To tweet: https://es.pn/1hS3v8b

O.J.’s Final Run
Outside the Lines (Sunday, 9 a.m. ET, ESPN)

It’s been two decades since the grisly double murders of O.J. Simpson’s ex-wife Nicole and her friend Ron Goldman outside her Brentwood, Calif. home in 1994. On the same day Simpson was charged with two counts of murder and then disappeared in Los Angeles, the Knicks were hosting the Rockets in Game 5 of the NBA Finals. What followed was Simpson’s infamous “Bronco Chase,” one of the most bizarre moments in American sports history, as Bob Costas and NBC tried to cover both events simultaneously. Kelly Naqi revisits that night when 95 million people watched “reality TV” for the first time.

“O.J., from the back of the Bronco, called the studio, which was the same studio from which we did the NBA as we worked with O.J. on the NFL. But since we were doing the pre- and post- and the halftime from the Garden, the studio was empty except for one technical guy who answered the phone. And O.J. said ‘I need to speak to Bob Costas.’ And the tech says, ‘Who’s calling?’ And he says, ‘O.J. Simpson.’ And the tech says, ‘Yeah, right,’ and hangs up the phone.” – Bob Costas

“We had no clue (of O.J. and the Bronco) because you had to realize, this was ’94. There’s no Twitter, there’s no Instagram, you barely had cell phones, to be honest with you, so there was no outside communication.” — Robert Horry, Rockets forward

 

Freddie Freeman
Baseball Tonight (Sunday, 7 p.m., ESPN)

https://youtu.be/qk9FCtlFq5o
Father’s Day will always have added meaning for Atlanta Braves first baseman Freddie Freeman. As a teenager, he urged his father, Fred, to go to the hospital when he could not catch his breath in their living room. Fred Freeman had congestive heart failure and would have died in his sleep that night. Buster Olney describes the bond between father and son.

“He said ‘Dad, you need to go to the hospital.’ I said, ‘I’ll sit here and be ok.’ — Fred Freeman

“I think that’s what I learned, going through my trials of being a younger kid… there’s a lot more to life than just what you’re doing here on earth right now.” — Freddie Freeman

 

 

NCAA gets a nod in O’Bannon trial
ESPN.com

Wednesday, judge turns on NCAA, then asked questions that could lead it to court victory. Legal analyst Lester Munson reports. Reporter Tom Farrey (@TomFarrey) Tweets from inside the federal courtroom in Oakland, Calif. Follow the trial live daily.

 

 

Shadowed by the Hand of God
ESPNFC.com
ESPN The Magazine (World Cup issue on newsstands now)

Lionel Messi is the best player in the world, but there’s one foe the Argentine still can’t beat: the myth of Maradona. Wright Thompson reports.

 

 

Murrow Awards

This week, the Radio Television Digital News Association announced that ESPN received 2014 National Edward R. Murrow Awards, honoring excellence in electronic journalism. The Features Unit was honored for two features for SC Featured, SportsCenter’s storytelling brand, while E:60 won for a segment that aired on ESPN Radio. ESPN Films received the RTDNA Unity Award for its Nine for IX documentary “Venus Vs.” marking the second straight year it was honored — last year it was for the 30 for 30 film “Ghosts of Ole Miss.”

SC Featured: “Carry On” won in the Network Television News Documentary category, the first time ESPN has been honored in that category, while SC Featured: “The Lady Jags: Losing to Win,” (Network Television) and E:60’s “Enemy Within” (Network Radio) were recognized in the Reporting: Sports group.

“Carry On” producer Jose Moreales and reporter Tom Rinaldi updated the 2009 tale of two Cleveland high school wrestlers, one blind and one a double leg amputee, who found strength and friendship through their challenges. “Lady Jags,” produced by Scott Harves chronicled the Carroll Academy girls’ basketball team in Huntingdon, Tennessee, which had lost 213 straight high school basketball games but uses sports as a way to win in life.

Both winning features can be seen on ESPN.com:

SC Featured: Carry On: https://espn.go.com/video/clip?id=9456327
SC Featured: The Lady Jags: Losing to Win: https://espn.go.com/video/clip?id=9242142

“The Enemy Within” was Jeremy Schaap’s examination of the epidemic of soldier-on-soldier sexual abuse within the U.S. military, which aired on ESPN Radio’s The Sporting Life with Jeremy Schaap.