Len Bias

From Hoopedia

Leonard Kevin Bias (November 18, 1963 – June 19, 1986) was an American college basketball player who suffered a fatal cardiac arrhythmia that resulted from a cocaine overdose less than 48 hours after being selected by the Boston Celtics in the 1986 NBA Draft. Bias was the second player selected in the draft, after Brad Daugherty of the Cleveland Cavaliers. Bias was known to his family, friends, teammates, and in the media as "Len" or "Lenny" rather than by his formal name, Leonard.

From Landover, Maryland, Bias attended Northwestern High School in Hyattsville, Maryland, and subsequently the University of Maryland where he became a star player and an All-American. Wearing number 34, he impressed basketball fans with his amazing leaping ability, his physical stature and his ability to create plays. During his college career Bias was considered one of the most dynamic players in the nation. In fact, Bias was rated by some draft publications as the most complete forward ever to come out of college. Bias was one of the first, if not the first player to warrant comparisons to Michael Jordan, even though Jordan himself was only in his second professional season at the time Bias was drafted.

Bias died in a dormitory on the University of Maryland, College Park campus. Later, his death would be featured as part of an anti-drug media campaign. A district court and court of appeals found that Bias was a drug user.

On December 11, 1990, Bias's younger brother Jay, a promising high school basketball player, was shot to death in a dispute in the parking lot of Prince George's Plaza, a Hyattsville shopping mall located just miles from the University of Maryland.

Death

Less than two days after being selected by the defending champion Celtics as the second overall pick in the 1986 NBA Draft, Bias flew in to Maryland from Boston at around 11:00 PM, and ate crab with some teammates and a member of the football team. He left at approximately 2 a.m. on the 18th, drove to an off-campus gathering, which he attended briefly before returning to his dorm at 3:00 a.m. Bias, who consumed large quantities of cocaine at some earlier point, was talking with teammate Terry Long when he collapsed sometime between 6:25 and 6:32. According to Bias's sister (who only had a secondhand account of the story), the player was sitting on a couch and leaned back as though he was going to sleep, but instead began to have a seizure. Bias died of a cardiac arrhythmia, related to the cocaine overdose.

The Lawsuit

Following his death, Len's parents brought a lawsuit against Len's representative and agency, which eventually reached the Appeals court as Bias v. Advantage International, Inc., 905 F.2d 1558 (1990). The parents argued that the two parties promised to acquire a one million dollar life insurance policy which they never did. The lawsuit failed because the defendants argued that no life insurance policy (especially a million dollar one) would have been granted to a cocaine user anyway. Had Len lied on the application and stated he was not, but found to be in death, it would have been void anyway. Despite the estate's claims that he was not a habitual user, some of Len's teammates testified that he was, and the estate failed to offer any impeachment of this testimony. Therefore, the Court of Appeals dismissed the complaint after a trial court had granted a motion for summary judgment.

The Possibility

Len Bias represents to the NBA, and especially to the Celtics organization, one of the greatest "what-ifs" in basketball history. Many considered Bias to be the perfect complement to the Larry Bird-led Celtics, a potential backup for both Bird and Kevin McHale who would have limited their minutes and perhaps in turn extended their careers. Some, including Red Auerbach and Johnny Dawkins, a Duke assistant who was a high school and college contemporary of Bias, believed that the inclusion of Bias could have allowed for the Boston Celtic organization's continued dominance well into the 1990s. Mike Krzyzewski and Dean Smith have both stated that Michael Jordan and Bias were the best players ever to come through the ranks of the ACC.