Monroe overcame adversity, retained his pride

NEW YORK – When Earl Monroe strode to the podium for his enshrinement into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1991, he carried an embarrassing secret to the stage.

Monroe, who won two championships with the Knicks but entered the Hall wearing the jersey of the Bullets, where his court lore began, was severely in debt and had no health insurance. His joints and cartilage throbbed from all the midair improvisation during his youth. Double hip-replacement surgery would have to wait.

“I didn’t have surgery for a couple of years before that because I didn’t have any insurance,” he said. “I didn’t know where to turn or what to do.”

He said he owed the IRS $5.5 million, money the IRS said had been hidden in tax shelters by his accountant in the 1970s. “I looked at ‘em and said, ‘I didn’t make this much; how did I owe this much?’ ” A music endeavor had also failed. He was too proud to ask friends for help, and it took him most of the last decade to pay off the debt.

Monroe said his New Jersey home over the years has served as a shelter for former teammates and NBA players, until Marita Green, his wife, decided enough was enough. “I had to kick them out,” she said.

A former roommate whom he mentored after he heard the man was living at the YMCA “ended up borrowing my car one day and not bringing it back,” Monroe said.

“Countless times, players’ wives would show up and say they were on the verge of being evicted,” Green said. “Earl would pay their rent.”

-Mike Wise