1. I dont know a lot of background on Elijah other than his family (which by all accounts are great/humble people, not a family that is going to toss dirt just to toss dirt), so I guess there is a chance he has some shady things there that I'm unaware of
2. I just cant see any motive for him to lie. This has a higher chance of hurting him than it does DL. Maybe there is some angle I'm not seeing, but the revenge for firing angle just doesnt seem to fit when he was clearly underqualified and Utah gave him an opportunity. Could he still be bitter, sure, but he has more of a reason to be bitter to the other teams that cut him and never gave him regular minutes or even let him onto a regular season roster.
3. Its' not like Elijah held onto this and popped it at the worst possible time for the Jazz. It isnt the playoffs. It's smack dab in the middle of the regular season. It's fully understandable why someone would hold onto this and wait until they were out of any NBA position.