Greetings, Okaysportsfam. Long time.

Basketball legend Earl "The Pearl" Monroe's long-awaited autobiography, Earl The Pearl, drops tomorrow. Deadspin's got a great excerpt of the book up today:

http://deadspin.com/hookers-vs-the-klan-why-earl-the-pearl-monroe-chose-472979877

Monroe, of course, is one of the truly iconic basketball superstars of the late 1960s and 70s, a key piece in the 1973 Knicks championship puzzle. But this book contains way more than just a bunch of boring basketball stories.

For instance, did you know:

• That Earl lost his virginity at the age of 9 while standing upright in a vestibule?
• That as a child, Earl witnessed a grisly murder first-hand?
• That the first time Earl heard anyone refer to him as “Black Jesus,” he was being held at gunpoint?
• That Earl was once chased through rural Virginia by a carful of hooded Klansmen?
• That Earl insists he was left off the U.S. Pan-American Games team in 1967 because the coach was a racist?
• That Earl impregnated 3 different women in a 4 year span from 1967-1970?
• That Earl once unwittingly smoked angel dust at a party at Bubba Smith’s house?
• That Earl was once arrested for his participation in a violent riot at a high school basketball game?
• That Earl once received a fan letter from Woody Allen and kicked it with both Miles Davis and Linda Lovelace at an uptown jazz club?
• That Earl held up the Knicks' plane to LA after Game 4 of the 1973 NBA Finals because he was looking (with a gun) for two men who had assaulted him on the street near The Garden?
• That Earl swears he was once attacked by a ghost in his girlfriend’s Brooklyn apartment?

Those are just a few of the crazy-ass stories recounted in this sprawling 432-page book, which was co-written by Quincy Troupe, the collaborator both on Miles Davis’s autobiography, Miles, and Chris Gardner’s memoir, The Pursuit of Happyness.

Do yourselves a favor and cop it tomorrow.

http://www.amazon.com/Earl-The-Pearl-My-Story/dp/1609615611