December 5, 2021 • 35 mins
Who was Len Bias? Why is his legacy so important? In this episode, we answer those questions. With insight from Clark Kellogg of CBS Sports and Justin Tinsley of ESPN, and the Undefeated, and others. Also what to expect in this podcast series.
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Speaker 1 (00:05):
Well, Lambias is important today, not just for his basketball.
He's important because he literally took the bullet, no pun intended.
I've never ever had anything to do with cocaine ever,
I've never been curious about it. But I'm definitely not
(00:27):
curious about it because of what happened to my friendly buyers.
This is the idea of a of a star in
full bloom that ultimately had that had that flamed doubt
by a mistake. People should recognize this as, you know,
(00:49):
a lesson, a tragedy along the lines of a Greek tragedy.
If you will um you know this is uh in
many ways, this is icorous flying to to the sun
and only then have those wings melted and plummet to
the earth. So in the world, his death has made
(01:10):
him like a modest you. You could have everything in
the world going for you for you to think you
want to do something that's as silly as not on
one line of cocaine. You should know better that he's
important because he can show you that you can be
on top of the world one second and then not
a part of the world. Next, the Eight Side Network
(01:35):
and Go Grady Media presents lend Bys a mixed legacy.
I'm surprised to lend by story is not being told
on a yearly basis when new athletes come into college
or into high school to learn by story is one
of the better stories you can use to get an
(01:57):
individual or team to do the right thing. The French
to the boy that can show that the game he
made him a name game. Many people from my generation
I'm in my early sixties vividly remember the day Land
Bias died and how they reacted to the shocking news.
(02:19):
Sure it helped if you were a Maryland fan, which
I am, and it helped more if you were a
Maryland athlete i was, but you didn't have to have
such a direct connection to the University of Maryland to
have your emotions tazard after finding out Bias died, some
knew him from their home roots or from playing basketball together.
Derek Whittenberg grew up not far from Land and played
(02:40):
basketball within against him. He was a national champion with
NC State and later a college coach. I'll never forget it.
And I heard the news and I couldn't believe it.
I put over the side of the road. I cried
like a crowd, like a two Ero, And there was
a seven year old boy who became a Celtics fan
(03:02):
after they picked Lennon in the draft. His name is
Matt Roboto. He found refuge in a comfortable place after
he found out lenn died. I just sprinted out of
the house crying, like when I sprint it outside, went
up like, went up to my tree out and we
had had a little tree for it. I sat up
there for a little bit and then um, you know
(03:22):
when all my swing sat swaying, swang, swang. And still
three decades later, some still can't forget. J Billis played
against Bias for four years while at Duke. I'll never
stop thinking about it. There'll never be a time when
you know, the draft, the draft passes and I won't
think about you know, lenn Bias died right right about now.
(03:46):
The death of Bias prompted those reactions because of who
he was, the top college basketball player in It was
because of how he played basketball with a consistent and
controlled intensity. It was because of what he was expected
to become, perhaps the greatest player ever, and because of
(04:07):
how he died shortly after consuming a large amount of
cocaine and suffering a heart attack. Most people know that
much about Bias, even those who are from younger generations,
but there is so much more to lens life and
his legacy. That's why Go Gradymedia and Octagon Entertainment have
(04:30):
partnered to produce a podcast series that examines in great
detail Len's life and legacy. This is Davon Grady, the
president of Go Grady Media and executive producer of this series.
I'm the author of the book Born Ready, The Mixed
Legacy of Len Bias. The book was published ten years
(04:52):
ago this month. I'm here to help introduce to you
a groundbreaking piece of broadcast journalism. It's a podcast series
called Len Bias A Mixed Legacy. The series is based
heavily on the book, and it examines Len's life and
legacy from his teen years when he learned how to
play basketball through the thirty five years since his death.
(05:15):
Joining me as a producer on the podcast is longtime
sports journalist Don Marcus. Don joined the Baltimore Sun in
and covered the last year of Len's career, and he
reported on Maryland athletics for the Sun for much of
the next few decades. He's also the author of a
book on things Maryland fans should do before they die.
Don has also reported on the NBA extensively. He is
(05:38):
one of the most respected journalists covering Meryland athletics. Welcome Don,
Thanks Dave, I too remember exactly where I was when
I heard the news. I just finished covering the US
Open golf tournament on Long Island and was starting what
I hoped to be a two week vacation with my wife.
I had played golf in the morning and returned into
(06:00):
the B and B where we were staying. I was
stunned and saddened to hear about the most talented college
player had ever covered personally on a beat, dying at
age two days after being picked number two by the
Boston Celtics. My wife asked me what I thought happened,
and I said I wouldn't be surprised if they found
out it was drugs. Why was I suspicious? Drugs were
(06:23):
prevalent in the nineteen eighties, not just among athletes, and
Bias was already reported to have been celebrating with friends
and teammates in his dorm suite. It was one of
the few times in my career as a reporter that
I regretted being right, You're listening to Lynn Bias a
Mixed Legacy on the eight Side Network. We will start
(06:44):
off focusing on one topic, who was Lenn Bias, What
made him so great? And what was the tragedy that
defines him more than his accomplishments as a basketball player.
Throughout this segment, we will feature clips from interviews done
for the podcast series We Held. They will add depth
to our discussion. To help deepen that discussion further, we
(07:04):
are joined by Clark Kellog, a former college and NBA
player and now a college basketball analyst for CBS Sports.
Clark's college career ended as Lent Biases began. He was
an All Big Ten player at Ohio State. After his
junior year, Clark was the number eight overall pick in
the NBA Draft by the Indiana Pacers. Clark and others
(07:28):
wonder what Lens NBA career might have been like had
he stayed healthy, and Clark has often thought about what
biases career arc might have looked like had he not
died at the age of twenty two. Welcome Clark to
start off. Who was Led Bias from your perspective, well,
from my perspective, being a guy who was at that
time with the Indiana Pacers, still attached to the college game,
(07:51):
and that I played at Ohio State, so I kept
up with a big ten in college basketball in general. Um,
he was a dynamic, explosive high level player. I mean,
two time Player of the Year in the a c C.
Um had a charisma about his game that was special
in addition to the athleticism, the finishing ability, the way
(08:12):
he played, the exuberance he played with, the explosiveness. UM.
So I only got to witness that from Afar, But
being a guy who kind of was a student of
the game from the time I fell in love with
it at ten years old, and then having been able
to enjoy some success myself at the high school, college
(08:32):
and pro level, you get a sense of what guys
are like, even if you haven't been on the court
with you watch him enough and see what they do.
And he had a huge, huge, um ceiling in terms
of what he could have become as an NBA player.
