To Baltimore basketball fans more than 40 years old, Earl “The Pearl” Monroe will forever remain the glorious guard with the reverse spin, the youthful magician who once spun 56 points on Jerry West and the Los Angeles Lakers during his unforgettable rookie season with the Bullets.
Time and age dribble forward, and Monroe, now 61, was in West Baltimore Thursday to urge the same men who used to catchhis shows to “take control of their health” by getting their prostates checked. Monroe suffered an enlarged prostate that interfered with his life for three years.
“My wife finally said to me, ?You know, Earl, we haven?t had a decent night?s sleep in a long time,? ” Monroe recounted at the Baltimore City Health Department?s Men?s Heath Center at 1515 W. North Ave. “She told me, ?When you get up six or seven times a night, so do I.? That?s when I finally went to the doctor. He prescribed some medication and a week later I was doing better.”
Monroe, a shooting guard in his playing days, has been the point man since October for a campaign aimed at Boehringer-Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals? prescription treatment, Flomax. He takes the medication for his condition, known as benign prostatic hyperplasia. The 6-foot-3 Hall-of-Famer, named one of the game?s 50 greatest players by the NBA, lives in New York, where he won a championship with the Knicks in 1973. He returns to Baltimore several times a year to visit his daughter Danielle and his twelve-year-old granddaughter, Daria. He happily reminisced with fans and friends during Thursday?s visit.
“I grew up with Earl in Philadelphia,” said Ken Morgan, who teaches at Coppin State University and stopped by to visit with his old buddy. “I always said that if Earl had played with me at Temple, I?d be collecting an NBA retirement check, too. But they didn?t want him. Can you believe that?”
Instead, Monroe went to Winston-Salem, where he averaged 41.5 points per game as a senior and picked up the moniker “The Pearl” from a local sportswriter.
“I used to go see him when the games cost $5,” said Mike Clark, 47, visiting the Men?s Health Center for an exam after losing his health insurance. “I think he is a good spokesperson, a good role model. People on the street, they still talk about Earl ?The Pearl?.”
