To me, what is so amazing, on this 35th anniversary of Len Bias' death, is that his NBA career would be long over by now, and he'd probably be celebrated as one of the NBA greats. And instead, we commemorate his death. A life cut short. Life is short folks. Life is so, so short.
He could of been Greg Oden nobody knows...but stop praising a coke head lol. Never played a minute in the league. He was a good college player nothing more. At the end of the day he chose to do coke
I was born in 87, but I remember my dad telling me this story in the nineties. Definitely scared me to stay away from hard drugs. Aside from it being a tragedy that a such a promising young man was lost for no reason, what he and Bird could have done together...man that would’ve been something special.
RIP Len from a 80’s Celtics fan. This was devastating news. I remember exactly where I was when I heard the news. I was just 15 and was soooo looking forward to him joining the team.
The coach of Maryland, Lefty Drissell quit over this. Even though a grand jury found him not guilty in this, it took years before his reputation was restored, first he was an ACC TV anlysts, then coached at JMU and Georgia State, finally 4 years ago he got in the Naismith Hall of Fame, he was nominated years earlier but Len Bias haunted him.
@@rockvilleraven I always wondered why Lefty got heat over this. Bias died 3 months after Maryland played their last game. He wasn't even enrolled on campus anymore. I remember the Bob Wade hire
@@roncoloscos2183 I was coming home from the skating rink. My hometown had a morning and evening paper at the time. Opened it up and it was on the front page. Unbelievable
i mean i’ve done coke a couple times and i don’t consider it a mistake & i haven’t touched it since. it’s not always stupid and not fair to call it stupid to the people who have tragically passed away after use @robert
As I watch this video it feels like June 19, 1986 all over again I was a sophomore in high school I'm sitting here crying. My brother played with Len @ Northwestern High School in Adelphi MD.
I was 14 at the time and I’m from Landover Md and remember grown men crying and it seemed like a cloud of doom was all over The whole city. Palmer Park Columbia Park and Kentland, rip
There was a short video at the time, of Larry Bird's reaction to the news, & he was obviously shocked & saddened as he said, "That's the cruelest thing I ever heard!".
I had just got my driver's license. When someone told me about his passing.A couple of days after that, I heard of crack cocaine. And the next few years in the DC, Maryland and Virginia area would be probably the most violent in the country.
I still feel it wasn't cocaine that DIRECTLY killed Bias. It was likely an enlarged heart (very common with basketball players) or some other heart defect that, in combination with a drug coke, caused an allergic reaction that killed him. A guy like Mick Fleetwood from Fleetwood Mac was a massive cocaine addict for 20 years and he never once had an OD according to him. Countless other cokeheads have said the same thing. Other drugs like heroin are a different story, but it sounds like people in the room were using no more coke than Len was. I am not advocating the use of the drug. It is super addictive and dangerous, but I feel a bad heart had more to do with Len's death than coke did. He could've very well have died on the floor Hank Gathers or Reggie Lewis style even if he was as clean as a whistle.
Cocaine was a lot more acceptable in the 80s than it is now as a recreational drug. 1986 marked one of the great Celtics teams ever and it looked like they’d keep dominating the East for a long time. Bias’s death was a huge blow as was a slew of injuries in 1986-87, Larry Bird began having back issues and there was a drop off in performance as the decade waned. The Pistons overtook Boston in a short 2 years. What might have been and never was. Nobody knew then that 1986 marked the end of the party in Boston
It was never acceptable as a "recreational drug" but amongst people who like to do drugs recreationally. Most of society then, as now, frown on the recreational use of drugs. Substance abuse has always been a problem, to most of society. It's the fringes of society that think they are okay.
I grew up in LA and yeah, pretty popular recreational drug. In fact, I’d say that if you grew up in that time and place, 70% chance you tried it at least once.
I started at UMD the following year. It was a weird feeling still. Can’t believe he was taking cocaine. Tragic mistake. Len was easily hall of fame material.
I enrolled in Maryland a year after this. In the fall of 1987 and the college got very strict on students smoking weed even in the dorms. Of course students still did it. The basketball program was rebuilding with Bob Wade as the coach and Jarrod Mustaf as the star player
I was 14 years old when this happened, and I recall thinking that the racist city of Boston had something to do with his death. I did not want to accept it, at all.
Jordan was drafted in 84', Bias in 86'. Jordan had a good rookie season and a dismal 2nd season due to his foot injury so MJ the NBA legend had not been borne yet. Still a shame they never got to play against one another in the NBA
Or got some very pure coke that was powerful. The cocaine in the 80s was known to be 90-98% pure on average not like today, which could of meant it was very strong and his first time it was too much. Sad either way.
I'm 10 never herd of him then I herd he was better than Michael Jordan than I was like OK I did research found out he did not even get to play he would have played with the Celtics better than mecal
It’s best to tell the complete hard truth. COCAINE killed him. Tragic. Stay away from hard drugs and go easy on alcohol. For some completely avoiding all of it is the only answer. RIP
@@DTskater16 Agreed. I doubt that he only tried drugs on 1 night. His final semester he failed 3 classes and withdrew from 2 classes, which can be a sign of drug use. RIP Len Bias.
@@DTskater16 perhaps, but many analysts agreed that Bias' overall game and him as comprehensive player was better at the collegiate level. What that would have translated to in the NBA we'll never know.
@@selfmade8238 Negative. Jordan used to kill Adrian Branch. Bias used to score at will on north carolina. The Tarheels had the better team and coach and would win those games
And here I sit waiting on my buddy to text me that he's ready for me to come pick him up so we can go get some heroin. I have a great life. But continue to hurt myself. And others. I suck.
@thomasackers thanks I did have a hiccup, but no one's perfect. It really kind of got me thinking that this shits not fun and asking myself in the mirror why ? Too old to be acting this way. I do not deserve the great life I have .
