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1993-94: The Most Shocking Year In Sports?

UltraMagnus

UltraMagnus

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Oct 27, 2017
15,670
I was just watching some ESPN 30 For 30 Docs, and the OJ chase one (June, 17, 1994) is so good. And then there's the Michael Jordan 30 for 30 baseball one as well. I'm not really a big F1 fan but I watched the Senna doc as well and and that happened in 1994 too. Jordan and Senna were probably two of the biggest sporting stars in the world and the OJ thing, well it was unbelievable.

All this stuff happened between summer 1993-summer 1994. Other crazy stuff like Diego Maradonna being booted out of the 1994 World Cup for testing positive for drug use.

The full documentary is available to watch online (June 17 1994)

watchdocumentaries.com

June 17th, 1994 (2010) | WatchDocumentaries.com

Documentary looking at and detailing notable sporting events occurring around the time of the police chase of O. J. Simpson on the date in question.
watchdocumentaries.com watchdocumentaries.com

I'd reccomend it, it's really good.



main2-sports-nba-rangers-oj-simpson-chase-ThePostGame.jpg


The most famous athlete, maybe the most famous celebrity period on the planet going from winning a 3rd NBA championship to a shock retirement to ... playing minor league baseball in the span of 12 months?

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EDIT: Will also add MLB baseball strike and no 1994 World Series

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The most famous F1 car driver in the world dying on the track in a shocking accident.

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It's like the entire world of sports went into some bizarro world.
 
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Richiek

Richiek

Member
Nov 2, 2017
12,063
There's also the shortened MLB season and strike and the Rangers winning the Stanley Cup for the first time in 54 years.

NYC was pretty crazy with the Knicks and Rangers making the finals at the same time.
 
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UltraMagnus

UltraMagnus

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
15,670
The other weird thing is I think that day/night was maybe the first time the broader world heard the name "Kardashian", as Robert Kardashian was OJ's friend and read that bizarre (suicide?) letter OJ wrote:



To be honest I didn't really know OJ outside of him being in the Naked Gun movies.
 
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UltraMagnus

UltraMagnus

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Oct 27, 2017
15,670
Does anyone remember watching the OJ chase live while watching the NBA Finals? I remember playing outside with friends and walking inside and the Finals was cut off for some car chase and I had no idea what was happening.
 

Deleted member 1086

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UltraMagnus said:
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The spectacle of the chase and it interrupting the NBA Finals aside, god damn do I miss when you'd watch TV like this, with a little bit of fuzz. Yeah sure TV now is several hundred multitudes better with the much higher picture quality, but there is just something about watching TV through slight static, something that we will never experience again. So many memories of watching cartoons with fuzzy pictures on UHF because the station was hard to pull in clearly.
 
sfedai0

sfedai0

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Oct 27, 2017
9,938
I was barely a teen at that time and played a lot of sports but didnt watch much. So I didnt know who Senna was, didnt know who OJ was. Definitely knew MJ but his retiring just made me assume he was old.
 
J2C

J2C

Member
Oct 26, 2017
2,397
I have to say, as a kid in Chicago watching game 6, I was pissed the game got demoted to the small split screen. Couldn't understand it context wise, while the adults in the room seemed thrilled
 
yongeandcollege

yongeandcollege

Member
Oct 30, 2017
1,333
93-94 was peak sports for me with the Blue Jays, Habs and 49ers all winning titles in an 8 month span. No titles since.
 
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UltraMagnus

UltraMagnus

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Oct 27, 2017
15,670
Ponyboy said:
The spectacle of the chase and it interrupting the NBA Finals aside, god damn do I miss when you'd watch TV like this, with a little bit of fuzz. Yeah sure TV now is several hundred multitudes better with the much higher picture quality, but there is just something about watching TV through slight static, something that we will never experience again. So many memories of watching cartoons with fuzzy pictures on UHF because the station was hard to pull in clearly.
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Yeah in case you missed it, I posted above a link to the ESPN documentary on the day of, it's really, really good and you get to see high quality footage of everything including NBC's Bob Costas scrambling to figure out how they were going to interrupt the NBA Finals to cut to the OJ chase:

watchdocumentaries.com

June 17th, 1994 (2010) | WatchDocumentaries.com

Documentary looking at and detailing notable sporting events occurring around the time of the police chase of O. J. Simpson on the date in question.
watchdocumentaries.com watchdocumentaries.com

Really great doc, I'd highly recommend it.
 
