Today is the 20th anniversary of the death of Len Bias. He was one of the best college players during his time while he was at Maryland. He got drafted #2 overall by the Celtics in 1986. They day after he went to a party to celebrate. He died of drug overdose. It is important to remeber this day because it teaches a lesson for young people to not do drugs.I wonder what would have happened if he didnt die and stayed with the Celtics during the 90's. Probably would have won at least one championship. He would have later teamed up with Rick Fox, Dee Brown, and Jon Barry. I wish I could have happened.
Great topic, man. Seriously, this kid and MJ were supposed to dominate the league for the next generation together. What a big waste of talent, I hate it when players are stuck in bad situations and turns out all their talent goes down the tubes. He was so athletic playing for UMD, so great, back then big men were dominating the league really, and this kid could have became a part of it...
I also saw it on ESPN. I didnt really know much about the story. Then I heard that him and MJ were suppsed to dominate the NBA..and I was like..woah..Real sad story, he did something bad..he was just at a party like alot of people were that night..and he was the one that saw the real after effects of the overdose. Everyone learned a lesson from it though..
The Celtics took such a tumble after that event. Bird was supposed to pass the torch onto Lenny and unfortunately we never saw it happen.I made a topic a longgg time ago about how the Celtics have had a really bad luck streak over the past two decades and I included Lenny Bias in it. There were some truly amazing quotes from Coach K and Brad Daugrehty on Len. I looked up the BBall world archives to find that original post and here are the quotes....Former Cavs center Brad DaughertyDaugherty sure didn't. "The one thing I always think about is how he elevated when he shot his jump shot," says the long-time Cavaliers center, now an ESPN college basketball analyst. "He elevated higher than anyone I've ever seen to get off that shot. Most people, Michael Jordan included, might shoot on the way up, but not Lenny. Every jump shot was released at the peak of his jump. He had a great mid-range game. He was deadly from 8 to 15 feet. Duke Coach Mike Krzyzewski"This is my 24th year at Duke," says coach Mike Krzyzewski, "and in that time there have been two opposing players who have really stood out: Michael Jordan and Len Bias. Len was an amazing athlete with great competitiveness. My feeling is that he would have been one of the top players in the NBA. He created things. People associate the term `playmaking' with point guards. But I consider a playmaker as someone who can do things others can't, the way Jordan did. Bias was like that. He could invent ways to score, and there was nothing you could do about it. No matter how you defended him, he could make a play."If anyone has ever seen any footage of Len Bias they know how good he could have been. He looked like he was 15 feet in the air everytime he shot the ball, Daugherty hit it right on the head when he was talking about his jump shot, he literally would shoot at the peak of his jump. It's such a sad story but in many ways it was a lesson in a decade filled with cocaine use. R.I.P. Len
