{"id":374468,"date":"2026-10-16T03:15:02","date_gmt":"2026-10-16T03:15:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/374468\/"},"modified":"2026-10-16T03:15:02","modified_gmt":"2026-10-16T03:15:02","slug":"bill-bradley-earl-monroe-reunite-at-bronx-ribbon-cutting-ceremony","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/374468\/","title":{"rendered":"Bill Bradley, Earl Monroe reunite at Bronx ribbon cutting ceremony"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s no secret the connection that Knicks fans of a certain generation feel toward the 1972-73 championship-winning squad<\/a>. But a pair of stars from that team share a deeper connection that was on display Thursday morning in the South Bronx.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Speaking before a packed gymnasium at the Earl Monroe New Renaissance Basketball School, two-time NBA champion and former U.S. senator Bill Bradley<\/a> spoke from the heart about his friend, one-time on-court rival and eventual Knicks teammate, Earl \u201cThe Pearl\u201d Monroe.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe fact that it has Earl Monroe on the [school] name, that might be a little reason why I\u2019m here, but you guys are the reason that makes my heart full. Earl is the reason of my heart, because he is in my heart,\u201d Bradley said with Monroe sitting off to his left and drawing an audible reaction from the school\u2019s students in the crowd. \u201cWhen you are a teammate and you go to the top, it\u2019s a forever bond, and we did that twice.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

New York Knicks legend Earl Monroe, surrounded by Sen. Bill Bradley, NBA commissioner Adam Silver, and kneeling from left, former Knicks John Starks, Stephon Marbury and Tim Thomas, poses for a photo at the dedication of the Earl Monroe New Renaissance Basketball School in the South Bronx, Thursday, Oct. 15, 2026. Charles Wenzelberg \/ New York Post<\/p>\n

Bradley, 83, added that his appearance Thursday was \u201cone small way for me to say to my friend, I love you.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

The two Knicks legends were side by side once again to celebrate the opening of the new 69,000-square-foot facility for the Earl Monroe New Renaissance Basketball School, a specialized charter school in The Bronx whose curriculum is based around basketball and careers beyond the court.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The school opened in 2021 and provides its 440 students from grades 9-12 with an education in topics ranging from broadcast, print and digital media to law and marketing.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cEverybody can\u2019t play basketball, even though everybody wants to, but there\u2019s so many other aspects of the sports and the game that you can be involved in without being the sports person,\u201d Monroe, 81, said after the event. \u201cI think that this is an excellent way for people to be involved in the sport and still get the same satisfaction as scoring a basket.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

New York Knicks legend Sen. Bill Bradley, left, shakes hands with NBA commissioner Adam Silver. Charles Wenzelberg \/ New York Post<\/p>\n

The ribbon-cutting ceremony drew a star-studded list of guests, including former Knicks stars John Starks and Stephon Marbury, Knicks celebrity superfan Tracy Morgan, ESPN personality Mike Greenberg, who hosted the event, and NBA commissioner Adam Silver.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Silver noted how fitting it was that Thursday\u2019s ceremony was taking place after the Knicks ended their 53-year championship drought this past summer, making them the first Knicks title squad since Monroe\u2019s 1973 team.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt felt great,\u201d Monroe said about seeing the Knicks win another title. \u201cWe\u2019ve had some great players come through over the years, and finally getting over the hump. Not only just for me, just for the city itself. We\u2019re a city of champs, so we deserve it.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

But the Knicks will have a target on their back this season as defending champions, and repeating is no small task.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Former New York Knick Stephon Marbury takes a selfie at the dedication of the Earl Monroe New Renaissance Basketball School in the South Bronx, Thursday, Oct. 15, 2026. Charles Wenzelberg \/ New York Post<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\tWhat\u2019s happening on and off the Garden court\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSign up for Inside the Knicks by Stefan Bondy, a weekly exclusive on Sports+.\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\tThank you\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Monroe was part of the Baltimore Bullets team that prevented the Knicks from repeating in 1971, knocking them out in the Eastern Conference Finals. The Naismith Basketball Hall of Famer didn\u2019t seem too worried about the Knicks\u2019 mindset going into this season.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cCertainly, the fact that you\u2019ve won, obviously, it makes it so that you understand that you can win again,\u201d Monroe said. \u201cSo I\u2019m quite sure that they\u2019re coming into this thinking that we\u2019re No. 1, and I\u2019ll tell other people to prove that we\u2019re not.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

New York Knicks legends Earl Monroe (right) and former Sen. Bill Bradley attend the dedication of the Earl Monroe New Renaissance Basketball School in the South Bronx area of New York on Thursday, Oct. 15, 2026. Charles Wenzelberg \/ New York Post<\/p>\n

NBA commissioner Adam Silver stands with Dan and Abbe Klores as Silver announces the new Earl Monroe New Renaissance Basketball School building will be named after them, in the South Bronx, Thursday, Oct. 15, 2026. Charles Wenzelberg \/ New York Post<\/p>\n

While Monroe and Bradley are forever tied together on the court, from their days playing in the Baker League in Philadelphia through college and into the NBA, Bradley\u2019s lasting memory of Monroe reflected more from what he saw Thursday than on the court.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is the Earl Monroe that I know,\u201d Bradley said prior to the start of the ceremony. \u201cFrom the first day I met him, when we had a shootout at Bry Pope Baptist Church in Philadelphia in the summertime, Earl Monroe was interested in the community, and this is the epitome of being interested in the community.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s no secret the connection that Knicks fans of a certain generation feel toward the 1972-73 championship-winning squad.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":374469,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[96777,128,8290,57,21,9,24,1104,63,319,129,131,130],"class_list":["post-374468","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-the-bronx","tag-bill-bradley","tag-bronx","tag-earl-monroe","tag-metro","tag-nba","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-new-york-knicks","tag-nyc","tag-sports","tag-the-bronx","tag-the-bronx-headlines","tag-the-bronx-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/374468","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=374468"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/374468\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/374469"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=374468"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=374468"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=374468"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}