I mean, you put up the numbers he did his
last two seasons at Maryland in the a c C
(08:54):
against that type of competition, and you look at his
his package, his tool kit, UH quickness, explosiveness, Uh, really
nice stroke, mid range game that would have probably stretched
out to to deep range. Uh. The ability to finish
in the open court. All of those things would would
(09:15):
have translated, I think to really outstanding NBA career, perhaps
multile time All Star career, had he not come to
his um terrible and unfortunate um death. Now let's bring
it Don Marcus to give us a general overview of
Len Bias the player. Don you covered Maryland basketball for
(09:38):
the Baltimore Sun during his senior year, and you would
cover the NBA prior to that for Newsday. Tell us
about Len Bias the basketball player when you started covering
him and compare him to other NBA talent at that time. Dave,
the interesting thing about covering Bias for a senior in
Maryland was that they had just finished covering another future
Hall of Famer, Chris Mullen at St. John's, and I
(10:00):
have been around yet another Patrick Ewing at Georgetown. While
writing about the Big East, my first Final Four was
and I watched Michael Jordan hit the go ahead jumper
that helped North Carolina beat Georgetown in New Orleans. I
had spent time with Jordan during his last two years
in Chapel Hell. I really didn't know how good Bias
(10:20):
was until I began to cover Maryland. By the end
of that season, he had surpassed all the other great
players that had covered Jordan, included people knew Lend a teenager,
as well as Brian Waller. Bias and Waller learned to
play basketball at the Columbia Park Recreation Center, also known
as the Wreck, with the help of coach Johnny Walker.
(10:41):
Waller and Bias were later high school teammates for two years.
Bias grew up in the Columbia Park community and land Over, Maryland,
some ten miles from the University of Maryland campus. The
Wreck is located a couple of blocks from the house
where Lynn grew up. Waller did not talk to us
for this podcast, but he did to me from my
book about Land. Here's what he said about Land. Learning
(11:03):
the game at the Wreck, Johnny gave us everything that
wasn't in the rule book. When you're not used to it,
you whine and cry. People were fouling Lend all the time.
No matter how much you wind, Johnny was still killing him.
On Monday and Wednesday, as we'd play against the older
guys in the gym. That's how they played. You either
step up or you don't. It's important to note that Bias,
(11:27):
as best we know, did not play organized basketball until
the ninth grade. He was cut from his junior high
team in the seventh and eighth grades. Lend learned the
game primarily from two people, Johnny Walker, his mentor and
coach at the Wreck, and Bob Wagner, his coach at
Northwestern High School. Wagner helped transform Land from a baby
to a bruiser Bias during the varsity his sophomore year.
(11:49):
Wagner quickly noticed that Bios struggled to deal with adversity
and Leonard wasn't a handful to manage. I mean, that's
one of the reasons I was straight with him and
everybody else. Why in what ways? Oh, he was a
cry baby, he was a whiner. He you know, he
had to open his mouth. Most of the time. He
was right, but he would try to talk back to
the officials. He'd slam the ball once in a while.
(12:13):
We will provide more details about Len's high school and
college careers in the next segment of this podcast series,
but we will address it here with a general observation
from Molly Glassman, who I worked with at the Baltimore Sun.
Molly covered high school basketball in Maryland when Lynn was
at Northwestern and later had the Maryland basketball be at
the Evening Sun when Bias joined the team. She later
(12:35):
became my editor at the Morning Sun when the papers merged.
I had known of Lenny, you know, as a as
a junior at Northwestern, so you know, his reputation as
a as a strong local high school player had been established.
So when he signed with when left he signed him
with Maryland, UM, you know, it was big news that
(13:00):
that he uh was signed. It wasn't as big though
as Adrian Branch, who was from Damatha and got far
more publicity in high school. So yeah, he was a
He was considered a local guy and a public school star,
but not quite in the in the top echelon of recruits.
(13:26):
I hadn't seen him play in high school, but he
had a reputation as a a guy who could play
all around the hoop. He was a good shooter, but
he was also a strong rebounder in high school and
then UM when he came to Maryland as a as
a freshman, again he was pretty much overshadowed by Branch
(13:49):
as the big name recruit. And it was towards the
end of his freshman year that we started to say,
you know, you know, this kid is is going to
be great. He was, you know, he always had the
reputation as being somebody raw, you know who really needed
(14:09):
to develop a defensively and offensively Maryland started owing five
in the a SEC during bias senior year, in my
first year on the beat, he wound up carrying him
back to the n c A Tournament. It was helped
by that memorable thirty five point performance to beat number
one North Carolina on the road. It was the first
(14:30):
loss from the tar Heels in the then brand new Deemdom.
Thanks Don, Let's now bring it back to Clark. Kellogg, Clark,
what did you notice most about Land when he was
transforming into a dominant college player? So from his junior
year too, I thought his senior year I saw enough
to where I thought he just refined what he had.
(14:50):
I liked his ability to score mid range and step
out and knockdown shots. Finishing transition. He was a better
than average rebounder. The boy. When we come back, we
will discuss Len Bias the person name never became m Boy.
(15:11):
Welcome back to the introduction to the podcast series Lend
Bias A Mixed Legacy. This is Davon Grady, producer of
the series along with Don Marcus. Before the break, we
explained who Len Bias was as a basketball player. Now
we will frame Len Bias the person. Bob Wagner, Len's
high school coach, recalled an adventurous side of Len's personality. Uh.
(15:35):
The thing that Leonard was good at is he smiled.
He took time to you know, with the girls and
the kids, and it's a charm. But it wasn't a
funny thing. Answer who he was and enjoyed people. And
I think people will work. And you know, you like
Leonard whether you played basketball or not, if you knew it. Um,
And I think that hurt people, you know, and he
was he was not running around wild. Uh. You know
(15:57):
as a kid in high school. You know, I've never
and the kid a Trankopierre or anything else. I always
said about Larry. Did you put him with good kids?
He's the best kid with the good kids. You put
in with the guys and he can be the best. Uh.
For example, he he didn't play his first game in
high school and the Pom Pom sponsor had left the
classroom open with a bunch of candy bars in it,
(16:18):
which was going to be a fundraiser. So what we
had was activity buses. So by the time we finished
school or practice and the buses came to take the
kids home, the kids would study, or they'd wander the
halls or whatever. Well, of course they wandered in there
and the guys took some candy bars, so that was
his punishment there. One of the guys from the DC
(16:41):
area who got to know Lenn pretty well was Derek Whittenberg.
Derek was a star at the mat the high school,
and later won a national title at NC State. He
was a few years older than Lenn, but remembers playing
pickup games with him on the outdoor courts at the Wreck.
