Jalen Rose found himself experiencing an unwelcome flashback late in the Miami Heat’s 123–121 loss to the Detroit Pistons at Little Caesars Arena on Tuesday night.
Heat coach Erik Spoelstra made several uncharacteristic mistakes in the final 1.8 seconds of Miami’s overtime loss. After the Heat gave up an easy game-tying alley-oop to Jalen Duren on an inbounds pass, Spoelstra tried to call timeout to draw up a play. The only problem? Miami didn’t have any timeouts remaining, granting the Pistons a technical free throw and possession of the basketball, gifting them the win.
Rose, the Detroit native who was part of the “Fab Five” at Michigan in the 1990s, was in attendance and appeared to be haunted by a famous game back in 1993 in which his teammate made the same mistake.
In the 1993 national championship game between Rose’s Wolverines and North Carolina, Michigan star Chris Webber found himself trapped in a corner and called a timeout with 11 seconds left. But Michigan didn’t have any timeouts remaining, resulting in a technical foul and handing the Tar Heels a national title.
A nightmare for Rose, indeed.
