It took three years for Pervis Ellison to fully adjust to the NBA, and now he's reaping the benefits.
Ellison, the top overall pick in the 1989 draft, received the NBA's Most Improved Player award Wednesday. He was honored after almost doubling his scoring average from the 1990-91 season and leading the Washington Bullets in four important categories - scoring, rebounding, blocked shots and field-goal percentage.After playing in just 34 games during his injury-plagued rookie season and then averaging only 10.4 points last season, the 6-foot-10 Ellison this season established himself as one of the NBA's premier centers.
"In the beginning, the only thing I was doing was fouling. It took me some time to learn what you can do and what you can't do on defense," he said. "Once I was able to get an understanding of that, my playing time started to increase."
Ellison received 40 of the 96 votes cast by a nationwide panel of sportswriters, three from each NBA city and 15 national writers. Drazen Petrovic of the New Jersey Nets finished second with 22 votes and Atlanta Hawks forward Kevin Willis got 12 votes.
"It's a very satisfying feeling because it's something I really worked hard for," Ellison said. "I can remember my first year, and to see the improvement from then to this year is basically unbelievable."
The award gave the Bullets something to boast about - even if their season has long since ended. It was the fourth straight year that Washington failed to make the playoffs.
"We had a lot of injuries, but this is a wonderful bright spot," owner Abe Pollin said. "Pervis is my kind of guy, and I'm very proud to have him as part of the Bullets."
Ellison is the first Washington player to win an established individual award since Dave Bing won the J. Walter Kennedy Citizenship Award after the 1976-77 season.
Ellison was the No. 1 pick overall by the Sacramento Kings in 1989. After a forgettable rookie year, he was traded to the Bullets in a three-way trade with the Utah Jazz.
This season, he averaged 20 points, 11.2 rebounds, 2.7 blocked shots and made 54 percent of his field goal attempts. He is the first player to lead the Bullets in all four categories since the NBA began keeping statistics for blocked shots in 1973-74.
Ellison finished eighth in the league in blocks and ninth in field-goal percentage. He would have been tied for eighth in rebounding with Patrick Ewing and Karl Malone, but injuries limited Ellison to just 66 games, four short of the minimum to be included on the NBA's leader list.
"He's been everything that we would have hoped he would be," said Bullets GM John Nash.