Earl Monroe opens up about very personal meaning behind 1973 championship, Knicks’ NBA title chances

Former Knicks great Earl Monroe — a man of many nicknames and a member of the 1973 championship squad — takes a shot at some Q&A with Post columnist Steve Serby.

Q: A quote from your friend and former Baltimore Bullets teammate Ray Scott about you: “God couldn’t go 1-on-1 with Earl.”

A: That quote is one of the quotes that I think a lot of guys were saying back in those days. Me being from Philly, they used to call me “Black Jesus.” It was kind of like a play on that nickname.

Q: Your favorite nickname was “Duke of Earl.”

A: The nicknames are great, people give you all those, but at the same time, I guess the ones that you like are the ones that you give yourself.

Q: Who was the first person to call you “Pearl”?

A: I don’t know. That came from when I was in college [Winston-Salem State]. I scored 33 points my first game, and my second game of my senior year I scored 58, and I stayed in the 50s for a few games. … But anyway, a guy wrote a column and the caption of the column was “These are Earl’s pearls.” And from there, people down South started calling me “The Pearl.” I didn’t like it at first, but I couldn’t stop people from saying it, so I became “Earl the Pearl.”

Q: A quote from Clyde Frazier about you: “He was a nightmare to guard. Earl didn’t know what he was going to do, so how could I?”

A: That’s pretty accurate. I didn’t know what I was going to do. I tried to let the situation determine pretty much what my actions were going to be, because it was the action and reaction is kind of the way I played the game early on. We were two guys that came out of school the same time, so it was always competition between us.

Q: Another Clyde quote: “Earl’s fire and I’m ice.”

A: I was very much into it, I was very animated and so forth, and he was cool.

Q: How would you describe your playing style?

A: My playing style was to be where they’re not. I wasn’t a great jumper, so I had to be trickier and do things that were kind of unorthodox. But my game, basically, was a very fundamental game, but understanding what I needed to do to be successful. I intertwined the craziness of ballhandling and whatnot with the steadiness of understanding what the game was about.

Q: Former 76ers broadcaster Sonny Hill tried to discourage you from joining the Knicks?

A: I had to make a decision in a day. So I went to my mom, and my mom told me to just kind of follow my heart, and then I went out with Sonny that evening, and we just talked about the pros and cons of me coming to New York, the fact that if I came here, it wasn’t my team, like I would believe in a team that was my team, things would be different. But we came to like a meeting of the minds I think as we were getting ready to finish up our dinner. I told him, “Sonny, I’m from Philadelphia, and I can play under any circumstances.” And he said, “Well that’s what I wanted to hear.”

Q: If you hadn’t agreed to be traded to the Knicks, the ABA Indiana Pacers were a possibility?

A: Yeah (laugh), but I was kind of discouraged from that. I went out there, I went to a game and it was great, they had a great team, the guys were great. But after the game (chuckle) they all went up into the top of their lockers and they got guns out. I didn’t know what that was about, but I knew it wasn’t a place to be if I had to deal with guns like that. Obviously we didn’t have cell phones back then, so I found a pay phone in the arena and told [agent Larry Fleisher], “ I don’t think this is the place for me.” And he said, “Well, come on home, Earl, I got another offer on the table for you,” and that was the offer from the Knicks.

Q: When you think back to the South Philly playgrounds, what comes to mind?

A: This is the place that I grew up in. I started out playing where nobody wanted to play with me. I used to go home and almost cry to my mother and tell her that these guys are dogging me and making fun of me, laughing at me and so forth and so on. She said, “Well listen, Earl. Take this notebook, and all those guys that are doing all these bad things to you, you just put their names down in this notebook. You’re going to get better. As you get better, you scratch those things off.” And I think that that was the impetus of me getting better, and wanting to do better and scratch those things off that I had put in the book.

Q: What kind of lady was your mother, Rose, and how devastating was it when she passed?

A: Obviously she was the best. Even till today I speak to her. She was the light of my life, and I was hers. Even though I had two sisters, I was the boy, I was like the baby of the family (chuckle). And everybody took care of me. She was just a special, special person. She worked her butt off for us and for me in particular. The interesting thing is that she only saw me play once, because she couldn’t stand to see me get hurt, or somebody hitting me or whatever the case may be. But she was so supportive of me.

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Q: How long ago did she pass away?

A: 1973.

Q: Before you won the NBA championship, or after?

A: She passed away in late January. I went down to see her in the hospital, I got there late as usual, and spent a little bit of time there before I had to leave, because I think we had a game or something I had to get back to. I said, “OK, Ma, I’ll check with you later.” And she walked me through the door, she stopped me and hugged me and she said, “Earl, if anything happens to me, I want you to know that I’ll be OK.” So I drove back to New York and about 3 o’clock in the morning, my best friend from Philadelphia called me to tell me that my mother had passed.

