June 17 in sports history: A car chase that mesmerized America

In a conversation with police, Cowlings said Simpson had a gun to his head. In an appeal simulcast on a Los Angeles radio station, KCBS-TV sportscaster Jim Hill pleaded with him and Cowlings to surrender: "If you are listening, put on your emergency brakes, pull over to the side." Former NFL player Vince Evans also begged Simpson to give up. "In Jesus' name, just stop, man," he said, sobbing.

The 90-minute chase ultimately ended at Simpson's Brentwood mansion, where the former Southern Cal and Bills star surrendered. He was later booked on charges of murdering his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ronald Goldman. (He was acquitted on Oct. 3, 1995.)

"In triplicate, or quadruplicate," Rosenberg wrote the day of the car chase, "let the television movies begin."

LAKERS-CELTICS: THE ULTIMATE NBA RIVALRY

The Lakers and Celtics have met an NBA-record 12 times in the Finals, with Boston winning nine times. In 2008, the Celtics won their 17th, and most recent, title by crushing the Lakers in the decisive Game 6 in the Boston Garden, 131-92.

"131-92. Embrace it. Ogle it. Relish it. But, above all, believe it," Boston Globe columnist Bob Ryan wrote. "The Boston Celtics did not just win franchise championship No. 17 last night. They snatched it. They swallowed it. They demanded it."

The championship was an exclamation point on a 66-16 regular season for Boston, which was 24-58 the previous season.

Two years later, Kobe Bryant & Co. got payback, beating the Celtics in seven games in the Finals for their 16th championship. Ryan called the Celtics' 83-79 loss in Los Angeles a "brutal, ugly mess."

"I wanted it so, so bad," Bryant told reporters after scoring a team-high 23 points. "On top of that, I was on E. Man, I was really, really tired. And the more I tried to push, the more it kept getting away from me. I'm just glad that my teammates really got us back in the game."

SAY HEY, WHAT A DAY AT CANDLESTICK

1970:  In the Cubs' 6-1 win over San Francisco, the Giants' Willie Mays hit his 615th home run. Chicago's Ernie Banks went yard, too — the 504th dinger of his career. It marked the first time in MLB history two players with at least 500 career home runs had gone deep in the same game. Mays and Banks were both 39.

"Who’d of thought when Willie broke in that one day he would be threatening [Babe] Ruth’s record?" Banks told reporters. "I don’t know about what some of the experts think, but I honestly believe Mays has a good shot at the record. If anything he’s getting younger not older.” 

Mays finished his career with 660 homers, short of Ruth's 714.

SAD DRAFT

1986: This NBA draft produced some outstanding players, including future Hall of Famer Dennis Rodman, a second-round pick by the Pistons. But it's infamous for the players who went down the wrong road.

With the second pick of the draft, the Celtics selected Maryland star Len Bias, whom the team compared favorably to two current NBA stars.

"Looking at his physical qualities, like James Worthy and Michael Jordan, he can run, jump and shoot. You can put him in their category," Boston assistant coach and chief scout Jimmy Rodgers said of Bias.  Celtics president Red Auerbach called the 6-foot-8 forward the "best athlete available in the draft."

Two days later, however, Bias was dead from a drug overdose. 

Michigan's Roy Tarpley, selected in the first round by the Mavericks, was banned by the league for repeated violations of its drug-use policies during his career. The career of Memphis' William Bedford, a first-round pick of the Suns, was derailed by the use of illegal drugs. Chris Washburn, selected third overall by Golden State, also was plagued by drug demons.

CELEBRATING ... WATERGATE?

2004:  On the 32nd anniversary of the Watergate break-in, the Nashua Pride of the independent Atlantic League celebrated by giving away Richard Nixon bobbleheads to the first 1,000 fans. Anyone named Woodward or Bernstein — the famous Washington Post reporters who broke the Watergate story — got free admission.

ROUND MOUND OF REBOUND HEADS WEST

1992:  Unhappy playing in Philly, Charles Barkley demanded a trade. The 76ers reluctantly obliged, sending the six-time All-Star to Phoenix for Jeff Hornacek, Andrew Lang and Tim Perry. Arizona Republic columnist David Casstevens thought Phoenix was fleeced.

"The Suns didn't give up the entire team in Wednesday's blockbuster trade," he wrote. "They weren't robbed. It wasn't a stickup. It just seemed that way. Three starters for ONE. How often does a team that wins 53 games trade three starters to get one?"

In Phoenix, Barkley made the All-Star team five more times, but he never played for an NBA champion during his 16-year career. The 76ers, meanwhile, did not finish above .500 again until the 1999-2000 season.

“Charles, from his perspective, he made it known in no uncertain terms that he didn’t want to be here,” former 76ers coach Jimmy Lynam told NBC Sports Philadelphia in April. “And I would say in hindsight — this is just me, my own personal opinion — we made a mistake in listening to him. I tell Charles that to this day.”

URGE TO MERGE

1976: The ABA merged with the NBA, ending a nine-year war between the leagues. The Association absorbed four of the ABA's best and most profitable teams: the New York Nets, Denver Nuggets, San Antonio Spurs and Indiana Pacers. The Virginia Squires, Kentucky Colonels and Spirits of St. Louis folded. 

"One of the biggest beneficiaries of the blending is Julius Erving, the best damned basketball player extant," New York Daily News sports columnist Dick Young wrote about the Nets star. "At last the major markets and TV sets will get a look at his talents. He will be discovered all over again. His fame will flourish, and so will his bank account."

Happy birthday ...

• Cowboys wide receiver Amari Cooper, currently the second-highest paid at his position. (26)
• Former NFL center Dermontti Dawson. Chosen in the second round of the 1988 draft by Pittsburgh, Dawson spent his entire Hall of Fame career with the Steelers, replacing fellow Hall of Famer Mike Webster. (55)
• Mike Milbury, NHL broadcaster and former player. Milbury spent all 12 years of his career with the Boston Bruins, helping the team to 11 postseason appearances. (68)

• All-time tennis great Venus Williams, the first African-American woman to reach world No. 1 in the modern tennis era. She has won 10 Grand Slam singles titles, including five Wimbledon championships. (40)
• Former slick-fielding Reds shortstop Dave Concepcion. The nine-time All-Star won two World Series with the Reds as well as five Gold Gloves and two Silver Sluggers over a career that spanned 19 seasons. (72)

R.I.P.

1987: Dick Howser, who managed the Kansas City Royals to their first World Series championship, in 1985. The soft-spoken Howser played eight seasons in the majors. He also managed the Yankees for two seasons. He died of brain cancer at 51.

1989: Hard-hitting defensive lineman John Matuszak, who won two Super Bowls with the Oakland Raiders. “The Tooz” was the No. 1 pick of the 1973 NFL Draft by the Houston Oilers and played eight seasons in the league before retiring to pursue an acting career. He died of heart failure at 38.

2002: Sprinter Willie Davenport, Olympic gold medalist in the high hurdles 1968. Davenport also medaled in the 1976 games but made headlines in 1980 as the first African-American to participate for the U.S. in the Winter Games, as a member of the four-man bobsled team. He died of a heart attack at 59.

June 16: Lopsided traded 'heavenly' for Lakers