Jeff Van Gundy Knows The Crazy Reason Why The O.J. Simpson Chase Was So Slow

As anyone who saw the 30 for 30 can tell you, June 17, 1994 was a huge day in the sports world. There were a number of reasons why, but two of the biggest were the O.J. Simpson car chase and Game 5 of the NBA Finals between the Knicks and the Rockets.

It turns out those two events were tied together in a bizarre way, and ESPN analyst/then Knicks assistant coach Jeff Van Gundy knows the reason why. During Game 4 of the NBA Finals, Van Gundy took a second away from the game and told an incredible story about how Pat Riley – who was coaching the Knicks at the time – learned that the reason Simpson drove so slow was because he wanted to know what happened in the Knicks/Rockets game.

As Van Gundy explained it, Riley learned this information from Al Cowlings, who famously drove the white Ford Bronco that Simpson was in during the car chase because Simpson threatened to shoot himself if Cowlings didn’t drive. So for everyone wondering why the car Simpson was in went so slow, it was because he wanted to know how a basketball game ended.

It’s probably not off base if you’re skeptical that this story happened in the 1990s and we’re just learning about it now. But this is so insane that we can’t imagine Van Gundy would make it up. Add in the fact that it doesn’t make sense for JVG to lie about this, anyway, and we have no issue accepting this as fact.

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