Elie, who is of Haitian heritage, grew up in New York City. He was named "Mario" for opera singer Mario Lanza. His father died after Elie graduated from college. He had a brother named Clark, an amateur basketball player who died in a car accident in October 2009. He also has a sister named Nancy.
Elie attended Power Memorial Academy (same high school as Kareem Abdul-Jabbar), where he was a teammate of Chris Mullin under coach Steve Donohue. Elie played street ball in Central Park and other locations in New York City during the 1980s, trying and failing several times to get into the NBA. His nickname on the New York playgrounds was "The Jedi".
He played college basketball at American International College in Springfield, MA. Though Elie led AIC to their conference's first NCAA Division II Tournament Quarter-Final, he was at first overlooked by NBA teams.[1] Elie was selected with the 160th pick (out of 162 total) in the 1985 NBA Draft by the Milwaukee Bucks.[2] However, he was waived by the Bucks less than two months later.[3] He was also on the pre-season roster for the 1990-91 Los Angeles Lakers, but was waived before the season started.[3]
Eventually he played in Europe, most notably in the Portuguese League with the Ovarense Aerosoles, then in the World Basketball League, and also spent two years in theContinental Basketball Association with the Albany Patroons. In 1987 he played for Dart Killester in Ireland. He also played in the Argentine League, for Unión de Santa Fe.[4]
