride.
A lot of his college experience both in terms of life and basketball were highlights of his life, but it wasn’t without tough moments too. The first four seasons of his NBL career too were largely positive, but the last season with the Hawks was something no professional player should be put through.
There has rightfully been frustrating years since too when another NBL opportunity didn’t come his way despite the standout basketball Ellis continued to play with the Senators, and it wouldn’t be out of place to say he could offer more than some in the league.
By the time the 2023 season rolled around in the NBL1 West and Ellis was making his return from a knee injury that ended his 2022 prematurely, and he knew that his love of the game wasn’t there anymore.
He remained as committed to lead the Senators as ever and that was evident by how well he played on the court right to his very last shot, but once he knew the passion was gone he knew it was time to retire.
"At times basketball has made me happy for sure, but also at times not at all. I think that's why at the start of this season it just kind of dawned on me that I'm not sure why I'm still doing this," Ellis said.
"As much as I absolutely love the Warwick Senators and my teammates, and I've got guys there who have been there since I first came back from college. There are other guys who have come on board in the past five, six years or the past couple, that are like family to me now.
"Everyone at that club no matter where any of them go, I'll always have their back and be cheering for them to succeed. It's certainly drained me mentally and that's been the biggest thing because there are times where I'm excited to go to a game, and I'm pumped and happy and can't wait to get started.
"Then it kind of got to the point where the majority of the time it became more like, 'far out we have to play tonight or we have to play tomorrow, or far out we have training tonight'. That was kind of the tipping point for me where if I'm not enjoying it, then why am I still doing it. I'm now playing for the fun and love of it, and if that's not how I feel about it, then what's the point."
What the Warwick Senators mean to you
To say the Warwick Senators mean a lot to Ellis would be the world's greatest understatement. Firstly, his father and uncles grew up playing at the club, he played basketball under the club's banner from as early as he could and was never going to play anywhere else when he returned from college.
In between his five NBL seasons, Ellis dedicated himself to playing in the SBL with the Senators and he has remained committed to the club ever since. By the end of the 2023 season, racked up 211 games, became a championship captain and created quite the lasting legacy.
Ellis finished his career scoring 3875 points, collecting 1299 rebounds and dishing out 683 assists while hitting 1311 field goals, 556 three-pointers and 697 free-throws, all at impressive percentages.
But it was never about the numbers. It was about creating a community at the Senators that from the youngsters right up to the senior programs that everyone loved being part of, and the culture he's helped create is a tremendous source of pride.
"To be able to say that I played from as young as you could play in that club from under-12s back then all the way up to play pretty much every division, and then to be able to play in the SBL or NBL1 now, and be a big part of the club and the success of the club, it means a lot," Ellis said.
"There was a few years there when things were looking a bit bleak and to be able to say that I did have a hand in building it back up to where it is now, and to do it with dad as coach for a lot of that, is something special.
"It's something that I'm sure I'll look back on in however many years' time and probably get quite emotional about it. It's something that I've loved to do and have loved being part of it. It's such a family community there and I think moving forward, there's only success in the future if they keep going on the same trajectory."
Being a championship captain with dad as coach
Ask any son who plays under his father as a coach, or indeed any dad who coaches their son, and the ultimate dream is to share in a championship together.
It was a long road for Cody and Mike as captain and coach at the Warwick Senators together with their quest for a championship beginning in 2014, but they got to achieve that remarkable feat in 2020.
It was officially the West Coast Classic that season, but everything else about it stacked up to a previous SBL or future NBL1 West season. That banner proudly hangs in Warwick Stadium and for Ellis, it's one of his career's great highlights for so many reasons.
"We did get a banner and that's probably the thing that matters the most because everyone knows when you walk into the stadium you know that we won that," Ellis said.
"It's the same when you walk into the Joondalup stadium and you know their women won. If it was something that just a throwaway, then those banners wouldn’t be hanging.
"We were one of the only competitions in the entire world, not just Australia, going on at that time and we were lucky enough to be able to play. It was no surprise the successful teams in that tournament were the ones with great local cores.