He got to know Lenny pretty out lely. Was very quiet,
(17:03):
very quiet guy, very quiet and somewhat shot um. Unless
he was around his friends. He was open and friendly,
but I wouldn't say he was this party animal, a
guy who just like I wanted to be out all
the time. I think he was. He had a lot
of shodness to him, and he had a wonderful person
(17:26):
down the big smile, But I don't think he was
just outgoing God Dave. One of the best insights offered
of Lynn the person as he went from high school
to college comes from Johnny Holiday. Johnny has been the
radio played by play voice of Maryland basketball and football
since nineteen seventy nine. My recollections of when was what
(17:49):
a nice kid he was a so I've spoken down
to earth, as down to earth as you could be
before he became a superstar, of course. And I remember
going to Northwestern High School the day he signed is
a letter of antet to come to the University of Maryland,
(18:10):
and sitting and talking with him and realizing that, well,
this kid's very shy. His kids are very quiet. This
kid is not going to be a very good interview.
He didn't say anything at all. I remember the first year,
the first couple of interviews we did with him, Um,
it was like a lot of yes and no answers
(18:31):
and even sometimes nodding of his head. And I would
stop the recorder of remindling that this is what you're
gonna have to talk. You know, they can't see you
nodding your head and big smile okay, okay, And like
all young players, when you stick a microphone in front
of them, they moved back, and I kept moving in,
(18:56):
and he'd moved back, and I moved in and he'd
moved back, and it got to be a He got
to be one of the best interviews. And he was
guarded and what he had to say, because you're not
gonna throw the your teammates under the bus, and you're
not gonna throw the coaches under the bus. But he
was He was always fun to talk to, always fun
to be around. John Sally met Lynn Bias at the
(19:19):
Five Star Basketball camp when they were both in high school.
At Georgia Tech, he played four years against Bias and
he got to know when very well. He was introverted, um,
really quiet, but he would show up on the court.
Never brag adosious, if that is even a word. Um
(19:40):
he never. He wasn't one of those people. He would
give you the business and that be in like even
if you were the chair. He would like, calm down,
calm down. He didn't like that. He didn't like all
that high five in jumping around. Calming down. He would
always see Lenny be like yo, chill till As Lynn's
(20:01):
career progressed at Maryland, he started to feel some pressure
not only from basketball, but also in his personal life.
I'd like to play a sound bite of Bob Wagner,
his high school coach, talking about a discussion you had
with Lenn. Coach Wagner says Len would stop by the
high school to talk with him. He mentioned a conversation
that focused on a common trapping of being a superstar athlete,
(20:24):
said Mr Wagner. He says, um, you know, I'm having fun,
but he says, you know, I get tired of this.
You know, girls coming by, I'm trying to study, and
the girls combined and New Year note was early on.
He says, if I say no, then they'll go like
you were with her, or what's wrong with you? Or
(20:45):
don You've talked about how difficult Lenn was to deal
with during his senior year, can you expand on that.
I had certainly had my share of covering reluctant superstars
or athletes who just didn't like talking to the press.
I've been one of the few college basketball writers who
was invited to Georgetown to interview Patrick Ewing for the
first time. By the time I began covering Bias. He
(21:08):
had pretty much become the player who everyone wanted to
talk to in College Park. For a late season profile,
he blew me off for to sit down interviews at
Coldfield House. I finally got him on the flight home
after a game against Wake Forest was fogged in the
PR guy told me I had a captive audience, and
when Bias saw me coming toward him, he smiled. I
(21:29):
told them, Lenn, you've been a pleasure to watch and
a pain in the asked to cover he laughed and said,
I respect that you're being honest. Here again is my
former colleague, Molly Glassman. By the time he was a
junior and senior, uh, he was less accessible and um
(21:50):
harder to read than he was when he was younger.
When he was younger, I certainly remember how much he
talked about he loved to draw. At one point he
wanted to be an interior designer. Um you know, he
was talking about that artistic side of him his personality,
(22:12):
and um you know, I'm not sure where that went,
but I don't recall that really at all his senior year,
that that was part of who he was. He was
He always seemed to have some some group of people
waiting for him at the end of that Coldfield House.
(22:34):
You know that where the locker rooms came out he was.
He wasn't going back to his dorm to to fill
his sketch pad after games. I don't think he was
going to make it, as the number two makes about it,
Boston something it would have been. So you're listening to
lend on the eight side was the best on the
(22:57):
streets of land or much of the land. A story
begins after he died. If you could have imagined the
impact his death would have on American society, but it
did on politics, on black culture, on the sports world,
on drug use and abuse. This podcast series, Len Bias
A Mixed Legacy will explain all of that in detail,
(23:20):
but for the purposes of this introduction segment, we will
discuss those topics more generally within the context of why
is the legacy of Len Bias so important still today.
We will also hear throughout this segment the voice of
Justin Tinsley, an ESPN commentator and a culture and sportswriter
for The Undefeated, as well as from others who have
(23:42):
insight into the importance of Len's legacy. We are going
to start this segment off talking with Clark Kellogg, and
for that I'll throw it to Don Marcus. Do you
think that you know, kids these days would listen to
a story about len Bias, you know, and even if
they didn't know who he was, maybe he never heard
of him. But then if you you mentioned them, mentioned
(24:06):
him to them, that all of a sudden he becomes
even a different kind of figure now thirty five years later.
I don't think there's any question. I don't specifically use
his story, but I do on occasion highlight the consequences
of choices. And stories are powerful, whether they're inspirational or
(24:27):
whether they're sad or tragic. And when you can use
stories that relate to your audience. And obviously we know
that a lot of young folks, particularly young black males,
are enamored with sports, and the NBA in particular and basketball,
and to hear not only the great successes, but to
hear some of the missteps, some of the tragedies that
(24:48):
have unfolded as they relate to choices or missteps. But
even sometimes it might not even be about that, It
might just be the fragility of life just intends. He
was only four months old when led Bias died. He
first heard about Bias in the mid nineteen nineties from
his uncle who was living in the Washington, d c.
Area and apparently was a LN Bias fan. Here's just
(25:12):
an explaining how we learned about Land from his uncle
and what the Len Bias legacy has meant to him.
And I just never forget being with him. One time,
I may have been like nine, nine or ten, and
we were talking about basketball, and I believe Michael Jordan
was retired for the first time at that point, and
I was telling him I really wish Michael Jordan would
(25:34):
come back, and you know, I missed watching him play basketball.
