{"id":98551,"date":"2024-10-02T09:43:27","date_gmt":"2024-10-02T13:43:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=98551"},"modified":"2024-10-02T09:43:27","modified_gmt":"2024-10-02T13:43:27","slug":"why-knicks-champion-earl-monroe-passed-pacers-play-big-apple","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/10\/02\/why-knicks-champion-earl-monroe-passed-pacers-play-big-apple\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Knicks Champion Passed Up Pacers To Play In Big Apple"},"content":{"rendered":"

Would the New York Knicks have been able to win their last championship without Earl Monroe<\/a>?<\/p>\n

In 1972-73, the Knicks had a stacked roster, with Monroe playing alongside six future Hall of Fame selections. When they made it to the 1973 NBA Finals, teams like the Baltimore Bullets (who are now the Washington Wizards) were no match, losing the series in five games. Ironically, the Bullets had traded Monroe to the Knicks the previous season.<\/p>\n

On Nov. 10, 1971, Baltimore shipped Monroe to New York for Mike Riordan<\/a>, Dave Stallworth<\/a> and cash. It\u2019s amazing to think that the fateful deal<\/a> might have never went down. Before agreeing to join the Knicks, Monroe received interest from the Indiana Pacers. The Pacers are now considered a Knicks rival due to the playoffs battles they had in the 1990s. However, back when Monroe was playing, they were one of the team\u2019s in the American Basketball Association (ABA).<\/p>\n

Why Knicks Champion Earl Monroe Passed Up Pacers To Play In Big Apple<\/h2>\n

The Pacers, then led by players like Mel Daniels<\/a> and Roger Brown<\/a>, didn\u2019t leave the best impression on Monroe though. A heavy presence of firearms in the locker room alerted The Pearl that he might be in the wrong oyster<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2026I was kind of discouraged from that,\u201d Monroe tells Steve Serby of the New York Post. \u201cI 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

After that experience, Monroe quickly called his agent. He didn\u2019t want to play for the Pacers, who went on to win the 1972 and 1973 ABA championships. One could say that what Monroe saw that night altered the course of history.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously we didn’t have cell phones back then, so I found a pay phone in the arena and told [agent Larry Fleisher], \u2018I don’t think this is the place for me.\u2019 And he said, \u2018Well, come on home, Earl, I got another offer on the table for you,\u2019 and that was the offer from the Knicks.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

However, after realizing he didn\u2019t want to play for the Pacers, he had to make a quick decision.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had to make a decision in a day,\u201d Monroe recalls. \u201cSo I went to my mom, and my mom told me to just kind of follow my heart\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

His mother, Rose, passed away soon after in January 1973. Monroe, who proudly wears the mama\u2019s boy tag, was obviously pained by this. While his family as a whole was supportive of him, his mom did everything she could for him.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously 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\u2019t stand to see me get hurt, or somebody hitting me or whatever the case may be. But she was so supportive of me.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Monroe wasn\u2019t exactly surprised by her passing, as she was already hospitalized.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe 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, \u201cOK, Ma, I\u2019ll check with you later.\u201d And she walked me through the door, she stopped me and hugged me and she said, \u201cEarl, if anything happens to me, I want you to know that I\u2019ll be OK.\u201d So I drove back to New York and about 3 o\u2019clock in the morning, my best friend from Philadelphia called me to tell me that my mother had passed.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

He even \u201cdedicated\u201d the 1972-73 season to her. \u201cSo by winning the championship (it) was like the crown jewel of what it was all about with her, and letting her know that I made it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Would the New York Knicks have been able to win their last championship without Earl Monroe? In 1972-73, the Knicks had a stacked roster, with Monroe playing alongside six future Hall of Fame selections. When they made it to the 1973 NBA Finals, teams like the Baltimore Bullets (who are now the Washington Wizards) were […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5008,"featured_media":98998,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[12,1608,11,62,3],"tags":[2160,596,1382],"class_list":["post-98551","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-knicks","category-basketball","category-pacers","category-nba","category-news","tag-earl-monroe","tag-nba-playoffs","tag-nba-trade"],"modified_by":"Quenton S Albertie","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98551","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5008"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=98551"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98551\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/98998"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=98551"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=98551"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=98551"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}