Call it grand theft electronic.
Jalen Rose, the former Pacers guard who is now an NBA analyst for ESPN, admitted in an interview with the website Grantland that he stole Knicks legend Patrick Ewing’s television and VCR following a game in Indiana during their playing careers.
Rose, 39, explained that the Pacers and Knicks had a heated rivalry at the time and he enjoyed getting under Ewing’s skin. At the airport the day after a game between the two teams, Rose said he saw a silver chest with blue on it unattended. It had a sticker that read “Patrick Ewing.”
“Then the Detroit instincts came out,” Rose said. “I looked to the left, looked to the right, hit the handles.”
In the chest was a TV/VCR combination. Rose said to himself, “I’m getting this.”
He “two-wayed” his “home boy,” they pulled the device out of the chest, carried it out of the airport and threw it in the trunk of a car.
“We kept it for years,” Rose said. “I couldn’t take the sticker off. It was stuck on there. All my friends and family have seen Patrick Ewing’s TV at my house.”
The 6-foot-8 former guard said he figured Ewing used it to watch film on the road, so he hoped that the big man missed out on some preparation because of the theft.
He added a message for Ewing: “Thank you for the TV. I appreciate that.”