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UltraMagnus

UltraMagnus

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
15,670
colorblindmode said:
You mean when MJ was suspended for gambling?
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I've never really bought this line of logic because there's so much going against it,

1.) The NBA, having recently lost 2/3 of its top stars (Bird and Magic to a shocking HIV retirement to boot) would purposefully suspend the most popular pop culture (not just athlete) human being on the planet and tank their TV ratings and league revenues in the process, just as they were booming.

2.) That Jordan wouldn't just turn around and tell his close business partners at Nike, McDonalds, Gatorade, etc. (all big sponsors of the NBA) that he was being forced out of the game. And in turn those sponsors would get very angry with the NBA as they had huge vested interests in having Jordan on a basketball court instead of a .... minor league baseball field in the middle of nowhere Birmingham.

3.) NBC having paid huge money for the NBA TV rights would also go along with lower ratings and not raise a massive stink.
 
MetatronM

MetatronM

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Oct 25, 2017
5,851
No mention of the Rangers winning the Stanley Cup for the first time since 1940?

(It's in the June 17th docu, at least.)
 
greenbird

greenbird

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Oct 25, 2017
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Julio Cesar Chavez received his first draw and loss in a span of 4 months between '93-94. His boxing record was 87-0 before the draw, starting in 1980.
 
CreepingFear

CreepingFear

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
16,766
As a Bulls fan, that was a fucking roller coaster of a season. I cried when MJ retired. We watched the press conference in my 5th grade classroom. The Bulls had a hell of a season that year. Scottie Pippen had an MVP type season. He got robbed. B.J. Armstrong and Horace Grand made the all-star team. Toni Kukoc was hitting game winning shots as a rookie. Phil Jackson had his best coaching year. Then, the Bulls face the Knicks in the playoffs and the Hugh Hollins bullshit call. I was devasted. I was not going to watch the fucking Knicks in the finals. I remember where I was when the O.J chase was going down. My mom picked my friend and I up from the movies. We saw Ted Danson/Macaulay Culkin film "Getting Even with dad". She was listening to AM radio news channel covering the O.J. chase.
 
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UltraMagnus

UltraMagnus

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Oct 27, 2017
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There was also this shocking/stunning moment: Scottie Pippen refusing to go into a game and teammate Bill Cartwright yelling at him lol:

 
MaverickHunterX

MaverickHunterX

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Oct 27, 2017
2,183
Not sure if it counts, but other things that came to mind.

-Vince getting off with the WWF Steroid trial.
-Nancy Kerrigan getting attacked/Tanya Harding banned for life
 
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UltraMagnus

UltraMagnus

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Oct 27, 2017
15,670
CreepingFear said:
As a Bulls fan, that was a fucking roller coaster of a season. I cried when MJ retired. We watched the press conference in my 5th grade classroom. The Bulls had a hell of a season that year. Scottie Pippen had an MVP type season. He got robbed. B.J. Armstrong and Horace Grand made the all-star team. Toni Kukoc was hitting game winning shots as a rookie. Phil Jackson had his best coaching year. Then, the Bulls face the Knicks in the playoffs and the Hugh Hollins bullshit call. I was devasted. I was not going to watch the fucking Knicks in the finals. I remember where I was when the O.J chase was going down. My mom picked my friend and I up from the movies. We saw Ted Danson/Macaulay Culkin film "Getting Even with dad". She was listening to AM radio news channel covering the O.J. chase.
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I remember a friend calling me late at night, he had been watching the baseball world series (1993) and said that word was spreading that Michael Jordan was retiring from basketball, and I remember I laughed at how ridiculous of an idea that was and told him it was just a dumb rumor. And then ...

