ESPN's tribute shows why the legacy of Len Bias remains so strong 34 years after tragic death
More than three decades after he died from a cocaine overdose, the former Maryland star still seems to be larger-than-life to those who played and covered his career
In the 34 years since he died, I’ve often wrestled with the question of how good Len Bias would have been had he lived. I’ve also wondered whether the way he died - from a cocaine overdose two days after being the second overall pick in the 1986 NBA draft by the Boston Celtics - served to enhance his legend and help it endure.
In the many stories I wrote for the Baltimore Sun about his legacy - the first a couple of days after his death about how he would have fit in professionally and personally with the Celtics, followed by those marking the 10, 20 and 30-year anniversaries of his death - I thought about when his story would eventually fade as so many others have.
In watching the first two parts of ESPN’s “Remembering Len Bias” production Tuesday night - skipping the “30-for-30” documentary I had viewed recently in order to see what was happening in the real and sad world in which we are currently living - I started to better understand how impactful his death truly was and still remains.
I’ve also come to realize that his legend will likely keep growing for the foreseeable future.
I spoke Wednesday with two of his former teammates, Derrick Lewis and Keith Gatlin, and asked them why the Bias’ story - his steady progression from a promising freshman who showed flashes of future greatness to his dominance as a two-time ACC player of the year and ultimately to his death - still resonates with so many people.
Lewis said that when he was coaching at Spalding High near Annapolis, Md., students were often shown the ESPN documentary, “Without Bias” as part of the school’s drug awareness program. He said that some of those interviewed on Tuesday’s telecast remain important voices in telling Bias’ story.
“There are a lot of people like Mike Wilbon and Jay Bilas who were around then, and are still around, and they kind of keep the memory and legacy going,” Lewis said. “What a significant event. It impacted everything from the sports world to the drug laws. Most people don’t know the whole story.”
Even Lewis’ 18-year-old daughter initially balked at watching the show Tuesday.
“She was saying, ‘Who wants to watch this?’’ said Lewis, who was a sophomore when Bias was a senior. “She actually watched the whole thing. I think it’s being passed on from generation to generation. It touches so many people, the sadness about it all. A lot of people couldn’t talk about it until now. I’m surprised they got coach (Lefty) Driesell on.”
Gatlin, a longtime high school coach in his native North Carolina who is going into his second season as an assistant to Tubby Smith at High Point University, said that the combination of what Bias did in four years at Maryland and what many expected him to do in the NBA helps maintain - and even grow - the interest.
“Lenny had a huge following,” said Gatlin, who was a year behind Bias at Maryland and became one of his closest friends. “People don’t understand how good he was. People said he could have been (as good as) Jordan. Everybody’s still trying to figure that out, the could-have been, would-have been.”
Bilas, whom I’ve known since his playing days at Duke and has since become for me and so many in my business a measured and masterful source of great quotes and even greater perspective, has often likened the shocking news of Bias’ death to him and his friends to what the assassination of President John F. Kennedy was to the previous generation. He did again Tuesday.
Bilas has compared Bias to what LeBron James has become during his 17-year NBA career and what Zion Williamson has already started to demonstrate during his one season at Duke and his first 19 games as a pro. On ESPN’s show Tuesday, Bilas called Bias “Superman in a basketball uniform” because of his jumping ability and skill as a jump shooter.
“There were very few players that could do what he could do athletically getting off the floor, and he was a magnificent shooter,” Bilas said during the telecast. “Not just a good shooter...his form was beautiful and his accuracy was impeccable. It’s not often that you see jump shooters that are that athletic.”
Bilas said that he thinks Bias would have been destined for the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame and helped give the Celtics, who were coming off winning the NBA championship the season he was drafted, a young superstar to follow in the footsteps of Larry Bird, Kevin McHale and Robert Parish.
Saying that Bias would have been a “perennial All-Star”, Bilas added, “I’m not saying he would have been as good as Jordan, but he would have been a challenger…It would have given the Celtics the next superstar to go with an aging group of players...and would have injected superstar power into that team for the next iteration of the Celtics.
“If Bias would have lived, I believe he would have lived up to his promise and would have been one of the truly great players not only of the league, but of league history. I think the Celtics paid a heavy price for his passing, because it’s not something they recovered from quickly. It took a long, long time to get over that.”
It was also something I long believed, especially after talking with then-Celtics general manager Jan Volk for a story in 2006. After watching “The Last Dance” my feelings started to waver a bit, but hearing folks like Wilbon and Bilas, who wore a Maryland T-shirt during Tuesday’s segment on ESPN, I believe it to be true.
Recalling the career-high 41-point performance Bias had in 1986 at Cameron Indoor Stadium - one that legendary Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski has often said was rivaled only by some of Jordan’s top games in Durham - Bilas said, “I remember guys coming back to the huddle saying we can’t stop him. I think it’s like being on a golf course with Tiger Woods or something.”
Wilbon, who covered Bias’ first two seasons as the beat writer for the Washington Post, said on ESPN’s show Tuesday that Bias would have helped prolong the careers of Bird and McHale and kept the Celtics competitive and possibly dominant in the NBA’s Eastern Division.
“He’s going to go to a Celtics team and practice with Bird, McHale and Parish every day, and Dennis Johnson,” Wilbon said. “That’s sort of like Tim Duncan going to San Antonio and practicing with David Robinson and being coached by Gregg Popovich. Len Bias would have had that sort of push to his immediate early career.
“Presuming health, why wouldn’t you think that Len would have progressed, that he would have fit into that Celtic team seamlessly, that Bird and McHall specifically had the minutes played that wore them out early. You’d have him playing against the Bulls and the Pistons and the Sixers in the East and would have been something to behold.”
Walt Williams, who in his own right is one of the most accomplished and important players ever to go through College Park - his decision to remain a Terp after the program was put on NCAA probation going into his junior year was more significant in the long run than any of his school records - called Bias “the G.O.A.T.”
Is that Greatest of All-Time or Greatest of All-Terps?
Williams said on the ESPN show that as a teenager growing up in the same Prince George’s County community as Bias, “He was our brother, cousin, nephew. He was one of us. I pretended to be him on the blacktop. He inspired me to be my best and to represent Prince George’s County in a special way. He made the dream of becoming an NBA player a reality.”
This is why Bias is still very much remembered more than three decades after his death.
The media typically likes round-numbered anniversaries, which is why I wrote about the impact of Bias’ death in decade-long increments starting in 1996. Some of the points raised during the first hour of the Bias tribute Tuesday, were themes I wrote about over the years.
It was apparent that ESPN’s decision to run its tribute this year, which also included replaying Maryland’s iconic Bias-led victory in 1986 over No. 1 North Carolina at the then brand-new Dean Dome, coincided with the jersey number he wore - 34 - rather than wait another year or until it was time for the 40th.
It was relevant enough for ESPN to replay a memorable 1984 showdown between Bias and Jordan - a game that served as the coming-out party for the then Maryland sophomore and a foretelling of his own dominance in the ACC once Jordan left for the NBA - as a prelude to a couple of poarts of the blockbuster 10-part series.
It’s also obvious that the Bias story is not going to fade anytime soon.
Nor should it.
nice recap of the current in creased interest in Len's legacy. check out an in-depth look at his legacy in the book, Born Ready: The Mixed Legacy of Len Bias.