Nice piece. Wilbon wrote a similarly eloquent and heartfelt article for the Washington Post today (should be pretty easy to find on their site). Simmons also reposted one that he wrote a few years ago.
I think it is important to mention that, even though this was a tragedy, this was his fault. He made a REALLY bad decision that led to his death. At some level it was bad luck, but there's no way he sat down to do those lines without knowing that there was some risk involved. His death served a valuable purpose in emphasizing the dangers of cocaine, but it also should be seen for the larger message about decision-making and personal responsibility.
Hey Sparky,
Just read the Wilbon piece. It's outstanding. You make good points about Bias knowing he was putting himself at risk, but is sure sounds like he didn't give it a second thought. I remember reading an article some time after it happened (might have been in Sports Illustrated) and witnesses made it pretty clear he was reckless that night, to the point that a couple of his teammates halfheartedly tried to get him to stop. The guy thought he was invincible.
I'm also getting annoyed by people saying that Bias's ability is overrated in death, that he couldn't possibly have been as good as people say. Well, like I said in the post, basketball was pretty damn important to me then, and I pretty much watched every game I could. Hell, the highlight of my week was the three games on Big Monday (right after my family got cable). I saw Bias a lot, and I KNOW my mind is not exaggerating his ability. He had Jordan's athleticism, he was ripped for a player of that era, he played hard all the time, and his midrange jumper was deadly. He would have been GREAT, had he stayed clean. I can say I have never been more excited by one of my favorite teams' draft picks than I was the day the Celtics took him. Suffice to say today brought back a lot of memories.
I was a junior at Clark University (Worcester)when I heard the Bias news.
I'd just finished classes for the day and a friend and I were popping open a round of beers over tuna-fish sandwiches and a cribbage board when the radio busted out with the incredible, jaw-dropping, no-f'ing-way news.
It was a JFK moment; I'll never forget where I was, and I'll always think of what the Celts might have been post-1986 if only, if only, if only...
i was 18 when i heard the news...just graduated highschool...i don't remember all the details but i clearly remember my old man calling me and telling me (he also had the misfortune of breaking the news of reggie lewis' death to me as well)...bias was a 6'9" mj - only better...to think what would've been had he lived...as bob seger sang so eloquently:
"Twenty years now
Where'd they go?
Twenty years
I don't know
I sit and I wonder sometimes
Where they've gone"
SMG
I SA W Len Bias just hours before he died.
I was driving near North Station when I saw a few television cameras and then a tall, African-American man being swallowed by the media.
It was Bias, emerging from a press conference. I honked my horn and gave a thumbs up. He glanced up and smiled. He then was driven to Logan. Hours later, he started blowing coke five hundred miles to the south.
To have seen him wear that green Celtics hat in person is to have that image seared into your memory forever. Years later, I talked to Danny Ainge about it. He remembered and just shook his head.
The death of Len Bias (and Don Rogers was icing on the cake) stopped me in my tracks from continuing my risky habit. I was routinely blowing through an 8-ball (3.5 grams) every couple weekends. Get it on Friday, all gone by early Sunday morning. That habit stopped abruptly upon those deaths. Probably saved my life, definitely saved my job. One note- nobody "stops at few lines and just go to bed". The last thing you can do on coke is go to sleep Like me, Bias sat there and kept going because there was more to do.
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