From a NY Post article:Rose was a gabber. It came as small surprise to those who covered him that he later would admit to an on-the-job appreciation of “Mother’s Little Helpers” — amphetamines, speed. And on this night, unsolicited, he engaged us in rat-a-tat conversation.
His chosen topic was startling, dumbfounding: The recently concluded NCAA Basketball Tournament, specifically how missed free throws down the stretch “absolutely killed me.”
Thirty-plus years later, I can’t accurately quote all he said, but that one phrase about how missed free throws late in games “absolutely killed me” remains fixed.
Wednesday, I checked with Tom Merritt, who was an NBC Sports publicist and one of the fellows with us behind the cage. He, too, recalls Rose’s “absolutely killed me,” and how, when Rose walked away, he left us blown away.
We said then what we recall now: Rose’s voluntary friendliness and the topic he unilaterally chose to indiscreetly discuss was weird.
After all, the missed, late free throws he spoke of as “killers” didn’t alter the games’ outcomes. But they did determine the winner of against-the-line bets. Why would he leave us with the clear impression he had bet on college basketball? He didn’t know us from Rin Tin Tin.
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