Q: The night you and the Knicks won the NBA championship in 1973, did you think about her?

A: When I started to play, I dedicated the season to her. So by winning the championship was like the crown jewel of what it was all about with her, and letting her know that I made it.

Q: Getting back to what you said earlier, why did kids make fun of you and not want to play with you?

A: Because I was terrible (laugh). I didn’t start playing till I was 14. A coach by the name of Monroe Barrett, he saw me walking in the hallway, and I was about the same size, 6-foot-3. He asked me if I played basketball, I said, “No sir.” So he said come down to the gym this afternoon. So I went down to the gym, and I kind of like fell in love with the game that afternoon. But I couldn’t play (laugh). The growing pains of trying to get to learn how to play, guys were just dogging me. I just couldn’t play. So that’s what the playgrounds helped me do, helped me get my game together and so forth and so on.

Q: What did you like best about your 1972-73 Knicks?

A: We had a lot of smart guys that understood the game and understood how to win. You got a lot of guys who played this game, and they were great players that never won an NBA championship, because you can’t win an NBA championship by yourself.

Q: What were those battles between Gus Johnson and Dave DeBusschere like?

A: Oh, they were tough. They were the kind of battles that you would pay to go see. Gus was one of the guys when I was playing with him when I was with the Bullets, he was one of the guys that helped me to get better because he used to play me, and back in those days, you would put your hand on somebody’s hip, and it looks like it’s just lying there, but the guys that were strong enough, they could lead you anywhere they wanted on the court. I learned how to get by Gus and do things that I could get my stuff off with this hand-checking with him playing me like that.

Q: What made Willis Reed the Captain?

A: I guess because he cared. He cared about each individual guy in his own way. And I think guys understood that and appreciated that he was a tough guy, he was for you in all ways, and yet you could sit down and talk to him as well and feel protected. Willis was just a guy who wanted to win, and he wanted to win with you. And he always wanted to play. He didn’t really want to come out of any game.

Q: Do you remember watching Game 7 of the 1970 NBA Finals against the Lakers when Willis limped out of the tunnel?

A: Yeah, I do. You could kind of feel the things that are going on. If you’re a player and whatnot, you could feel the crowd even though you’re looking on TV and whatnot. I remember in ’71 I told him, he had gotten hurt there as well, I said, “Don’t start that Game 7 stuff again.” Then he started laughing (laugh).

Q: What made Walt “Clyde” Frazier a Hall of Fame player?

A: He was a great ball-handler. And he understood the game, and he was a great defensive player. He played to the crowd, but at the same time, he understood what he needed to do at all times. You never saw him really rush, you never saw him do anything other than what he did. I remember just one time I saw him really get angry, and that was against the Bullets. Phil Chenier hit him in the head or something, and Clyde didn’t say anything, he just went on and assassinated him. That was the kind of player he was, he was very cool, but he was a cool assassinator.

Q: What made Bill Bradley, Bill Bradley?

A: Bill Bradley knew what his limitations were. I had played against Bill down in Philadelphia in the Baker League. He understood he needed to get his ballhandling together. He did that, but that was when they were trying to make him a guard. When they decided that he would be a small forward, and the way that he shot the ball, it was a matter about getting in position to shoot the basketball. He used to run the guys ragged because he knew where he was going, they never knew where he was going, but to get to his spot to get the ball and shoot it. Everybody understood their role. Most of these guys were leaders of their other teams, even like myself, so we understood the importance of being able to lead. And also understand the importance of being able to back up from leadership. That’s important as well.

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Q: Thoughts on Dick Barnett?

A: It was a pleasure to play with him. The only problem was that we played the same position. When I came to the Knicks and we had our first meeting with Red [Holzman, coach], I told Red that I didn’t want to start. I’ll come off the bench and I’ll earn my way, which was, I think, a little bit different from maybe a lot of other people that might have come and had my same résumé. But that’s the way I felt, and I said that with all respect to Dick Barnett. He was the guy that usually guarded me when I was with the Bullets, so I knew what kind of competitor he was. He could shoot it, and again, another very intelligent ballplayer.

Q: What kind of a motivator was Red Holzman?

A: Red was a motivator in a sense that he would let you do what you do. … until you didn’t do it the way he wanted you to do it (laugh). He understood the kind of players that he had. He had to more or less manage as opposed to coach. Everybody respected him for that and wanted to play for him.

Q: What stands out to you about Jerry Lucas?

