Len Bias

Len Bias

Bias after being selected in the 1986 NBA draft
Personal information
Born	(1963-11-18)November 18, 1963 Landover, Maryland
Died	June 19, 1986(1986-06-19) (aged 22) Riverdale, Maryland
Nationality	American
Listed height	6 ft 9 in (2.06 m)
Listed weight	210 lb (95 kg)
Career information
High school	Northwestern (Hyattsville, Maryland)
College	Maryland (1982–1986)
NBA draft	1986 / Round: 1 / Pick: 2nd overall
Selected by the Boston Celtics
Position	Small forward
Career highlights and awards
Consensus first-team All-American (1986) Consensus second-team All-American (1985) 2× ACC Player of the Year (1985, 1986) 2× First-team All-ACC (1985, 1986) ACC Athlete of the Year (1986)

Leonard Kevin Bias (November 18, 1963 – June 19, 1986) was a first-team All-American college basketball forward at the University of Maryland. He was selected by the Boston Celtics as the second overall pick in the 1986 NBA draft on June 17, and died two days later from cardiac arrhythmia induced by a cocaine overdose.^[1][2]

Early years[edit]

Bias was born and raised in the Maryland suburbs of Washington, D.C. He was one of four children born to James Bias Jr and Dr Lonise Bias. He had a sister, Michelle, and two brothers, Eric and James III, known as "Jay".^[3]

College career[edit]

From Landover, Maryland, Bias graduated from Northwestern High School in Hyattsville, Maryland, and subsequently attended the University of Maryland.

As a freshman, he was viewed as "raw and undisciplined," but ultimately, Bias developed into an All-American player. In his junior year, he led the Atlantic Coast Conference in scoring and was named the ACC's Player of the Year, his senior season was highlighted by his performance in an overtime victory against top-ranked North Carolina in which he scored 35 points, including 7 in the last 3 minutes of regulation and 4 in overtime. At the end of the year, Bias collected his second ACC Player of the Year award and was named to two All-America teams.^[4]

Bias impressed basketball fans with his amazing leaping ability, his physical stature and his ability to create plays, and was considered one of the most dynamic players in the nation. By his senior year, scouts from various National Basketball Association teams viewed Bias as the most complete forward in the Class of 1986. According to Celtics scout Ed Badger, "He's maybe the closest thing to (Chicago guard) Michael Jordan to come out in a long time. I'm not saying he's as good as Michael Jordan, but he's an explosive and exciting kind of player like that."^[5] Jordan was then in his second season with the Chicago Bulls.

College statistics[edit]

NBA selection and drug overdose[edit]

On June 17, Bias was selected by the Boston Celtics as the second overall pick in the 1986 NBA draft, which was held in New York City at Madison Square Garden. Red Auerbach, the Celtics' president and general manager, had dealt guard Gerald Henderson and cash to the Seattle SuperSonics for the pick in 1984. After the draft, Bias and his family returned to their suburban Maryland home.

On June 18, Bias and his father flew to Boston, Massachusetts, from Washington, D.C., for an NBA club draft acceptance and product endorsement signing ceremony with the Celtics' coaches and management. Bias had discussions with Reebok's sports marketing division regarding a five-year endorsement package worth $1.6 million.^[6]

After returning home to Maryland, Bias retrieved his newly leased sports car and drove back to his room on the campus of the University of Maryland, he then dined with some teammates and a member of the football team. He left campus at approximately 2 a.m. on Thursday, June 19 and drove to an off-campus gathering, which he attended briefly before returning to his dorm in Washington Hall sometime between 2:30 and 3 a.m.^[7] For the next three to four hours, Bias, longtime friend Brian Tribble and several teammates repeatedly insufflated cocaine in the dormitory suite shared by Bias and his teammates.^[8][9][10] According to the campus timeline, Bias had a seizure and collapsed some time between 6:25 and 6:32 a.m. while talking with teammate Terry Long.^[7][11] At 6:32 a.m., when the 911 call to Prince George's County emergency services was made by Tribble, Bias was unconscious and not breathing.^[10] All attempts by the emergency medical team to restart his heart and breathing were unsuccessful.^[7] After additional attempts to revive him at Leland Memorial Hospital in Riverdale, Maryland, Bias was pronounced dead at 8:55 a.m. of a cardiac arrhythmia related to usage of cocaine. It was reported that there were no other drugs or alcohol found in his system.^{[12][13][14][15]}

Four days after Bias died, more than 11,000 people attended a June 23 memorial service at the Cole Field House, the university recreation and student center where Bias played for the Terrapins; those speaking at the service included Red Auerbach, who said he had planned for three years to draft Bias for the Celtics. On June 30, 1986, the Celtics honored Bias with their own memorial service, giving his never-used #30 Celtics jersey to his mother, Lonise.

