Allen Iverson Turned Down Chris Myers' Interview After 'Unfair' Treatment Of O.J.
PHILADLEPHIA (CBS) --- The fascination of the O.J. Simpson case, while over 20 years old, has been given sort of a second life thanks to FX's riveting "American Crime Story: The People v. O.J. Simpson" television series.
Longtime American sportscaster Chris Myers joined Bryan Curtis on The Bill Simmons Podcast to discuss his "fascinating experience" interviewing Simpson live on ESPN in 1998. Particularly interesting was this tidbit about Allen Iverson.
Related: Allen Iverson Elected Into Hall Of Fame
"[Iverson] was angry that he thought I was unfair -- this was after the interview -- that I was unfair to O.J. and made him look more guilty, so he didn't want to come on the program to be interviewed by me," Myers said.
As for the contentious interview with Simpson, Myers asked the former star NFL running back if he was capable of killing.
"The answer I don't recall off the top of my head, but it was the one [question] that many people talked about because the answer -- ultimately -- was yes," Myers explained. "I think he may it sound -- tried to water it down a little bit -- 'Well, we're all capable.'"
The conversation went 18 minutes without a commercial and programming on ESPN was eventually delayed, as the interview went about 50 minutes in total. It was an on-the-fly decision to extend it past the 30-minute time allotted.
Myers admits he may have revealed his opinion on the highly controversial case after the interview ended.
"I never shook his hand," Myers said. "I always do, that's my nature. And in this one I just felt like I couldn't. Maybe that was a way of signaling to people where I stood on the issues, everybody seemed to have an opinion."
You can listen to the entire podcast here. Myers joins Curtis around the 31:00 mark.
