by Earl Monroe
The great thing was that we were winning a lot. Starting with our win over Detroit, we lost only 2 of our next 16 games, with those 2 losses being to San Diego in a doubleheader at Detroit and to Cincinnati at home when the Big O killed us by scoring 38 points, grabbing a bunch of rebounds, and dishing out all kinds of assists. That game was a real barn burner, close all the way. The Royals had five players in the double figures in that game and we had five also, with Kevin scoring 28 points and me adding 21. Wes Unseld had 24 points in that game, showing us he wasn’t just a rebounder, but also could put the ball in the hoop. That was great to see. Like I said, besides those two defeats we were on a roll, beating elite teams like the Lakers, the Celtics twice, the Knicks, and the Warriors. We started a 9-game winning streak by beating Seattle on Christmas Day in Baltimore, 118–112. We had won 27 and lost only 7 when, again, we traveled up to Philadelphia and they beat us for the third time that year, 127–120. It seemed like they just had our number and we couldn’t get over the hump with them. Jack Marin played very well for us in that game, scoring 31 points, but it wasn’t enough to offset Chet Walker and Billy Cunningham, who combined for 65.
There was a big crowd that night in Philadelphia, more than 15,000 people, and many of them had come to see me play. It was good to perform in front of the home crowd, even if we didn’t get the win. I wanted badly to beat Philadelphia that night—my dad was there, as were Sonny Hill, friends, and family—but it just wasn’t in the cards. Still, I got a chance to be with them after the game up at Ma’s new house, and that was memorable. I went back to Baltimore the next day to play against Milwaukee and we beat them, 136–122. I scored 32 points and we had five other players reach double figures.
Things were definitely looking up for us, but we lost our next 2 games, the first to Atlanta on December 29 and then to the Knicks on New Year’s Eve, 121–110. So we ended the first half of the season on a down note, as both losses were to teams that were on the rise, especially Atlanta. They had absorbed some very fine players from the Saint Louis Hawks after that franchise had folded up its tent, including Zelmo Beatty, Bill Bridges, “Jumping Joe” Caldwell, Lou Hudson, Paul Silas, and my old friend Don Ohl. Plus, they had acquired Walt Hazzard from Seattle, so they had a very good squad. The night they beat us in Atlanta, they came into the game with a record of 21 and 15 and had won 9 straight. So they weren’t playing around. Beatty led the Hawks in scoring that night with 23, while Hazzard had 17. Only three Bullets reached double figures that night, and one was me with 33 (I always got up when I played Walt Hazzard because he was from Philadelphia and always left everything out on the floor). As for New York, they had acquired power forward Dave DeBusschere from Detroit on December 19, and he was just what the doctor ordered for that team. So when we went into Madison Square Garden that night, with more than 15,000 people screaming their heads off, New York was also on a roll after having won 8 straight to lift their overall record to 25 and 17 after beating us. Willis Reed completely dominated Wes Unseld that night, scoring 39 points and grabbing every rebound in sight. We lost 121–100.
So we limped back down to Baltimore to lick our wounds and pull everything back together again. We had two days off until our game on January 3 against Cincinnati, so I spent my downtime hanging out with Cookie, who was my main girlfriend at the time, even though I was seeing other women, too. See, I wasn’t married and neither was she. So we agreed that we could see other people, and both of us did. Cookie was a great lady and she and I had an interesting relationship. I had met her at a Groove Phi Groove party during my rookie year in Baltimore. She reminded me of Angela Davis, but was better looking. In fact, she got picked up once in New York City when the police thought she was Angela during the time when she was on the run and they were looking for her. But Cookie and I were tight, so much so we even started talking about getting married, you know. But then, like I said, she was a lot like me.
Cookie liked going out and doing things by herself. One time she went to some West Indian island with a guy and charged the whole thing to my credit card! But it just so happened that I was seeing the guy’s wife, another really pretty woman, on the side. So maybe Cookie found out about that and was trying to get back at me. I don’t know, because we never discussed it. The woman I went out with was named Delores, and she was hooked up with some big black gangster in town. I remember one time I took Delores down to a club in Washington, DC, and lo and behold this guy comes in. So he walks right up to her and says, “You got to get out of here with this guy.” And we left.