A: Another intelligent guy that understood the game. Jerry didn’t jump that high. … He was a great, great rebounder.

Q: Thoughts on Jalen Brunson?

A: I like his game. I’ve always liked his game, even in college. I followed him when he went out to Dallas. I always wondered why he was taken so late in the draft, he was Player of the Year. And if anybody understood the game, they could see that he was a leader. I’ve seen him smile I think maybe this year maybe twice. But I never seen his smile before, because he was so serious about the game and how he played it. He might have smiled somewhere and I missed it. He understood the game, that was the whole thing in a nutshell. He was a student of the game. I’m saying I didn’t jump well, I’m looking at another guy that didn’t jump well, but understood what he needed to do to get his shot off and get his game off against anybody.

Q: Can he lead the Knicks to their first championship since 1973?

A: That could have happened last year if the injuries didn’t happen. I knew that they could beat Boston in a series as well last year. They’ve got a great team. They’re coached well. … This was a New York-Villanova team, there’s no real reason why they can’t jell even more so this year.

Q: So you think they’ve got a shot to win a championship?

A: Oh yeah, absolutely.

Q: Is it hard for you to believe that you’ll be turning 80 in November?

A: It is hard. I guess you can never really think about that until somebody else talks about it (laugh). It is something that I’ve been thinking about lately because people have brought it up, but it’s a blessing that in another sense of the word the fact that I’m still here and still functionable, and it’s great to be here.

Q: Describe life today for Earl Monroe.

A: Very trying as far, as I’m concerned right now. My health isn’t what it should be, other than that I’m just happy that things are going well with the school, that brightens me up, and my family seems to be doing well as well.

Q: What’s going on with your health?

A: I had the knee replaced back in 2014, and since I’ve had that done, everything seems to have been coming down on me. I’ve had over 40-something surgeries, and a lot of it’s come lately. I’m just happy to be here.

Q: Tell me more about the Earl Monroe New Renaissance Basketball School.

A: It’s like something that I’ve thought about even before getting involved with the school. I had a program called Earl Monroe’s School earlier in the ’80s. Been involved with it since almost 2013. It’s been a real blessing, not only the fact that obviously the school is in my name, but at the same time it’s a blessing to see the kids and the opportunities that we’re hoping to present to them. … We’re able to at least show them and give them the opportunity to see what success is and what success is like.

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Q: Three dinner guests?

A: Martin Luther King [Jr.], Alexander the Great, [Barack] Obama.

Q: Favorite movie?

A: “Malcolm X.”

Q: Favorite actor?

A: James Earle Jones.

Q: Favorite actress?

A: Dorothy Dandridge.

Q: Favorite singer/entertainer?

A: Nat King Cole.

Q: Favorite meal?

A: Baked beans, hot dogs and rice. Vegetarian beans.

Q: You consider yourself a pioneer?

A: I guess so. Nobody was coming in doing the things that I did. You had a guy like [Bob] Cousy who was doing behind-the-back stuff or whatnot, but that wasn’t the same.

Q: You enjoyed being a showman.

A: I knew that I excited the crowd. I didn’t take it to the extremes or whatnot, but I knew that every now and then I would just do stuff that I know that would make the crowd react — whether I made the shot or made the pass or whatever — I would just do something just to kind of let them know I was still here (laugh).

Q: You also described yourself as a survivor.

A: I survived being a New York Knick. And when I say that, I say that with the fact that I left a very comfortable situation for myself, and I came into a situation that wasn’t my situation, I had to fit into it. But I was able to do that. And I’ve always been able to like pull my game back and do things that maybe a lot of other players wouldn’t do. I was a scorer. I came into the pros I was averaging 23, 24 and whatnot. And then I came to New York, my first year I must have averaged about, 8, 9, I don’t know, 10, 14. I would go back to Philadelphia and guys would say to me, “Man, you lost your game (laugh).” But the thing in a nutshell is that I’ve always been a winner, and I understood what it took to be a winner.

Q: Regrets?

A: Maybe the fact New York never saw me the way I was at the beginning day in and day out. I regret that, but at the same time, I’m happy that I was able to play with the guys that I played with here.

Q: What do you hope your legacy is?

A: I’ll let people determine that. I don’t know. … I played the game, I loved the game, I left a mark on the game, and the game goes on.

Q: What would you tell these current Knicks about what it’s like winning a championship in New York?

A: I guess it’s a little different in this day and age. But winning a championship in New York, for the most part you’ll always be loved. … Even today we’re still teammates. I talk to Jerry all the time, speak with Bill, Clyde … Henry Bibby … after all these years, we’re still together when you really think about it all.

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