He was like, yeah, I wish Lynn Bias would have
been around to to play Mike, you know, with the
Celtics and see how that would have played out. And
I at to that point, who was Lynn Bias? And
so he kind of gave me a crash course at
that point, he was like he was just a great player,
one of the best college basketball players he had ever seen,
(25:57):
and he was supposed to be great in the league,
but unfortunately passed away. That he passed away from drugs.
He drug overdose. But he was a great basketball player.
So he's just always remembered as one of the big
what ifs, not just in basketball, but just in life culturally,
speaking of what could this guy have been? You know,
(26:20):
who would he have become in the league, How might
career arts and paths have been different had Lynn Bias
stated around, he's kind of like a John Henry type
type guy for my generation. So he's a he's a
tall tale, but he's also even more so a cautionary
tale for my generation. Just but you can't take you
can't take talent for granted, and you can't take your
(26:41):
time on this earth for green. Justin Tensley's perspective is
important because he's in his mid thirties. He represents a
younger generation that new Oland Bias but did not know
much about him, and it appears Len's stories still resonates
with his generation. Clark, why do you think Le's legacy
(27:03):
is still so important to not just Justin's generation, but
younger generations? You know, I think to the legacy component,
um as as as as difficult as this might be,
is that, um it's it's not only tragic, but it
is a it's a cautionary tale for all of us
and particularly for young folks. Um, here's a guy who
(27:26):
was on top of the world. He was gifted and
had optimized his gifts as a basketball player to realize
the dream of being an NBA player, and in a
moment or moments of a bad choice or decision around
cocaine drug use, it costs him his life. And that
(27:50):
is a message that resonates not just because it was drugs,
but because life is fragile and sometimes the choices we
may can be fatal. And that to me is a
part of the other side of the legacy where it
can be instructive. Sure, it was a tragedy, it was painful,
(28:11):
and it doesn't go away for those closest to learn,
and it's a reminder for all of us that the
choices we make, the associations we have with others, we
just have to be mindful that if we're not careful,
it can it can sometimes end not just badly, but
but fatally. Now let's bring this back to Justin Tinsley again.
(28:36):
Justin is working on a book about Biggie Smalls, the
rapper from the nine nineties. Biggie got caught up in
gangs and drugs of that era and was killed in
a drive by shooting. Justin ties the mandatory minimum prison
sentence laws to that time of the nineteen nineties, he
helps explain mandatory minimums. Here's justin connecting Biggie Smalls and
(28:57):
Len Bias. So when you let into an album like
Biggie Smalls's debut, Ready to Die, and he talks about
being neck deep in the drug game and understanding, they're like,
if I walk around this corner, if I sell it
to the wrong person, like that could be the end
of me, whether whether I'm killed or whether I go
to jail for a long time. Because at that point
(29:19):
the ninety four Crime Bill had had been around that
I believe the EIGHTI six Crime Bill had proceeded that.
So when we talk about these mandatory minimums, and we
talk about this life or death experience in the streets
selling drugs and being caught with even a small amount
of paraphernali at that point in the late eighties and
early nineties to lead to a long trip up state.
(29:41):
And so when we talk about that, you could piece
it back to Lynn biases death. It may not be direct,
it may not be Biggie saying, oh you're making a
rhyme about Lynn Bias. But you know when he was
you know, when he talks about the streets is a
short stop either slanging crack rock or you got a
wicked jump shot. You know, you could piece that back
to somebody like a Lym Bias, because that death changed
(30:04):
everything and from what from what I've read, almost like
in the blink of an hour to snap of fingers,
so that when we talked about Lyn Bias culturally, we
talked talked about how his death in so many ways
caused and you know, an over an overreaction by the
federal government, and that overreaction directly impacted our community and
(30:29):
you know, people who look like us, So Lenn Biases,
we talk about basketball, but it always tends to drift
off into just life and how the cultural ramifications of
just his talent and his death and the legislation that
was the past past. Immediately after that, once you start
(30:50):
to peel back the layers, Lynn Bias his name is
always going to come up because when you when you
mentioned somebody like Lynn Bias his name to people in
my generation, and it's always like, yeah, he could have
been something like at least that's what I know of
him like we were robbed of seeing a potentially all
(31:10):
time great talent. People who we have interviewed for this
podcast series had a mix of opinions about why Len's
story is so important today. Let's hear some of those voices.
We will identify them on the back side of the comments.
I think one of the most important messages that students
(31:34):
can glean from leun Bias the story is that we
all have challenges. How you deal with those challenges will
define ultimately who you are. And I think one of
the most important messages we can glean is to do
the best you can to find healthy ways to cope
with what you're struggling with, because drugs is never the answer,
(31:57):
and ultimately you're not gonna benefit from doing that as
much as you might think, because all drugs and alcohol
do is mask the issue. I think again, this is
the idea of a of a star in full bloom
that ultimately had that had that flame doubt by a mistake,
(32:23):
and this is not the only kind of mistake that
you can make to doubst the flame and to recognize
that no matter how good you are, no matter how
good you think you are, you know you're vulnerable. That
many coaches used to UH preach to their players about
H making good decisions. I think for the entire generation
(32:46):
of young UH men in this area, young men and
women UM, and particularly those in the athletic community, this
story rings as a very, very tragic story that UH
will be used for a long long time to help
other people recognize our decisions and mistakes matter in life
(33:08):
because all of those choices, all of those decisions can
have impacts that reverberate far beyond what you think of
in the moment. That last comment came from Ed tap Scott.
Ed is the personnel director for the Minnesota Timberwolves. He's
a former college and NBA coach. He's a former NBA executive,
and he grew up in Washington, d C. And New
(33:30):
lend Well. Before Ed, we heard from lenn Elmore, a
former Maryland All American and an NBA veteran, and Bonnie Bernstein,
a former Maryland gymnast and a prominent sportscaster that control
them the game and he made him a name. Next
(33:52):
on Len Bias, a mixed legacy born ready Len's basketball
life a second linning game, he made him name. This
story of This podcast series is based on the book
Born Ready. The Mixed Legacy of len Bias is published
by Go Grady Media. The series is produced by Go
(34:15):
Grady Media in partnership with Octagon Entertainment. This segment was
produced by Davon Grady and Don Marcus. It was written
by Davon Grady. Technical production provided by Octagon Entertainment. Theme
music provided by m C long Shot, but production assistance
(34:38):
was provided by Kevin McNulty, Kino Quagliata, Lauren Ross, Georgia Brown,
Katy Fair, Jamal William, Kelsey Mannus and Enzo Alvaringa. Matt
dow Hurst is providing social media assistant and special thanks
to the University of Maryland and American University for providing interns.
(35:00):
The Decision Education Foundation is a content and promotional partner
of this podcast series. For more information, go to go
grade Media dot com, g O g R A d
Y M E d i A dot com and a
reminder don't forget to subscribe to lend Bias A Mixed Legacy.
