Best: Turning back the clock to the day of the Bronco chase

Brett Morgen had his choice of people to interview about the events of June 17, 1994, one of those days for which everyone has a personal recollection.

(Me? I was at Game 5 of the NBA Finals, one of the strangest nights in the history of Madison Square Garden. More on that later.)

But Morgen interviewed no one on camera for his contribution to ESPN's "30 for 30'' series entitled, simply, "June 17, 1994,'' and premiering at 10 p.m. tomorrow.

Why? "Most films about the past are told in the past tense,'' the Oscar-nominated director said. "I like to create films about the past that are told in the present tense.

"This isn't a piece of investigative journalism . . . My goal is to try to bring you back to that one day 16 years ago, to put you back in front of your television.''

Remember?

The Rangers paraded the Stanley Cup on Broadway. The soccer World Cup opened in Chicago. Arnold Palmer played his final U.S. Open round at Oakmont. Ken Griffey Jr. hit his 30th home run of the doomed '94 season.

And the Knicks and Rockets met at the Garden, with the Knicks winning to take a 3-2 series lead back to Houston.

But for most people, the day forever will be defined by the sight of cops following a white Ford Bronco carrying O.J. Simpson on a slow-speed chase through Los Angeles.

That certainly is the case for Morgen, who like most "30 for 30'' directors brought a personal history to his subject.

Although he was living in New York in 1994, he grew up two blocks from Simpson and was a high school classmate of his eldest daughter, Arnelle. (He also comes from a line of avid USC fans.)

"This is about as personal as it gets,'' he said. "When I heard about the murders , I heard about it from high school friends. It was not some random story.''

Morgen, 41, spent most of June 17 in an editing bay as an NYU film school student and had no idea what was going on until a homeless man on his block in the East Village informed him.

The rest is history - everyone's history. But the film is not a mere rehash of old footage.

More than half of it never has been seen widely, including off-air material such as NBC's Bob Costas at the Garden discussing how to handle juggling the Simpson story.

Also, tapes of negotiators talking to Simpson during the chase that were released later are heard over the original news coverage, creating a more complete real-time narrative.

There was plenty of home video shot at the time, but in those pre-YouTube days, relatively little of it was preserved, including a dearth of material from inside the Garden other than NBC's game action.

I remember Costas and other NBC personnel with their backs to the game, watching the O.J. chase on monitors after NBC cut away from the Finals. Some fans did the same thing. But Morgen was unable to unearth video of those scenes.

Much like NBC the night it happened, Morgen was faced in his film with juggling the basketball game and the Bronco chase. And much like NBC 16 years ago, he found basketball was badly overmatched.

"We would sit there and try to pick moments [from the game] that would increase tension, but we always just wanted to go back [to Simpson],'' he said. "We tried to build a narrative out of that game, and it was like a joke.''