New York Knicks fans, you have far more to be proud of this year than the current squad’s elevation back to NBA Eastern Conference contenders. One of the team’s legendary players, 1973 title winner Earl Monroe, is mere weeks away from opening the Earl Monroe New Renaissance Basketball School in the South Bronx.
The school will focus on kids who dream about careers in the NBA or the greater basketball world in general—and not just as players.
The New York Post spoke with Monroe about his involvement with the kids in the Bronx.
“I’ve been flirting with this for a long time,” the Hall of Famer told sportswriter Mike Vaccaro. “There are so many kids who would like to pursue a career in basketball—and not the playing of basketball, but all the opportunities around this amazing game. What we want to do with this school is afford them opportunities they simply might not otherwise have known existed. It’s a dream come true for me.”
Monroe has been involved in education programs for the city’s kids since his playing days ended in the 1980s. This new school has been in the works for several years. More from the Post:
As far back as the 1980s, Monroe oversaw a summertime academy that helped spread this message. Then, a perfect partnership arrived in the presence of both Dan Klores—noted New York filmmaker, longtime basketball aficionado and the founder, since 2013, of the New Renaissance Basketball Association, a non-profit designed to assist disadvantaged kids through education—and late former NBA commissioner David Stern, an immediate supporter of the idea and a founding trustee of the school.
Who knew a Knicks legend could make a Bulls fan like me so happy?