(35:23):
You can find it on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and wherever
you listen to your podcasts.
Well, Lambias is important today, not just for his basketball.
He's important because he literally took the bullet, no pun intended.
I've never ever had anything to do with cocaine ever,
I've never been curious about it. But I'm definitely not
(00:27):
curious about it because of what happened to my friendly buyers.
This is the idea of a of a star in
full bloom that ultimately had that had that flamed doubt
by a mistake. People should recognize this as, you know,
(00:49):
a lesson, a tragedy along the lines of a Greek tragedy.
If you will um you know this is uh in
many ways, this is icorous flying to to the sun
and only then have those wings melted and plummet to
the earth. So in the world, his death has made
(01:10):
him like a modest you. You could have everything in
the world going for you for you to think you
want to do something that's as silly as not on
one line of cocaine. You should know better that he's
important because he can show you that you can be
on top of the world one second and then not
a part of the world. Next, the Eight Side Network
(01:35):
and Go Grady Media presents lend Bys a mixed legacy.
I'm surprised to lend by story is not being told
on a yearly basis when new athletes come into college
or into high school to learn by story is one
of the better stories you can use to get an
(01:57):
individual or team to do the right thing. The French
to the boy that can show that the game he
made him a name game. Many people from my generation
I'm in my early sixties vividly remember the day Land
Bias died and how they reacted to the shocking news.
(02:19):
Sure it helped if you were a Maryland fan, which
I am, and it helped more if you were a
Maryland athlete i was, but you didn't have to have
such a direct connection to the University of Maryland to
have your emotions tazard after finding out Bias died, some
knew him from their home roots or from playing basketball together.
Derek Whittenberg grew up not far from Land and played
(02:40):
basketball within against him. He was a national champion with
NC State and later a college coach. I'll never forget it.
And I heard the news and I couldn't believe it.
I put over the side of the road. I cried
like a crowd, like a two Ero, And there was
a seven year old boy who became a Celtics fan
(03:02):
after they picked Lennon in the draft. His name is
Matt Roboto. He found refuge in a comfortable place after
he found out lenn died. I just sprinted out of
the house crying, like when I sprint it outside, went
up like, went up to my tree out and we
had had a little tree for it. I sat up
there for a little bit and then um, you know
(03:22):
when all my swing sat swaying, swang, swang. And still
three decades later, some still can't forget. J Billis played
against Bias for four years while at Duke. I'll never
stop thinking about it. There'll never be a time when
you know, the draft, the draft passes and I won't
think about you know, lenn Bias died right right about now.
(03:46):
The death of Bias prompted those reactions because of who
he was, the top college basketball player in It was
because of how he played basketball with a consistent and
controlled intensity. It was because of what he was expected
to become, perhaps the greatest player ever, and because of
(04:07):
how he died shortly after consuming a large amount of
cocaine and suffering a heart attack. Most people know that
much about Bias, even those who are from younger generations,
but there is so much more to lens life and
his legacy. That's why Go Gradymedia and Octagon Entertainment have
(04:30):
partnered to produce a podcast series that examines in great
detail Len's life and legacy. This is Davon Grady, the
president of Go Grady Media and executive producer of this series.
I'm the author of the book Born Ready, The Mixed
Legacy of Len Bias. The book was published ten years
(04:52):
ago this month. I'm here to help introduce to you
a groundbreaking piece of broadcast journalism. It's a podcast series
called Len Bias A Mixed Legacy. The series is based
heavily on the book, and it examines Len's life and
legacy from his teen years when he learned how to
play basketball through the thirty five years since his death.
(05:15):
Joining me as a producer on the podcast is longtime
sports journalist Don Marcus. Don joined the Baltimore Sun in
and covered the last year of Len's career, and he
reported on Maryland athletics for the Sun for much of
the next few decades. He's also the author of a
book on things Maryland fans should do before they die.
Don has also reported on the NBA extensively. He is
(05:38):
one of the most respected journalists covering Meryland athletics. Welcome Don,
Thanks Dave, I too remember exactly where I was when
I heard the news. I just finished covering the US
Open golf tournament on Long Island and was starting what
I hoped to be a two week vacation with my wife.
I had played golf in the morning and returned into
(06:00):
the B and B where we were staying. I was
stunned and saddened to hear about the most talented college
player had ever covered personally on a beat, dying at
age two days after being picked number two by the
Boston Celtics. My wife asked me what I thought happened,
and I said I wouldn't be surprised if they found
out it was drugs. Why was I suspicious? Drugs were
(06:23):
prevalent in the nineteen eighties, not just among athletes, and
Bias was already reported to have been celebrating with friends
and teammates in his dorm suite. It was one of
the few times in my career as a reporter that
I regretted being right, You're listening to Lynn Bias a
Mixed Legacy on the eight Side Network. We will start
(06:44):
off focusing on one topic, who was Lenn Bias, What
made him so great? And what was the tragedy that
defines him more than his accomplishments as a basketball player.
Throughout this segment, we will feature clips from interviews done
for the podcast series We Held. They will add depth
to our discussion. To help deepen that discussion further, we
(07:04):
are joined by Clark Kellog, a former college and NBA
player and now a college basketball analyst for CBS Sports.
Clark's college career ended as Lent Biases began. He was
an All Big Ten player at Ohio State. After his
junior year, Clark was the number eight overall pick in
the NBA Draft by the Indiana Pacers. Clark and others
(07:28):
wonder what Lens NBA career might have been like had
he stayed healthy, and Clark has often thought about what
biases career arc might have looked like had he not
died at the age of twenty two. Welcome Clark to
start off. Who was Led Bias from your perspective, well,
from my perspective, being a guy who was at that
time with the Indiana Pacers, still attached to the college game,
(07:51):
and that I played at Ohio State, so I kept
up with a big ten in college basketball in general. Um,
he was a dynamic, explosive high level player. I mean,
two time Player of the Year in the a c C.
Um had a charisma about his game that was special
in addition to the athleticism, the finishing ability, the way
(08:12):
he played, the exuberance he played with, the explosiveness. UM.
So I only got to witness that from Afar, But
being a guy who kind of was a student of
the game from the time I fell in love with
it at ten years old, and then having been able
to enjoy some success myself at the high school, college
(08:32):
and pro level, you get a sense of what guys
are like, even if you haven't been on the court
with you watch him enough and see what they do.
And he had a huge, huge, um ceiling in terms
of what he could have become as an NBA player.
