Can someone give me the down-low on Len Bias?

[Rondo9dunx]

I know a little bit (he was a highly regarded prospect who died tragically somehow)

I did grow up in Boston, but I followed baseball alot more closely as a kid and somehow the whole len bias thing flew under my radar.


I saw someone make a post earlier saying he was better than Jordan? Or supposedly?

Did he ever actually get a chance to play an nba game?
Where did he go to school, position, height?


Yes, I realize that I might as well have never heard of roger clemens, but please, someone fill me in on this guy!

[Edgar]

i know its easier to wiki

but theres no way to say how easy to the CS will be not to suffer 20 years with him and yes.. reggie

Leonard Kevin "Len" Bias (November 18, 1963 – June 19, 1986) was a first team All-American college basketball player. He was selected by the Boston Celtics as the second overall pick in the 1986 NBA Draft on June 17, but died two days later from cardiac arrhythmia induced by a cocaine overdose. He is considered by some sportswriters to be one of the greatest players not to play at the professional level

NBA selection and overdoseOn June 17, Bias was selected by the defending NBA champion Celtics as the second overall pick in the 1986 NBA Draft, which was held in New York City at Madison Square Garden. Arnold "Red" Auerbach, as Boston Celtic President and General Manager, dealt guard Gerald Henderson and cash to the Seattle Supersonics for the pick in June 1986. 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, as well as with Reebok's Sports-Marketing Division. Bias reportedly signed a $3 million shoe contract with Reebok.

Later that day, his father left Boston to return to Washington in the late afternoon. There he gave a short press conference for the local Washington media at Washington National Airport. The media was at the airport expecting to interview Bias, so his father stood in, reporting on their "day with the Celtics" and their appreciation of the beginning of a new chapter in his and his son's lives.

Bias, who returned home later that night, retrieved his newly-leased sports car and drove back to his room on the campus of the University of Maryland.

However, prior to, and concurrent with, some of the given timelines of his activities at the campus, Bias's vehicle was observed and recorded by undercover agents of the Washington, DC metropolitan police department "cruising" one of the city’s most notorious drug neighborhoods along Montana Avenue, in the northeast section of the city. Although the surveillance did not determine who specifically was in the vehicle, or if the vehicle had stopped for any purpose, they did estimate there were at least two people, driver and passenger, in the vehicle, and they recorded its license number.

The campus timeline said he arrived back onto campus at around 11 p.m. and ate crab with some teammates and a member of the football team. He left campus at approximately 2 a.m. on the 19th and drove to an off-campus gathering, which he attended briefly before returning to his dorm in Washington Hall at 3 a.m. Bias took a dose of cocaine which likely induced cardiac arrhythmia.

At 6:32 a.m., when the 911-call to Prince George's County Emergency Services was made by Brian Tribble (a long-time friend), Bias was unconscious and not breathing. All attempts by the emergency medical team to restart his heart and breathing were unsuccessful. According to the campus timeline, Bias collapsed sometime between 6:25 and 6:32 a.m. while talking with teammate Terry Long. According to Bias's sister, who only had a secondhand account of the story, Bias was sitting on a couch and leaned back as though he were going to sleep, but instead began to have a seizure.

Bias was unconscious and was not breathing when county ambulance attendants arrived at his dormitory suite at 6:36 a.m. — four minutes after they were called and six minutes before a mobile intensive care unit arrived—and he never regained consciousness nor breathed on his own. At the hospital, Bias was given five drugs in an attempt to revive him: sodium epinephrine, sodium bicarbonate, lidocaine, calcium and bretyline. After the chemicals failed, a pacemaker was implanted into his heart muscle in a failed attempt to try to get it beating.[6]

Bias was pronounced dead at 8:55 a.m. in the Emergency Department at Leland Memorial Hospital in Riverdale, Maryland, of a cardiac arrhythmia related to usage of cocaine.[7][8][9][10][11]

Four days after his death, more than 11,000 people packed the Cole Field House, the university recreation and student center where Bias played for the Terrapins, for a memorial service. Those speaking at the service included Auerbach, who said he had planned for three years to draft Bias for the Celtics. Auerbach added that the city of Boston had not been so shocked since the assassination of John F. Kennedy.

Bias is buried in Lincoln Memorial Cemetery in Suitland, Maryland.[11]

On June 30, 1986, the Celtics honored Bias with their own memorial service, giving his never used #30 Celtic jersey to his mother, Lonise.

[Redz]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SvyHXqJIxTw

,.

[Rondo9dunx]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SvyHXqJIxTw

,.

wow.. his adams apple was above the rim....

[Rondo9dunx]

Thats too bad, I always thought it was a car accident or something not a drug overdose. Wonder what would have been had he not walked down that path.

[csfansince60s]

I'll never forget where I was when I heard of the JFK assassination. I'll never forget where I was when I heard about the terrorist attacks on 9/11. Likewise, I will never forget where I was on that June 19th morning when I heard about Lenny Bias.

Bias was a regular at Red's bball camp in D.C. Red knew him from when he was a kid. Red knew how special he was and in an incredible Auerbachian coup, Red was able to position the Cs to get Lenny Bias. It was like fate was again smiling on the Celtics.

When they drafted him, visions of the 60s string of championships were not just possible, but realistic, if not likely.

Bias ran the floor like James Worthy, could shoot the corner J like Bob McAdoo and rebounded like Elvin Hayes. He was explosive and smooth at the same time and was as tough as nails on the basketball court. This is not hyperbole. Look at some of the youtube clips. He had the potential to be better than Jordan.

What Bias would have done for the Celtics, aside from being the heir apparent to Larry Legend and the bridge to the future, would have been to prolong the productive professional careers of Bird, McHale and Parish perhaps as long as five years. He could have played the 3 or 4 and would have given Bird and McHale rest by replacing them on the floor and given Parrish rest by playing the 4 and having McHale slide over to the 5 and all of this with no dropoff in production if not an increase.

Bias' death that June morning was the death knell for this proud franchise's title aspirations for more than 20 years. What a terrible, stupid waste.

[BudweiserCeltic]

He's an MVP on Fringe. Enough said.

[Army_of_One_Nation]

I was in boot camp, I joined the military in May 02, 1986. Me and this other guy, from Boston, were the only Celtic's fan in our company. His parents would send him newspaper clippings of the Celtic's. We were so happy to hear that Bias was drafted by the C's. There was also rumors about Red trying to acquire Brad Daugherty. The championship that year was bitter sweet. Too many might-have-beens, too many should-have-beens. One thing for sure, he was going to be one of those players to have his jersey retired by the Celtic's when his career in basketball was over.