Should the Warriors Punish Monta Ellis for His Moped Injury?

Now that the speculation has ended, and the truth is out about how Monta Ellis hurt himself, the question that arises is, should the team do anything about it? It's a bit of a tricky predicament. On the one hand, Monta's your team's franchise player now, so maybe you want to tread lightly and not do anything to start a rift between your $66M dollar man and the organization.

On the other hand, you can't pretend that your star player didn't blatantly ignore the conditions of his contract, and as a result, sustain an injury that will keep him out for a minimum of the first two months of the season. That aggression cannot stand, man! Or can it?

There's some thinking in the Bay Area that says the Warriors should do nothing, for fear of Ellis carrying a grudge that could end up ruining the franchise, Chris Webber-style. But non-action by the franchise sets a bad precedent, and sends the wrong message that they'll let players slide when they do something that they know damn well they shouldn't be doing.

I'm not saying that the Warriors should fine Ellis something crazy like 10% of his contract, as the Lakers eventually did when Vladimir Radmanovic decided to go on a little snowboarding trip. But they have to do something. A small "slap on the wrist" fine and a stern (lowercase "s") statement through the media would do the trick. Just enough to let Ellis and the team know that the organization won't tolerate these kinds of actions from their players, but not enough to damage their relationship with the new face of the franchise.