I mean, you put up the numbers he did his
last two seasons at Maryland in the a c C
(08:54):
against that type of competition, and you look at his
his package, his tool kit, UH quickness, explosiveness, Uh, really
nice stroke, mid range game that would have probably stretched
out to to deep range. Uh. The ability to finish
in the open court. All of those things would would
(09:15):
have translated, I think to really outstanding NBA career, perhaps
multile time All Star career, had he not come to
his um terrible and unfortunate um death. Now let's bring
it Don Marcus to give us a general overview of
Len Bias the player. Don you covered Maryland basketball for
(09:38):
the Baltimore Sun during his senior year, and you would
cover the NBA prior to that for Newsday. Tell us
about Len Bias the basketball player when you started covering
him and compare him to other NBA talent at that time. Dave,
the interesting thing about covering Bias for a senior in
Maryland was that they had just finished covering another future
Hall of Famer, Chris Mullen at St. John's, and I
(10:00):
have been around yet another Patrick Ewing at Georgetown. While
writing about the Big East, my first Final Four was
and I watched Michael Jordan hit the go ahead jumper
that helped North Carolina beat Georgetown in New Orleans. I
had spent time with Jordan during his last two years
in Chapel Hell. I really didn't know how good Bias
(10:20):
was until I began to cover Maryland. By the end
of that season, he had surpassed all the other great
players that had covered Jordan, included people knew Lend a teenager,
as well as Brian Waller. Bias and Waller learned to
play basketball at the Columbia Park Recreation Center, also known
as the Wreck, with the help of coach Johnny Walker.
(10:41):
Waller and Bias were later high school teammates for two years.
Bias grew up in the Columbia Park community and land Over, Maryland,
some ten miles from the University of Maryland campus. The
Wreck is located a couple of blocks from the house
where Lynn grew up. Waller did not talk to us
for this podcast, but he did to me from my
book about Land. Here's what he said about Land. Learning
(11:03):
the game at the Wreck, Johnny gave us everything that
wasn't in the rule book. When you're not used to it,
you whine and cry. People were fouling Lend all the time.
No matter how much you wind, Johnny was still killing him.
On Monday and Wednesday, as we'd play against the older
guys in the gym. That's how they played. You either
step up or you don't. It's important to note that Bias,
(11:27):
as best we know, did not play organized basketball until
the ninth grade. He was cut from his junior high
team in the seventh and eighth grades. Lend learned the
game primarily from two people, Johnny Walker, his mentor and
coach at the Wreck, and Bob Wagner, his coach at
Northwestern High School. Wagner helped transform Land from a baby
to a bruiser Bias during the varsity his sophomore year.
(11:49):
Wagner quickly noticed that Bios struggled to deal with adversity
and Leonard wasn't a handful to manage. I mean, that's
one of the reasons I was straight with him and
everybody else. Why in what ways? Oh, he was a
cry baby, he was a whiner. He you know, he
had to open his mouth. Most of the time. He
was right, but he would try to talk back to
the officials. He'd slam the ball once in a while.
(12:13):
We will provide more details about Len's high school and
college careers in the next segment of this podcast series,
but we will address it here with a general observation
from Molly Glassman, who I worked with at the Baltimore Sun.
Molly covered high school basketball in Maryland when Lynn was
at Northwestern and later had the Maryland basketball be at
the Evening Sun when Bias joined the team. She later
(12:35):
became my editor at the Morning Sun when the papers merged.
I had known of Lenny, you know, as a as
a junior at Northwestern, so you know, his reputation as
a as a strong local high school player had been established.
So when he signed with when left he signed him
with Maryland, UM, you know, it was big news that
(13:00):
that he uh was signed. It wasn't as big though
as Adrian Branch, who was from Damatha and got far
more publicity in high school. So yeah, he was a
He was considered a local guy and a public school star,
but not quite in the in the top echelon of recruits.
(13:26):
I hadn't seen him play in high school, but he
had a reputation as a a guy who could play
all around the hoop. He was a good shooter, but
he was also a strong rebounder in high school and
then UM when he came to Maryland as a as
a freshman, again he was pretty much overshadowed by Branch
(13:49):
as the big name recruit. And it was towards the
end of his freshman year that we started to say,
you know, you know, this kid is is going to
be great. He was, you know, he always had the
reputation as being somebody raw, you know who really needed
(14:09):
to develop a defensively and offensively Maryland started owing five
in the a SEC during bias senior year, in my
first year on the beat, he wound up carrying him
back to the n c A Tournament. It was helped
by that memorable thirty five point performance to beat number
one North Carolina on the road. It was the first
(14:30):
loss from the tar Heels in the then brand new Deemdom.
Thanks Don, Let's now bring it back to Clark. Kellogg, Clark,
what did you notice most about Land when he was
transforming into a dominant college player? So from his junior
year too, I thought his senior year I saw enough
to where I thought he just refined what he had.
(14:50):
I liked his ability to score mid range and step
out and knockdown shots. Finishing transition. He was a better
than average rebounder. The boy. When we come back, we
will discuss Len Bias the person name never became m Boy.
(15:11):
Welcome back to the introduction to the podcast series Lend
Bias A Mixed Legacy. This is Davon Grady, producer of
the series along with Don Marcus. Before the break, we
explained who Len Bias was as a basketball player. Now
we will frame Len Bias the person. Bob Wagner, Len's
high school coach, recalled an adventurous side of Len's personality. Uh.
(15:35):
The thing that Leonard was good at is he smiled.
He took time to you know, with the girls and
the kids, and it's a charm. But it wasn't a
funny thing. Answer who he was and enjoyed people. And
I think people will work. And you know, you like
Leonard whether you played basketball or not, if you knew it. Um,
And I think that hurt people, you know, and he
was he was not running around wild. Uh. You know
(15:57):
as a kid in high school. You know, I've never
and the kid a Trankopierre or anything else. I always
said about Larry. Did you put him with good kids?
He's the best kid with the good kids. You put
in with the guys and he can be the best. Uh.
For example, he he didn't play his first game in
high school and the Pom Pom sponsor had left the
classroom open with a bunch of candy bars in it,
(16:18):
which was going to be a fundraiser. So what we
had was activity buses. So by the time we finished
school or practice and the buses came to take the
kids home, the kids would study, or they'd wander the
halls or whatever. Well, of course they wandered in there
and the guys took some candy bars, so that was
his punishment there. One of the guys from the DC
(16:41):
area who got to know Lenn pretty well was Derek Whittenberg.
Derek was a star at the mat the high school,
and later won a national title at NC State. He
was a few years older than Lenn, but remembers playing
pickup games with him on the outdoor courts at the Wreck.