Man if the internet/social media was a thing then, it would have imploded.
 

Deleted member 1086

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Oct 25, 2017
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I've often marveled at how the Bronco didn't run out of gas, I know they were only going like 35 mph but they went quite a long way, from south Orange County up to Brentwood. I own a 1994 Bronco(mine has a 351 Windsor in it, I don't know if his had the 351 or the smaller 302) and let me tell you it does not get good gas mileage.
 
CreepingFear

CreepingFear

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Oct 27, 2017
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UltraMagnus said:
I remember a friend calling me late at night, he had been watching the baseball world series (1993) and said that word was spreading that Michael Jordan was retiring from basketball, and I remember I laughed at how ridiculous of an idea that was and told him it was just a dumb rumor. And then ...

Man if the internet/social media was a thing then, it would have imploded.
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Twitter fail whales, ResetEra would be down for sure.
 
zombiejames

zombiejames

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Oct 25, 2017
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The 93-94 Leafs set an NHL record by starting the season with a 10-game winning streak. Good times.
 
CreepingFear

CreepingFear

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Autumn said:
Was OJ famous nationwide or just in LA?
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It was nationwide. I remember hearing the verdict in my Chicago suburbs Junior High lunchroom. It became a race issue with the majority of white people wishing him guilty, and black people wishing him not guilty due to the injustices, Rodney King, etc.
 
UraMallas

UraMallas

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Nov 1, 2017
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CreepingFear said:
It was nationwide. I remember hearing the verdict in my Chicago suburbs Junior High lunchroom. It became a race issue with the majority of white people wishing him guilty, and black people wishing him not guilty due to the injustices, Rodney King, etc.
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That makes sense but my entire town was white and strangely enough I would say there were more cheers than gasps at the verdict in our school.

Granted, we were just kids. And with hindsight it turns out the fucker was incredibly guilty so maybe it wasn't ALL race in this case. I was on team OJ tho until I grew up and realized dude did it.
 
CreepingFear

CreepingFear

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Oct 27, 2017
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UraMallas said:
That makes sense but my entire town was white and strangely enough I would say there were more cheers than gasps at the verdict in our school.

Granted, we were just kids. And with hindsight it turns out the fucker was incredibly guilty so maybe it wasn't ALL race in this case. I was on team OJ tho until I grew up and realized dude did it.
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Myself and many of my friends cheered when we heard the verdict. We were all mostly white(suburbs), but into sports. Athletes were heroes. No way OJ could have done it. OJ defense team did well in showing what a piece of shit Mark Ferman was, and the prosecution probably dropped the ball on many things. What a trial. Nothing else has compared since.
 
CreepingFear

CreepingFear

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Ponyboy said:
he was famous as a college football player in the 60s, won the Heismann Trophy. Was a popular running back on the Buffalo Bills in the 70s, and after retirement was well known for being in commercials for Hertz Rent a Car and in some movies(most notably the Naked Gun series).
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Was also an NFL commentator for NBC sports.
 
Brinbe

Brinbe

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Oct 25, 2017
58,043
Terana
OJ was/is guilty as fuck but an incompetent prosecution and Mark Fuhrman fucked things.

93 also gave us


😁😁😁😁😁😁
 
Soapbox Killer

Soapbox Killer

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Oct 28, 2017
27,093
DogFace! said:
AND, there was no World Series in 1994.
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I was so mad as a new Phillies fan after the 93 season.

Autumn said:
Was OJ famous nationwide or just in LA?
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He was considered to be one of the greatest football players of all time.

UraMallas said:
We had the OJ trial on in our science class for the verdict in a small ass town in lily white Iowa.
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I was also in Science class when the verdict came down.


Also, Starburst changed their slogan the next day from "The Juice is Loose" to "Turn up the Juice"
 
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