Another time I was with a different woman (whose name escapes me) in DC. We were at her house when all of a sudden there was a knock at the door. Now, this lady was truly fine, too. So she yelled out, “Who is it?”
“You know who it is,” the voice on the other side of the door said. “It’s Jerry. Open the door!”
So I asked her who Jerry was and she said, whispering, “My old boyfriend.”
So Jerry kept knocking for a while. Then he went around to the back door, broke in through a window, and came into the bedroom where we were. So she yelled at him, “I told you I don’t want to see you no more!”
So he said, “I don’t care. You my woman! I’ll kill you in here.”
So they went back and forth like this for a while, and as all of this was going on I put on my clothes and started easing out the door because I didn’t want any part of this. Up until this time he’d been just yelling at her while she was screaming back at him. So then, finally, he looked at me and said, “Oh, hey, Pearl! How you doing, man?”
So I looked at him and said, “Hey, man, this is y’all problem. I ain’t got no part of this. I gotta get up outta here.”
So I eased on out the door, got in my car, and drove back to Baltimore, and that was the last time I saw her. I was always getting caught up in stuff like that back then. I just liked women. But the same thing happened with that woman named Gloria, only this guy came to my apartment to get her. And that was the reason I didn’t want to see her anymore and stopped taking her calls and mixed her up with Gloria, who was the mother of my son, Rodney. I kept telling myself I had to stop getting into these weird situations with women, though at the time it kept happening. I guess I just liked living dangerously, on the edge, at the time. I always like to think that Cookie was my anchor at that time and she was, though I couldn’t marry her. Maybe I was afraid.
Anyway, we started playing again on January 3 against the Royals in Cincinnati and we beat them that night, 130–125. That game was a shoot-out between me and Oscar, with him getting 42 points and me 35. Man, there were a lot of players that played well that night, because Gus scored 26 points, Marin got 24, Kevin hit for 21, and Wes got 19. On the other side, besides Oscar’s huge night, Van Arsdale scored 31 points and four other players scored in double figures. It was a close game, but we came out on top. Then, on January 4, we finally beat the 76ers back in Baltimore, 117–112. For the first time that year Wes led us in scoring, hitting for 29 points and a lot of rebounds. For Philly, Hal Greer dropped 33 in the losing effort. It was a hard-fought game, but we finally got that 76er monkey off our backs. After two days of rest we lost to Los Angeles 100–93. We played well that night but they played better, especially Elgin Baylor and Mel Counts. We had five men in double figures, but it wasn’t enough.
The All-Star game was coming up on January 14 and it was going to be played in Baltimore. But before that game we got back on the winning track, taking 3 straight games. We beat the San Diego Rockets twice, then added Phoenix to our list of victims. Then, after the All-Star game, we won 2 more, beating Boston and Chicago. Our record was 33 and 11 before the All-Star game and 35 and 11 counting the 2 wins after the game, so we were seemingly putting a championship season together.
As for the All-Star game, I was voted into the East’s starting lineup along with Oscar Robertson, John Havlicek, Bill Russell, and Jerry Lucas. For the West, the starters were Elgin Baylor, Lenny Wilkins, Elvin Hayes, Jerry Sloan
, and Don Kojis. The coaches were Gene Shue for the East and Richie Guerin for the West.
I was happy to be voted onto the All-Star team because it’s a great honor to be selected as one of the top players in the NBA. It’s something I had dreamed about since I first got serious about playing basketball. So yeah, it was a rush, and a very big one. I was stoked to play in that game, especially in front of more than 12,000 fans in my newly adopted hometown, fans who were screaming out my name every time I made a great play or hit a big shot. We—the East team—won that game 123–112. Oscar Robertson led us in scoring with 24 points, while I got 21. Elgin Baylor led the West squad with 21. Oscar was voted the MVP of that game, but the award usually goes to the hometown guy on the winning side if he plays great, and that player was me. I thought I should have received the award because I was instrumental in our side winning—other players thought so, too—but I didn’t get it and I have no regrets about that. Oscar played a terrific game and he got the nod and that was that. But, you know, I hadn’t even made the All-Star team the year before and I thought I should have, as did a lot of other players. So it was what it was and I just had to keep on rolling.
