Len Bias’ Death Still Sending Shock Waves Through NBA

by

Nov 3, 2009

It's one of the great "what if?" questions in the history of professional basketball — what if the tragic events of June 19, 1986, had never occurred?

The death of Len Bias, the highly touted basketball recruit out of the University of Maryland and the Celtics' first-round pick in the 1986 NBA draft, shook the city of Washington, D.C., and with it, the basketball world. Bias was 22 years old, an iconic figure in Maryland basketball and a certain future star in the NBA, and just one night after being drafted by the defending champions in Boston, he lost everything.

It's hard to put into words exactly what Bias' death meant — for his friends and family, for the Maryland community or for the game of basketball. But Kirk Fraser's documentary Without Bias, the latest installment in ESPN Films' "30 for 30" film series, is an attempt at just that.

The day after appearing at Madison Square Garden in New York on June 17, the highly anticipated No. 2 overall pick in the '86 draft flew home to Washington and visited his old dorm on the Maryland campus one last time. The specifics of what happened that night were debated in the courts for months thereafter, and we may never know the truth. But the gist is that Bias found himself partying with his old Maryland friends in the wee hours of the morning of June 19, and a cocaine overdose sent him into horrifying convulsions that put his life into immediate danger. Bias was pronounced dead at 8:55 a.m. at a Riverdale, Md., hospital.

His death made headlines nationwide. It wasn't just the story of a basketball player — it was also an alarming commentary on drug culture among a generation of youths. It was an incident that set off months of legal disputes and even sparked a nationwide movement toward stricter drug laws in America. It was a catastrophe that brought about the downfall of Lefty Driesell, the Terrapins' coach of 17 years.

Fraser captures the scope of Bias' death to the best of his ability. He interviews several of Bias' friends at Maryland who were near the incident, most notably his controversial classmate Brian Tribble. He introduces us to Bias' parents and siblings, who reveal both their deep spirituality and their tremendous grief at Len's loss. He includes the insights of several sportswriters both in Boston and back in D.C., all of whom speak to Bias' impact within the game of basketball. He even brings in D.C. mayor Marion Barry to discuss the state of drug culture in the 1980s.

Everything Fraser includes is complete, and it speaks volumes. But there's still something missing.

Midway through Fraser's 60-minute film, sports columnist Michael Wilbon comments that "people of a certain generation mark time by the death of Len Bias and by hearing about his death, as a previous generation did by hearing of the death of John Kennedy. If you're 70 years old, you don't understand that, and if you're 25 years old, you don't understand that, but I do."

Wilbon is 50 years old. Fraser is 33. He was in grade school at the time of Bias' death, and his perspective on the effect of Bias' death within the game of basketball leaves a little to be desired.

It's been said that the two defining players of their era in ACC basketball were none other than Michael Jordan and Len Bias. Celtics executive Jan Volk says in the film that while Bias was the Celtics' draft choice at No. 2 overall, he was clearly their top choice in the 1986 class. "He's the guy we wanted, and we got him," remarked team president Red Auerbach.

One can only wonder what Bias' impact would have been had he ever set foot on the Boston Garden parquet. He could have been the next name in the storied lineage of Celtics heroes. He could have kept the Celtics atop the NBA's hierarchy well into the 1990s.

But instead, he was dead and buried in 1986. The Celtics' Big Three of Larry Bird, Kevin McHale and Robert Parish all lost a step or two with age, and the franchise's decline came about well ahead of schedule. We'll never know just how much Bias' death set the Celtics back.

It's strange that in a film called Without Bias, there's actually very little insight on how the NBA evolved without Len Bias. There's a story there aching to be told.

Bias told the media on draft night in 1986 that being selected by the mighty Celtics was a "dream come true" for him. He had always wanted to be a champion in the NBA, and he came painfully close to realizing that goal.

The tragedy that cut short Bias' life sent shock waves across the NBA and across the nation. Twenty-three years later, we're still talking about Len Bias. And truth be told, we're still trying to understand the true meaning of his life and death. Kirk Fraser's Without Bias is a step in the right direction, but it's not the last word.

Without Bias premiered Tuesday night on ESPN and will be re-aired throughout the next two months.

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