He got to know Lenny pretty out lely. Was very quiet,
(17:03):
very quiet guy, very quiet and somewhat shot um. Unless
he was around his friends. He was open and friendly,
but I wouldn't say he was this party animal, a
guy who just like I wanted to be out all
the time. I think he was. He had a lot
of shodness to him, and he had a wonderful person
(17:26):
down the big smile, But I don't think he was
just outgoing God Dave. One of the best insights offered
of Lynn the person as he went from high school
to college comes from Johnny Holiday. Johnny has been the
radio played by play voice of Maryland basketball and football
since nineteen seventy nine. My recollections of when was what
(17:49):
a nice kid he was a so I've spoken down
to earth, as down to earth as you could be
before he became a superstar, of course. And I remember
going to Northwestern High School the day he signed is
a letter of antet to come to the University of Maryland,
(18:10):
and sitting and talking with him and realizing that, well,
this kid's very shy. His kids are very quiet. This
kid is not going to be a very good interview.
He didn't say anything at all. I remember the first year,
the first couple of interviews we did with him, Um,
it was like a lot of yes and no answers
(18:31):
and even sometimes nodding of his head. And I would
stop the recorder of remindling that this is what you're
gonna have to talk. You know, they can't see you
nodding your head and big smile okay, okay, And like
all young players, when you stick a microphone in front
of them, they moved back, and I kept moving in,
(18:56):
and he'd moved back, and I moved in and he'd
moved back, and it got to be a He got
to be one of the best interviews. And he was
guarded and what he had to say, because you're not
gonna throw the your teammates under the bus, and you're
not gonna throw the coaches under the bus. But he
was He was always fun to talk to, always fun
to be around. John Sally met Lynn Bias at the
(19:19):
Five Star Basketball camp when they were both in high school.
At Georgia Tech, he played four years against Bias and
he got to know when very well. He was introverted, um,
really quiet, but he would show up on the court.
Never brag adosious, if that is even a word. Um
(19:40):
he never. He wasn't one of those people. He would
give you the business and that be in like even
if you were the chair. He would like, calm down,
calm down. He didn't like that. He didn't like all
that high five in jumping around. Calming down. He would
always see Lenny be like yo, chill till As Lynn's
(20:01):
career progressed at Maryland, he started to feel some pressure
not only from basketball, but also in his personal life.
I'd like to play a sound bite of Bob Wagner,
his high school coach, talking about a discussion you had
with Lenn. Coach Wagner says Len would stop by the
high school to talk with him. He mentioned a conversation
that focused on a common trapping of being a superstar athlete,
(20:24):
said Mr Wagner. He says, um, you know, I'm having fun,
but he says, you know, I get tired of this.
You know, girls coming by, I'm trying to study, and
the girls combined and New Year note was early on.
He says, if I say no, then they'll go like
you were with her, or what's wrong with you? Or
(20:45):
don You've talked about how difficult Lenn was to deal
with during his senior year, can you expand on that.
I had certainly had my share of covering reluctant superstars
or athletes who just didn't like talking to the press.
I've been one of the few college basketball writers who
was invited to Georgetown to interview Patrick Ewing for the
first time. By the time I began covering Bias. He
(21:08):
had pretty much become the player who everyone wanted to
talk to in College Park. For a late season profile,
he blew me off for to sit down interviews at
Coldfield House. I finally got him on the flight home
after a game against Wake Forest was fogged in the
PR guy told me I had a captive audience, and
when Bias saw me coming toward him, he smiled. I
(21:29):
told them, Lenn, you've been a pleasure to watch and
a pain in the asked to cover he laughed and said,
I respect that you're being honest. Here again is my
former colleague, Molly Glassman. By the time he was a
junior and senior, uh, he was less accessible and um
(21:50):
harder to read than he was when he was younger.
When he was younger, I certainly remember how much he
talked about he loved to draw. At one point he
wanted to be an interior designer. Um you know, he
was talking about that artistic side of him his personality,
(22:12):
and um you know, I'm not sure where that went,
but I don't recall that really at all his senior year,
that that was part of who he was. He was
He always seemed to have some some group of people
waiting for him at the end of that Coldfield House.
(22:34):
You know that where the locker rooms came out he was.
He wasn't going back to his dorm to to fill
his sketch pad after games. I don't think he was
going to make it, as the number two makes about it,
Boston something it would have been. So you're listening to
lend on the eight side was the best on the
(22:57):
streets of land or much of the land. A story
begins after he died. If you could have imagined the
impact his death would have on American society, but it
did on politics, on black culture, on the sports world,
on drug use and abuse. This podcast series, Len Bias
A Mixed Legacy will explain all of that in detail,
(23:20):
but for the purposes of this introduction segment, we will
discuss those topics more generally within the context of why
is the legacy of Len Bias so important still today.
We will also hear throughout this segment the voice of
Justin Tinsley, an ESPN commentator and a culture and sportswriter
for The Undefeated, as well as from others who have
(23:42):
insight into the importance of Len's legacy. We are going
to start this segment off talking with Clark Kellogg, and
for that I'll throw it to Don Marcus. Do you
think that you know, kids these days would listen to
a story about len Bias, you know, and even if
they didn't know who he was, maybe he never heard
of him. But then if you you mentioned them, mentioned
(24:06):
him to them, that all of a sudden he becomes
even a different kind of figure now thirty five years later.
I don't think there's any question. I don't specifically use
his story, but I do on occasion highlight the consequences
of choices. And stories are powerful, whether they're inspirational or
(24:27):
whether they're sad or tragic. And when you can use
stories that relate to your audience. And obviously we know
that a lot of young folks, particularly young black males,
are enamored with sports, and the NBA in particular and basketball,
and to hear not only the great successes, but to
hear some of the missteps, some of the tragedies that
(24:48):
have unfolded as they relate to choices or missteps. But
even sometimes it might not even be about that, It
might just be the fragility of life just intends. He
was only four months old when led Bias died. He
first heard about Bias in the mid nineteen nineties from
his uncle who was living in the Washington, d c.
Area and apparently was a LN Bias fan. Here's just
(25:12):
an explaining how we learned about Land from his uncle
and what the Len Bias legacy has meant to him.
And I just never forget being with him. One time,
I may have been like nine, nine or ten, and
we were talking about basketball, and I believe Michael Jordan
was retired for the first time at that point, and
I was telling him I really wish Michael Jordan would
(25:34):
come back, and you know, I missed watching him play basketball.
He was like, yeah, I wish Lynn Bias would have
been around to to play Mike, you know, with the
Celtics and see how that would have played out. And
I at to that point, who was Lynn Bias? And
so he kind of gave me a crash course at
that point, he was like he was just a great player,
one of the best college basketball players he had ever seen,
(25:57):
and he was supposed to be great in the league,
but unfortunately passed away. That he passed away from drugs.