Anyway, after the All-Star game we won, as I said, two more games and then lost three straight—to Seattle, Atlanta, and Boston—before we righted ourselves by beating the Pistons on January 27. But then three days later we lost a close game to the Knicks, 109–106, at home. The Knicks led most of the way but we almost caught them in the final quarter. That game was notable because Walt Frazier and I went head-to-head against each other. I scored 33 points and he got 28. But Dave DeBusschere and Gus Johnson had a very big battle that night, too, with Dave getting 23 points and Gus 22. They were battling on the boards, as were Willis Reed and Wes. So in a way this game mirrored what was to happen in the future of this developing rivalry.
We had started out the season with a great sense of purpose, and despite whatever differences we had as individuals, we had become a very harmonious group of guys who understood that we could be a really good team. As for me, I was having an outstanding season, scoring more than 25 points per game. But everyone on the Bullets knew that the difference in our team from the previous year was the addition of Wes Unseld. Because Wes, with his wide body that enabled him to get position under the boards and grab 14, 15 rebounds a game, was a game changer. He was throwing incredible outlet passes that triggered our potent fast breaks, setting screens that allowed shooters like me, Kevin, Chink, and Jack Marin to launch our deadly jump shots, and playing all-around solid defense. See, Wes was very efficient with what he did, and that efficiency translated into wins. Those wins really helped us believe in ourselves as a unit and convinced us that we could beat anybody. I think it also helped a lot that Wes didn’t necessarily need the ball in his hands all the time to pass or to score—but he could do both. That also helped our cohesion factor as well. Plus he was a great teammate, so everything was clicking.
After losing to the Knicks, we won five straight, starting with Philadelphia on January 31 and ending with Milwaukee on February 7. But the win over Boston—the game before Milwaukee—was important because Gus got hurt in that game and didn’t play again for the rest of the season. That really hurt us as a team because Gus Johnson was very important to us, as important as Wes had become. Gus rebounded, played truly great, hard-nosed, in-your-face, intimidating defense, and always guarded the opponent’s best player, no matter their size. He passed well and scored whenever he had to, averaging 18 to 20 points a game. He was our leader, team captain, the glue that held all the various parts of our squad together. So his loss tore a very big hole in our team and its impact could not be really measured because he did so many things. But as strong as Gus was, he was fragile, too, especially his knees, which is what grounded him in Boston: His knee went out and that was that.
After Gus went down in Boston we continued to play well for the rest of the season. We played the Knicks again on February 8 but lost 106–100, then won 4 straight before losing 117–112 to Cincinnati on February 17. Then we won 4 straight again before losing to Milwaukee 126–117 on February 27, which was our largest losing margin in a month. After that loss we were 49 and 18 for the season, which was one of the best records—if not the best—in the NBA that year. We were very seldom losing to teams we were supposed to beat and we were beating the top teams in the league and had, in one season, gone from a last-place ball club to one of the league’s elite squads. So I was happy, despite losing Gus to a knee injury.
People in Baltimore were continuing to come out to see us play, and that was a very good thing. That’s why I didn’t understand the rumors that were starting to go around that the owners were considering moving the team out to Houston at some point (I think I might have demanded a trade if that had happened, because I liked the East Coast, and Baltimore as well). Then there were rumblings that they wanted to move the franchise down to Washington, because that was a bigger market. The word was getting out that we would play our home games at the Landover, Maryland, Field House.
