Life Has Been Anything <i> but </i> Easy : Clippers: Despite his nickname, rookie Ellis has had difficulty proving his ability since high school.

Rookie Clipper forward Harold Ellis was nicknamed “Easy” by his childhood buddies.

“He made everything look easy,” said Rico Adkins, who grew up with Ellis in northwest Atlanta. “We called him Easy Ellis or Easy E.”

But it wasn’t easy for Ellis to reach the NBA.

“Some people have the easy way to the NBA, from star in high school to star in college to the first round (in the NBA draft),” said Ellis, 23. “Some people have to just get there the hard way, and I took the hard way.

“I wouldn’t recommend a lot of people taking the hard route. Hey, if you can, be a star the whole way through. But I think that you will appreciate it more with the hard work and I think it will prepare you better in the long run.”

Ellis was cut from the Frederick Douglass High basketball team three years in a row, finally pleading with the coach to put him on the team as a senior.

“I got cut my sophomore year because the coach said I didn’t have the skills to play high school basketball, but I wasn’t disappointed because I figured if I worked hard I’d make it the next year,” Ellis said. “When I was cut my junior year, I knew I only had one more shot at it.”

Ellis’ mother, Mary, told him not to give up.

“I knew he could play,” she said. “After he kept getting cut, I told him to keep playing recreational ball and do other things. He was first alto sax in the marching band and played on the chess team.”

Ellis tried out again as a senior, but was cut.

“I knew I was ready my senior year, and after I got cut I went home crying,” Ellis said. “That’s the year that hurt me the most. But I asked the coach just to let me wear the jersey. He let me be on the team, but he told me that he probably wouldn’t play me because he had to get the other guys scholarships.

“At the end of the first semester, we had two guys (declared academically ineligible) and I moved up to 16th man. We’d be beating people by 40 points and I’d get in with 10 or 15 seconds left. It was embarrassing. But I was happy to be there.”

But Ellis became the team’s top reserve during the state tournament, and helped Frederick Douglass High reach the semifinals in 1988.

“The coach apologized to me after the season because he realized he’d made a mistake by not playing me more,” Ellis said.

Ellis then went to Morehouse College in Atlanta, the alma mater of the late Martin Luther King and Olympic gold medalist Edwin Moses, on an ROTC scholarship.

Ellis, whose parents are both principals at Atlanta elementary schools, stressed education over basketball, making the dean’s list at Morehouse and graduating on time.

“I didn’t know they had a basketball team, but I found out they had a team and when I went out for the team I went up to dunk and tore down the rim in my first practice,” Ellis said.

He was voted to the all-conference team four years in a row and was the conference MVP his last two seasons. However, he wasn’t drafted after attending the NBA pre-draft camp in Chicago and playing well at several postseason all-star games in 1992.

“I didn’t think it was fair because I thought I outplayed some of the guys,” Ellis said. “But I just knew that I had to prove myself again.

“People back home told me that I should quit playing basketball and start graduate school when I didn’t get drafted.”

He did begin graduate school, but he didn’t give up trying to make the NBA.

He was invited to play for the Utah Jazz in a summer league but wasn’t invited to the Jazz training camp and played for the Quad City (Moline, Ill.) Thunder in the Continental Basketball Assn. last season.

“At the end of the year, the coach said in a newspaper article that three guys on the team were ready for the NBA, but that I would definitely be back in the CBA because I needed another year,” Ellis said.

“I kept that article on my wall because I thought it was an insult.”

Ellis looked at the article for inspiration every day last summer and worked with a personal coach to improve his shooting.

Invited to the Clippers’ training camp last October after having played well in the Los Angeles Summer League, Ellis’ work ethic impressed the players and coaches.

“They hate me in practice because I go hard,” Ellis said. “But believe it or not, it helps the other guys to get better to have somebody out there going hard.”

Ellis had 25 points in the Clippers’ exhibition opener against the Golden State Warriors, but he didn’t play much after that and was the final player cut before the season opened.

He returned to Quad City, where he had to earn his job back. But he played well, averaging 21.4 points, six rebounds and 2.9 steals in 21 games and was selected to play in the CBA All-Star game.

Then, with the Clippers in the midst of a seven-game losing streak, Ellis was signed again on Jan. 7.

Quad City Coach Dan Panaggio pulled Ellis aside before practice on Jan. 6 and told him that he was being removed from the starting lineup.

“I couldn’t believe it, but then he told me that I was being taken out of the starting lineup because I was going to Los Angeles to play for the Clippers,” Ellis said.

“I cried, because it was a dream come true. I thought of all the work I’d put in and all the people who told me I’d never make it. I almost gave up in high school because the coaches would just run me and work me and then not play me. But my mom told me never to give up.”

Ellis has impressed Clipper Coach Bob Weiss with his tenacity.

“He’s only got one speed, which is fifth gear,” Weiss said. “I never dreamed he’d get this many points, but that’s what I wanted.”

During the closing moments of a 21-point loss at New York on Jan 11, Ellis was assessed a flagrant foul after an altercation with Knick forward Eric Anderson. Ellis was fined $3,500 by the NBA, so he didn’t get his first paycheck.”

“It was worth it because I was playing hard,” Ellis said. “I look at it like this: The money will always come, but I was doing something for the team. Somebody had to do something for the team, because the Knicks were just beating us up and I wanted to let them know that they weren’t going to beat us and then beat us up.”

After scoring 23 points in 27 minutes as a reserve in a 19-point loss the next night at Philadelphia, Ellis started his first NBA game against the Boston Celtics at the Boston Garden on Jan 14.

“I was so nervous that whole day that I couldn’t eat,” Ellis said. “I almost said, ‘Why are you starting me when you have other guys here?’ But I finally said to myself, ‘If it’s meant for me, I’ll know tonight.’ ”

Ellis scored a season-high 27 points and had five steals as the Clippers ended their losing streak. Ellis, at 6 feet 5, dunked over 7-0 Celtic center Robert Parish.

“He’s fearless,” Parish said of Ellis. “I like that. He plays with a lot of aggressiveness, and he has a big heart.”

Ellis has averaged 12.6 points. 3.6 rebounds and 2.4 steals in eight games with the Clippers.

Although he is making the NBA minimum of $150,000, he has outplayed some of his higher-paid teammates.

“You’ve got to have one or two guys on every team who are just starving and who’ll do anything for you, and Harold is that guy,” Clipper guard Mark Jackson said.

Although the Clippers have several players, such as Danny Manning and Harper, who are eager to leave because of contract disputes, Ellis enjoys playing for the Clippers.

“If you signed a contract with a team, I feel you should be obligated to that team,” Ellis said. “You shouldn’t even think, ‘I want to leave.’ It’s hard to win when you start thinking like that.

“I want to be here. I like L.A. Why would you want to leave L.A? They gave me a chance, and I’ll never forget it.

“Every time I talk to kids at my dad’s school, I tell them, ‘Work hard and your dreams will come true. Don’t give up, because you can make it.’

“So many kids give up. But if you don’t give up, you can make it--because dreams come true.”

Ellis is living proof of that.