Earl 'The Pearl' Pens First Book
NEW YORK (WLNY) -- It's been 40 years since the Knicks last won an NBA championship, but fans are feeling optimistic with the team's strong start in the playoffs.
Hall of Famer Earl Monroe was one of the key players on that legendary 1973 team. His new book, "Earl The Pearl: My Story," tells his incredible journey from the streets of Philadelphia to NBA immortality.
NBA Playoff Photos: Knicks vs. Celtics At MSG
Unlike many of his teammates from the championship squad, Pearl had yet to put his tale into words, he told The Couch.
"I felt as though when I really wanted to tell this story, I wanted it to mean something," he said. "All the guys I played with during the 1973 season had written books and had done all these other things. This is the time that I felt it was for me."
He wanted the publication to coincide with the 40th anniversary of the 1973 NBA Championship.
The book features several stories, including what it was like to play college ball in the segregated South, after having grown up in Philadelphia.
"It was a little bit different than from what I was used to," he said of his time at Winston-Salem State. "There was one time that I brought my parents down, and we went to a restaurant in Winston-Salem and we got there and sat down at the table, and they said, 'You've got to go, we don't serve your kind.'"