The thing I liked most about Baltimore was that the guys on the team were tight and hung out and fraternized together. We went by each other’s houses—it wasn’t like in a big city like New York where the players’ homes were spread around a wide area—because we all lived close to each other and everything was manageable. All the black guys used to hang out at Lenny Moore’s club out near Gwynn Oak and downtown at the casinos. I mean Kevin Loughery would hang out sometimes, too, and I really liked him as a player and as a person, you know. Kevin used to smoke his big cigars and was a real cool guy. Baltimore was a nice city to see big acts like Stevie Wonder, who used to come through and perform at least once a year. It was also a good place to see and hear stand-up comedy, which was one of my favorite artforms from the time I was young.
Sometime in early March, a guy name Jimmy Phelan, who came to some of the Bullets games, found out that I enjoyed comedy. He was a New York comedian and when he went back home he sent me a stack of comedy albums like Pigmeat Markham, Moms Mabley, Redd Foxx, Lawanda Page, Mantan Moreland, and a few others. One of the album covers had a picture of a black man sitting on a rock with a ring in his nose, holding a spear. The record’s title was That Nigger’s Crazy (that was the original cover and I think they have since changed it and toned it down). Anyway, this was the first album out of the stack he sent that I played and I was floored by it. I became an instant Richard Pryor fan. I started watching him a lot when he was on TV shows.
So I started working up a comedy act of my own and had the opportunity to perform it live at the Lyric Theater in Baltimore. Now, some of my Bullets teammates like Wes Unseld, Gus Johnson, and Chink Scott came to the show to support me. I remember there wasn’t a large audience in the club that night. Anyway, the MC comes out and introduces me by saying, And now, ladies and gentlemen, introducing our own, Earl the Pearl Monroe! Then there’s a round of applause and I come out on stage dressed in a white suit and white shoes. So I get out there and start telling jokes that I had written. And immediately all my teammates, led by Wes Unseld, start heckling me: “Boooo! You ain’t doing it. Get off the stage!”
So I’m trying to get through it all but about halfway through my routine I said, “There’s this guy named Peg Leg Bates. Can you hear him saying, ‘Come on, feet, don’t fail me now?’”
As soon as I said “now” the MC rushes out on stage and says, “Well, folks, that’s him! That’s Earl Monroe! Give him a big hand!”
So the crowd claps and my teammates crack up and I look at the MC stunned by this revolting development. Then I say, “I’m not finished yet!”
So he just looks at me smiling and without batting an eye turns back to the audience and with an even bigger smile and clapping his hands says, “Let’s give him another big round of applause, folks, for the inimitable, the indubitable, the one and only, Earllllllll the Pearlllllll Monroooooooooe, ladies and gentlemen!”
Then he turns to me, grabs my arm in
a vise-like grip, and hustles me off the stage, grinning broadly as we go. Now, I was mad as hell but didn’t show it, so I grin and wave at the audience, too. But that was my last bit of comedy I ever did. My teammates and I had a big laugh on the way home that night, even though I was furious inside.
March was the last month of the regular season and we started it with 2 wins followed by 4 straight losses. Then we reeled off 5 straight wins before losing 3 of our last 4 games going into the playoffs. Our record at the end of the regular season was 57 and 25, which was good enough for us to finish first in the Eastern Division of the NBA and a 21-game improvement over the previous season. Then we got swept by the Knicks, 4 games to none, in the Eastern Division semifinals.
The sweep was a letdown because we thought we matched up better against the Knicks than the Sixers. I sat out the final two games of the regular season, which all but assured us having to face the Knicks. We had played them very well during the regular season, so we were kind of baffled that they beat us the way that they did. We also wanted to play them because the Knicks were viewed as arrogant asses by many in the league. The Knicks’ players lived and played in New York City, the media capital of the world, which provided them with worldwide coverage and made all their players more famous. They had way more paying fans than any other team in the NBA, and they played in Madison Square Garden, the mecca of basketball. As a result of all this they had the best facilities and made more money as a team and as players than any other ballers in the United States. So yes, at the time, they were arrogant asses to us, though you could say there was an element of jealousy in it. And yes, they were fast becoming our enemy—more than any other team. So we just wanted to go up against that team and beat them, because our games were fast becoming wars and everyone on our team just loved the competition.