Earl Monroe, a basketball player, is recognized as one of the best ball handlers in the history of the game. As a high-scoring virtuoso with legendary one-on-one maneuvers, he joined the National Basketball Association (NBA) in 1967 and quickly became a legend.
Thirteen years later, after he had elevated his performance to help the New York Knicks win a championship, he announced his retirement. First known as "Black Jesus," Monroe later became known simply as "the Pearl." His second act was almost as remarkable as his first, and it not only silenced his detractors.
Monroe played at Winston-Salem State, coached by the larger-than-life Clarence (“Big House”) Gaines. In 1967 the Baltimore Bullets made Monroe the second overall pick in the draft. In the 1970’s Monroe was on the verge of joining the American Basketball Association, but he was instead dealt to the Knicks in the middle of the 1971–1972 campaign.
The team won the NBA championship in 1973. The Baltimore-era Monroe had such a significant influence on pop culture that Woody Allen, a well-known Knicks fanatic, wrote a moving essay about how much Monroe meant to him. Inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1990, Monroe announced his retirement in 1980.
