We visited the Bullets in their dressing room that night. The pungent odor of various liniments assailed the nostrils. Without Band-aids and painkillers, the Bullets might not have gotten this far.
Tag Archives: Baltimore Bullets
Baltimore Bullets: Once Upon a Time in Madison Square Garden, 1971
The Bullets needed a change of luck in the Garden.
Wes Unseld: Most Valuable Player, 1970
In one season, this miniature oak tree, who stands 6-foot-7 ½, transformed Baltimore from Humpty Dumpties to the Cinderella team of the National Basketball Association.
Johnny Green: Basketball’s Talented Antique, 1972
When Johnny Green was a first-round draft choice, he received $2,000 as a bonus. Rookies now are getting more than an entire team’s payroll used to be.
Rap with Earl Monroe, 1972
As far as me changing the style of play of basketball, I think my style is basically just the style of about every Black player in America today. As you know, most Black players are, more or less, playground players, and this is just about the basic style that I play.
‘Earl, Earl, Earl The Pearl,’ 1975
It’s difficult to describe the bedlam he generates in the arena. Little kids scream. Mothers and fathers forget their dignity and roar their delight over a sweating individual in short pants. The Pearl becomes their bauble.
The (Short-Lived) Life of a Rookie, 1971
I just hope the trade rumors I heard don’t become reality. Somebody said Mike was offered for George Plimpton and 1,000 copies of Paper Lion to be sent later.
Gus Johnson: Will Erratic Star Become a Superstar?
Johnson, more confidently, concludes: “There’s no limit to what I can do out there.” True. The basketball world, and especially the Bullets, curiously await future developments.
Quality Transcends Time
Had he lived in another era, Buddy Jeannette would have been a household name.
Pearl Time
Time for a quick Earl Monroe story. This one comes from the magazine Pro Basketball Special (1971-72) and an article titled “Ordeal of the Playoffs,” by the late-great Phil Pepe. The article begins with a quote from Bill Russell that goes like this, “When the playoffs come and the pressure is the greatest, you’ve got to look at yourself in the mirror and ask yourself what kind of a man you are, what are you really made of?” Pepe takes Russel’s quote and writes, “Things happen in the playoffs, strange and eerie things. It is a time when the unusual is the norm, the extraordinary is commonplace. And only the stoutest of heart come through under the pressure of the playoffs.” Pepe goes on to retell this unusual “loss of cool” during the 1970 NBA Eastern Division semifinals pitting the soon-to-be champion New York Knicks against Monroe’s Baltimore Bullets.
From Way Downtown 