On this day in sports history, two wild events transpired. One was the famous Orenthal James Simpson chase in a Bronco and it led to one of the most comical moments in history when Captain Janks of the Howard Stern show called into NBC and pranked the host. The other was when Charles Barkley was dealt from the 76ers to the Suns.
In 1994, O.J. Simpson took Los Angeles police on a ninety minute, slow speed car chase on the 405 freeway. While this event was massive that the former Bills running back was trying to evade police, the part that I cling onto is how one of Howard Sterns whack packers, Captain Janks, was able to get through to the NBC coverage of the chase.
When the Juice was in his car in the driveway, a braindead NBC anchor got a call from a man named Robert Higgins who lived in the neighborhood and while being in the back of a news van could see what O.J. was doing.
How in the world did this dummy not realize after the second sentence when “Higgins” said “Oh my lord, it is very tensys.” that this call was fake. “Higgins” goes onto say in the call “Looky here, he look very upset.” and the famous “I see O.J. and he be looking scared.”
Al Michaels, who was later a guest on Howard Stern, chimes in just seconds after Captain Janks shouts “And a Baba Booey to ya’ll!” to tell America that the call that just through was “farcical”. Absolutely unreal that that actually happened.
The Juice chase also altered millions of Americans because it occurred during game five of the 1994 NBA Finals between the Knicks and Jordans Bulls. The telecast was interrupted and displayed the entirety of the chase.
So the Juice chase happened in 1994, two years earlier in 1992, Charles Barkley was dealt from the Philadelphia 76ers to the Phoenix Suns. Barkley had played with the 76ers, the team that drafted him, from 1984 to 1992.
In 1992, the Suns pulled the trigger on making a deal for the All Star big man. Phoenix received Chuck Barkley in exchange for Jeff Hornacek, Andrew Lang, and Tim Perry from Philadelphia.
The traded seemed to work in the way of Phoenix as Barkley was named MVP in 1993 while leading the Suns to the NBA Finals against the Jordan led Bulls. One of the famous “I took that personal” lines from The Last Dance comes from Jordan talking about how he was pissed that he didn’t win MVP and Barkley did. He took that personal and made it his mission to demolish the Suns.
Wild, wild day.