Bias was interred at Lincoln Memorial Cemetery in Suitland, Maryland.^[16]

Trial[edit]

On July 25, 1986, a grand jury returned indictments against Brian Tribble for possession of cocaine and possession of cocaine with intent to distribute. Bias's Maryland teammates Terry Long and David Gregg were charged with possession of cocaine and obstruction of justice. Long and Gregg were both suspended from the team on July 31.^[17] All three defendants entered not guilty pleas in August.^[17]

On October 20, 1986, prosecutors dropped all charges against Long and Gregg in exchange for their testimony against Tribble. On October 30, the grand jury added three more indictments against Tribble—one count of conspiracy to obstruct justice and two counts of obstruction of justice.^[17]

Also on October 30, Kenneth Mark Fobbs, Tribble's roommate, was charged with perjury for allegedly lying to the grand jury about the last time he had seen Tribble; the state ultimately dropped the perjury charges against Fobbs on March 24, 1987, and a jury acquitted Tribble of all charges related to the Bias case on June 3, 1987.^[17]

In October 1990, Tribble pleaded guilty to a drug charge following a two-year undercover sting operation, he cooperated with the government and was sentenced to ten years and one month in prison.^[18]

Legislative and political consequences[edit]

This section does not cite any sources. Please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (November 2018) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)

A few weeks after Bias' death, committees in the United States House of Representatives began writing anti-drug legislation;^[19] the committees finished their work by the middle of August 1986. The House passed its first version of the Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1986 shortly after Labor Day, sending the bill to the Senate, it was signed by President Ronald Reagan on October 27, 1986. Provisions in Section 1002 provided for life imprisonment for a person who distributed drugs if death resulted from the use of those drugs; these provisions are often known as "The Len Bias Law." The bill, which received bipartisan support, reinforced the war on drugs with stiffer penalties, including mandatory minimum penalties, for drug offenses (Title I, subtitles A, B, C and D), created the Controlled Substance Analogue Enforcement Act of 1986 (also known as "designer drugs") (Subtitle E), the Money Laundering Control Act of 1986 (Subtitle H), Prohibition on Interstate Sale of Drug Paraphernalia (Subtitle O); required the president to certify that foreign nations were cooperating with the U.S. in anti-drug activities (Title II), increased the role of the U.S. military and the Department of Defense in anti-drug activities (Title III), created the Drug-Free Schools and Communities Act (Title IV, Subtitle B) which also expanded the Drug Abuse Resistance Education program, as well as many other provisions.

University of Maryland[edit]

The circumstances surrounding Bias's death threw the University of Maryland and its athletics program into turmoil. An investigation revealed that Bias was 21 credits short of the graduation requirement despite having attended the university for four full years; in his final semester he had earned no academic credits at all, failing three courses and withdrawing from two others.^[20] On August 26, 1986, State's Attorney Arthur A. Marshall Jr. stated that in the hours after Bias's death, Maryland head basketball coach Lefty Driesell told players to remove drugs from Bias's dorm room (although this was later found to be false). Two days later, Bias's father, James, accused the university, and Driesell specifically, of neglecting the academic status of their athletes;^[17] the National Collegiate Athletic Association subsequently began an investigation into the affair that fall.

The controversy prompted athletic director Dick Dull to resign on October 7, 1986, with Driesell following suit on October 29 after 17 years as coach; the grand jury presiding over the Bias case issued a final report on February 26, 1987, that criticized the University of Maryland's athletic department, admissions office and campus police.^[17]

Family[edit]

Jay Bias[edit]

On December 5, 1990, Len's younger brother Jay Bias was murdered in a drive-by shooting at age 20; the killing followed a dispute in the parking lot of Prince George's Plaza, a Hyattsville shopping mall just a few miles from the University of Maryland.^[21] Two gunmen, Jerry Tyler and Gerald Eiland,^[22] had fired several times into the vehicle that was occupied by Bias and two friends; Bias was hit twice in the back,^[23] he was pronounced dead at the same hospital where his brother Len had died and was buried next to him at Lincoln Memorial Cemetery.^[24] Tyler and Eiland were both later found guilty of murdering Jay Bias.^[25][26] James Bias was interviewed on national television about the death of his son.^[27]

Like his brother Len, Jay Bias was also a star player at Northwestern High School, he was planning to transfer to American University in Washington, D.C. to play basketball.^[28]

Parents[edit]

Following their sons' deaths, James and Lonise Bias assumed vocal advocacy roles. Lonise Bias became an anti-drug lecturer, while James Bias became an advocate for gun control.^[29][30] Lonise Bias, in the memory of her children, opened the Len and Jay Bias Foundation, which served to encourage better examples for youth.^[31]

Films[edit]

A film about Len Bias's life, directed by Kirk Fraser, was promoted at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival^[32] and was released June 19, 2009; the documentary Without Bias premiered on ESPN on November 3, 2009, as part of their 30 for 30 documentary series, commemorating the network's 30th anniversary. Along with Bias' parents and surviving siblings, the film includes interviews with Tribble, Keith Gatlin, several other friends, former teammates, and former coach Driesell. In addition, Washington-area journalists Michael Wilbon, James Brown, Steve Buckhantz, and Jim Vance appear.

See also[edit]

• Sportspeople who died during their careers

References[edit]

Further reading[edit]

• Abel, Greg (June 14, 2006). "It Was 20 Years Ago Today". PressBox.
• Bratcher, Drew (June 1, 2009). "Death of a Legend". Washingtonian. Archived from the original on November 6, 2009 – via Wayback Machine.
• Bulpett, Steve (June 16, 2018). "On draft anniversary, memories of Len Bias still there". Boston Herald.
• Cole, Lewis (1989). Never Too Young to Die: The Death of Len Bias. Pantheon. ISBN 0394564405.
• Smith, Fraser C. (1992). Lenny, Lefty, and the Chancellor: The Len Bias Tragedy and the Search for Reform in Big-Time College Basketball. Bancroft Press. ISBN 0963124609.
• Ungrady, Dave J. (2011). Born Ready: The Mixed Legacy of Len Bias. CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform. ISBN 1467972363.

External links[edit]

• Len Bias at Find a Grave