NBA Announcer Jeff Van Gundy used a lull in the NBA Finals action — and there have been plenty of them, with the first four games all blowouts — to recount an old story about hoops eminence Pat Riley, a car wash, O.J. Simpson and his famous white Bronco driver A.C. Cowlings.
Van Gundy, who used to coach for Riley in New York, said Riley was getting his car detailed in LA one day at the same time as Cowlings. Cowlings, who knew Riley to say hello, told him a detail he thought Riley would find interesting — that the reason O.J.’s white Bronco was being driven so slowly as police followed it on that surreal night was because Simpson wanted to listen to the NBA Finals on the radio. Simple as that. (He’s lucky, too, because those watching it on TV were frustrated as the broadcast kept getting interrupted by video of the white Bronco.) It’s what Riley was told, anyway. Van Gundy said he can’t vouch for its veracity. The 1994 Finals featured Riley’s (and Van Gundy’s) Knicks against the Houston Rockets. ABC is promoting its new 30 for 30 on Simpson.