He drug overdose. But he was a great basketball player.
So he's just always remembered as one of the big
what ifs, not just in basketball, but just in life culturally,
speaking of what could this guy have been? You know,
(26:20):
who would he have become in the league, How might
career arts and paths have been different had Lynn Bias
stated around, he's kind of like a John Henry type
type guy for my generation. So he's a he's a
tall tale, but he's also even more so a cautionary
tale for my generation. Just but you can't take you
can't take talent for granted, and you can't take your
(26:41):
time on this earth for green. Justin Tensley's perspective is
important because he's in his mid thirties. He represents a
younger generation that new Oland Bias but did not know
much about him, and it appears Len's stories still resonates
with his generation. Clark, why do you think Le's legacy
(27:03):
is still so important to not just Justin's generation, but
younger generations? You know, I think to the legacy component,
um as as as as difficult as this might be,
is that, um it's it's not only tragic, but it
is a it's a cautionary tale for all of us
and particularly for young folks. Um, here's a guy who
(27:26):
was on top of the world. He was gifted and
had optimized his gifts as a basketball player to realize
the dream of being an NBA player, and in a
moment or moments of a bad choice or decision around
cocaine drug use, it costs him his life. And that
(27:50):
is a message that resonates not just because it was drugs,
but because life is fragile and sometimes the choices we
may can be fatal. And that to me is a
part of the other side of the legacy where it
can be instructive. Sure, it was a tragedy, it was painful,
(28:11):
and it doesn't go away for those closest to learn,
and it's a reminder for all of us that the
choices we make, the associations we have with others, we
just have to be mindful that if we're not careful,
it can it can sometimes end not just badly, but
but fatally. Now let's bring this back to Justin Tinsley again.
(28:36):
Justin is working on a book about Biggie Smalls, the
rapper from the nine nineties. Biggie got caught up in
gangs and drugs of that era and was killed in
a drive by shooting. Justin ties the mandatory minimum prison
sentence laws to that time of the nineteen nineties, he
helps explain mandatory minimums. Here's justin connecting Biggie Smalls and
(28:57):
Len Bias. So when you let into an album like
Biggie Smalls's debut, Ready to Die, and he talks about
being neck deep in the drug game and understanding, they're like,
if I walk around this corner, if I sell it
to the wrong person, like that could be the end
of me, whether whether I'm killed or whether I go
to jail for a long time. Because at that point
(29:19):
the ninety four Crime Bill had had been around that
I believe the EIGHTI six Crime Bill had proceeded that.
So when we talk about these mandatory minimums, and we
talk about this life or death experience in the streets
selling drugs and being caught with even a small amount
of paraphernali at that point in the late eighties and
early nineties to lead to a long trip up state.
(29:41):
And so when we talk about that, you could piece
it back to Lynn biases death. It may not be direct,
it may not be Biggie saying, oh you're making a
rhyme about Lynn Bias. But you know when he was
you know, when he talks about the streets is a
short stop either slanging crack rock or you got a
wicked jump shot. You know, you could piece that back
to somebody like a Lym Bias, because that death changed
(30:04):
everything and from what from what I've read, almost like
in the blink of an hour to snap of fingers,
so that when we talked about Lyn Bias culturally, we
talked talked about how his death in so many ways
caused and you know, an over an overreaction by the
federal government, and that overreaction directly impacted our community and
(30:29):
you know, people who look like us, So Lenn Biases,
we talk about basketball, but it always tends to drift
off into just life and how the cultural ramifications of
just his talent and his death and the legislation that
was the past past. Immediately after that, once you start
(30:50):
to peel back the layers, Lynn Bias his name is
always going to come up because when you when you
mentioned somebody like Lynn Bias his name to people in
my generation, and it's always like, yeah, he could have
been something like at least that's what I know of
him like we were robbed of seeing a potentially all
(31:10):
time great talent. People who we have interviewed for this
podcast series had a mix of opinions about why Len's
story is so important today. Let's hear some of those voices.
We will identify them on the back side of the comments.
I think one of the most important messages that students
(31:34):
can glean from leun Bias the story is that we
all have challenges. How you deal with those challenges will
define ultimately who you are. And I think one of
the most important messages we can glean is to do
the best you can to find healthy ways to cope
with what you're struggling with, because drugs is never the answer,
(31:57):
and ultimately you're not gonna benefit from doing that as
much as you might think, because all drugs and alcohol
do is mask the issue. I think again, this is
the idea of a of a star in full bloom
that ultimately had that had that flame doubt by a mistake,
(32:23):
and this is not the only kind of mistake that
you can make to doubst the flame and to recognize
that no matter how good you are, no matter how
good you think you are, you know you're vulnerable. That
many coaches used to UH preach to their players about
H making good decisions. I think for the entire generation
(32:46):
of young UH men in this area, young men and
women UM, and particularly those in the athletic community, this
story rings as a very, very tragic story that UH
will be used for a long long time to help
other people recognize our decisions and mistakes matter in life
(33:08):
because all of those choices, all of those decisions can
have impacts that reverberate far beyond what you think of
in the moment. That last comment came from Ed tap Scott.
Ed is the personnel director for the Minnesota Timberwolves. He's
a former college and NBA coach. He's a former NBA executive,
and he grew up in Washington, d C. And New
(33:30):
lend Well. Before Ed, we heard from lenn Elmore, a
former Maryland All American and an NBA veteran, and Bonnie Bernstein,
a former Maryland gymnast and a prominent sportscaster that control
them the game and he made him a name. Next
(33:52):
on Len Bias, a mixed legacy born ready Len's basketball
life a second linning game, he made him name. This
story of This podcast series is based on the book
Born Ready. The Mixed Legacy of len Bias is published
by Go Grady Media. The series is produced by Go
(34:15):
Grady Media in partnership with Octagon Entertainment. This segment was
produced by Davon Grady and Don Marcus. It was written
by Davon Grady. Technical production provided by Octagon Entertainment. Theme
music provided by m C long Shot, but production assistance
(34:38):
was provided by Kevin McNulty, Kino Quagliata, Lauren Ross, Georgia Brown,
Katy Fair, Jamal William, Kelsey Mannus and Enzo Alvaringa. Matt
dow Hurst is providing social media assistant and special thanks
to the University of Maryland and American University for providing interns.
(35:00):
The Decision Education Foundation is a content and promotional partner
of this podcast series. For more information, go to go
grade Media dot com, g O g R A d
Y M E d i A dot com and a
reminder don't forget to subscribe to lend Bias A Mixed Legacy.
(35:23):
You can find it on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and wherever
you listen to your podcasts.
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