"I'm super proud of that championship and to be the captain of that team, to have dad coaching and to have some of the guys I played with that we still talk about it with, that team we had was unbelievable.
"If we had kept that team together and add an import or two around it, who knows how many championships we could have won."
Living out dream of playing in the NBL
If your father was the Wildcats captain for the first 11 years of the club's existence who took them to their first two NBL championships, it was mighty hard for Ellis to not grow up dreaming of playing in the league and especially for the 'Cats.
While playing for the Wildcats never quite happened, he is proud that he played two seasons at the Kings and three at the Hawks, and even top-scored in a Grand Final game for Illawarra against Perth at RAC Arena.
Those are all memories that nobody can take away from him and while there's a hint of frustration that he didn’t get to play more in the NBL which there's no question he could have, and perhaps should have, he's proud of what he did accomplish.
"Obviously I got to live out my dream of playing in the NBL. That was my big dream growing up around the Wildcats and around dad being part of the Wildcats, and being a celebrity here in Perth and he still is," Ellis said.
"To be able to say that I've played in the NBL is huge and it's something that no one can ever take from me. Was it the path that I thought would happen when I was younger? No, but that never happens and things very rarely pan out how you envision it.
"I often do think what would have happened if I went with other options and the 'Cats offered me a development spot out of college, but I didn’t take that and thought I deserve a full contract somewhere and Shane Heal and the Kings offered me that.
"To play for a club like Sydney is unbelievable and their social media account actually reached out to repost my retirement and said thank you. That's what Sydney do really well in that once you play for the club, you are part of the club forever.
"Then I loved playing for Illawarra as well. I loved the culture there and it was something that was very special. It helped that we had a heck of a couple of years there when we were tough, and those teams were fun to play in. That helped bring the crowd out too."
The amazing college experience
When Ellis decided to attend Saint Louis University starting back in 2009, it wasn’t quite as common as it is now for Australian players to go to college in the United States.
He did have several schools recruiting him include Wake Forest, but ultimately the combination of what St Louis offered swayed him and it turned out the best decision he ever made in terms of the basketball over the next four years, the lifelong friends he made and most of all, meeting wife Lauren.
"Playing college ball and on a level that I didn’t think was possible was huge, it wasn’t really seen as an option back then like it is now," Ellis said.
"Getting to play Division 1 college as well and to play Division 1, not just go and sit and watch from the bench. I was lucky enough to go to a team that when I started we were building so we had one of the youngest teams in the country.
"When I came in as a freshman, we had freshman and sophomores, and then I think there was one junior or senior, and he was a walk on. So we had all fresh faces with younger guys who were brought in to build and be successful in the next couple of years, not straight away.
"My first year I came in late and started playing during conference play, and it's probably one of my biggest regrets not red shirted my first year. But I'd had eight or nine months of no basketball and I just wanted to play.
"Then my second year was our struggle season, and rebuilding year and then from there on out we were just really good. Then obviously by being in Saint Louis and being able to meet my now wife, and that's on my mind all the time.
"In the end, I count my lucky stars every day that I picked Saint Louis because it's led to pretty much everything I have right now which is pretty massive."
Final reflections on playing career
Now that Ellis has settled on his retirement decision and he can't wait to find out what life is like moving forward where it's not revolved around basketball, he is rightfully proud of everything he achieved and what basketball has provided him with.
"I'm very much just looking forward to a break. Basketball has probably been the best and worst thing that's ever happened to me," Ellis said.
"For younger people, they might not quite understand that yet but some of the guys that are retired would completely understand. It's been something that I've fallen in love with, something that I've despised and it's given me a whole array of emotions throughout the whole journey.
"But I'm so thankful for it, because it's given me everything that I have today. An amazing family, ridiculous life experiences and to say that I've travelled the world playing for Australia is something that I do look back on and say that I was extremely lucky.
"It's taken lots of time and effort and energy and effort and blood and sweat and tears that's gone into it, but it's been a heck of a journey. I'm upset it's over but relieved that it's over as well."
