Ep 10 - Len Bias: A Mixed Legacy | Teammates

Few were as profoundly affected by the death of Len Bias as members of the 1986 Maryland basketball team. For this episode, we will focus on the impact of his death on some of his teammates as well as his coach, Lefty Driesell.

This episode captures the essence of resilience as it relates to the death and legacy of Len Bias. Some managed to endure the torrential onslaught of challenges….and forge lives wiser and more sturdy than they might have been without the tragedy. Others struggled to escape the lingering wreckage.

About the narrator: Dave Ungrady, a former Maryland athlete, is the author of the book, Born Ready: the Mixed Legacy of Len Bias. He is the president of GoGrady Media and the executive producer of this podcast series.

 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
This podcast is based a large part on the book
Born Ready Mixed Legacy of Len Bias. Some cults are
narrated by podcast producer and book author Dave and Grady
from interviews done for the book. Recrings for those comments
were not available.

Speaker 2 (00:15):
Got to that point where the second guess was coming
from everywhere, and I asked.

Speaker 3 (00:20):
A lot of questions about course I was letting that
thought was a little little strange.

Speaker 4 (00:27):
The inspiration that limbias was to Walt Williams and I,
but we also came back and contributed to the program
in the rebuilding process.

Speaker 5 (00:34):
That ultimately led with winning the championship.

Speaker 4 (00:36):
In two thousand and two.

Speaker 6 (00:38):
At this point, you.

Speaker 7 (00:39):
Know, you're thinking, how much more you know can one
person dumb.

Speaker 8 (00:46):
And show they tried to make the fall guy poor
Left had no more to do with that than you
are I here.

Speaker 1 (00:54):
Unfortunately, in this episode of Lembias, the Mixed Legacy teammate
how the death and Bias impacted members of the nineteen
eighty six of Maryland basketball would have been so sick.

Speaker 9 (01:06):
Few were as profoundly affected by the death of Len
Bias as members of the nineteen eighty six Maryland basketball team.
For this episode, we will focus on the impact of
his death on some of his teammates as well as
his coach, Lefty Drizzl. This episode captures the essence of
resilience as it relates to the death and legacy of

(01:27):
len Bias, the ability to recover quickly from difficulties and
showing toughness during those times. Some managed to endure the
torrential onslaught of challenges and forge lives wiser and more
sturdy than they might have been without the tragedy. Others
struggled to escape the lingering wreckage. Dave Dickerson, Derek Lewis,

(01:53):
Keith Gatlin. Through teaching and coaching, they've managed to pass
along lessons they learned that tumultuous time.

Speaker 3 (02:01):
This generation doesn't know they've heard about their parents, know
their parents still no use drugs because you know then buys.

Speaker 9 (02:08):
Tony Masenberg overcame a stop and start college career to
become an NBA champion. John Johnson has lived a quiet
life with little taste for basketball, but still idolizing his friend.

Speaker 10 (02:22):
It's important for me to tell my story as far
as how he impacted my life. I carry him with
me every day.

Speaker 9 (02:29):
Jeff Baxter is philosophical.

Speaker 11 (02:32):
What I what?

Speaker 2 (02:33):
I took him down, Jerry the first we section. First
thing I took was life is short. You never know
what's going what's going to happen?

Speaker 9 (02:42):
And Speedy Jones turned to God. David greg and Terry
Long were with Bias when he died. They both have
mostly remained quiet, choosing to let Len's legacy pass with
minimal public reflection. Greg Nard went on to work with
such super stars as Tiger Woods and Michelle Wee. As

(03:03):
a marketing and management representative for Nike, Brian Palmer has
coached youth sports. He has told the LN Bias story
to his athletes, hoping it will help them make the
right choices. Phil Nevin says he's long ago put it
all behind him. Coach Trisell fared better than most, continuing

(03:27):
a career that ended with an induction into the Naismith
Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.

Speaker 5 (03:34):
You know, basketball has been great to me and for
me to get in this Hall of Fame is like
unbelievable and thank.

Speaker 12 (03:42):
You very much.

Speaker 9 (03:48):
Some talk to us for this podcast. Some of the
comments came from the book Born Ready. The Mixed Legacy
of Len Bias. It's a tale of one shattered team
that shared an enduring tragedy, the death of but it
was not by their own choice.

Speaker 10 (04:03):
So I met it. We both were shooting at those
those tho basketball courts that are set up to lose.

Speaker 2 (04:12):
I think we both lost a lot of money because
you had to be so perfect with them with the
heading Austratia.

Speaker 10 (04:19):
He approached me. He approached me, and we started all
I remember it is what's up? Man.

Speaker 2 (04:26):
We gave each other five back in the day, so
the handshake was different than said. We had a lot
of people around just watching the shoot.

Speaker 10 (04:35):
I do know that.

Speaker 9 (04:36):
That's Jeff Baxter talking about the day he met Len Bias.
It was on a senior class trip in nineteen eighty
two to King's Dominion, an amusement park about eighty five
miles south of Washington, d C. Baxter and Bias were
two of the top players in the Washington DC area
in the summer of nineteen eighty two. They shared a

(04:57):
room on campus while attending summers. They did preseason workouts together.
They developed a comfortable bond from the beginning.

Speaker 2 (05:07):
Kind of like myself, you any kind of serious or whatever,
but we're both really silly.

Speaker 9 (05:12):
Baxter and Bias would be roommates during their four years
at Maryland. During their first year, Bias and Baxter held
their own little dance parties in the campus apartment.

Speaker 2 (05:23):
We would actually when we would have to have curfew,
which was deplemented the night before a game, and you
couldn't You couldn't go out out. You couldn't go out
the apartment at all.

Speaker 10 (05:35):
I couldn't believe it. You get bored. He gets bored
stuff you hadn't done.

Speaker 2 (05:40):
The game is not until nine o'clock the next night,
and you know it could be a Friday night.

Speaker 10 (05:46):
So we were a fresh movement.

Speaker 2 (05:48):
We would just type, turn the music, guys. Then we
would dance. My southm be it dancing. It's great, not together,
but just dancing.

Speaker 10 (06:00):
You go, okay, didn you go? It would be funny
as I mean here I mean.

Speaker 2 (06:06):
And that's how it was just hilarious for six for
a basketball player at amazing dancing.

Speaker 9 (06:14):
As juniors, they ventured further from campus for social outings.
A favorite hangout was Georgetown, a section of Washington, d C.
With dozens of upscale bars and shops. One of their
favorite places in Georgetown was the Saloon at Jazz Club.
Baxter claims that he never saw Bias drink alcohol. As

(06:35):
for himself, Baxter says he drank only wine or champagne
during celebrations.

Speaker 2 (06:41):
Lenny would never drink one thing in front of it.
When we went out, we partied, we danced, we chased
the girls.

Speaker 10 (06:50):
That's it. We didn't we didn't go out, We didn't
go out to Okay, we gotta find something for us,
so we have to go get hot.

Speaker 9 (06:57):
Baxter did not start his first game until the Sea
Your season. That year, he started thirty games and averaged
nine point five points per game. One of his more
fond memories from that season was a night he and
Bias broke curfew. After a game against NC State, Along
with freshman John Johnson, they stopped by a party on

(07:18):
the NC State campus. The three returned to the team
hotel after midnight. Waiting for them were Maryland's assistant coaches
and head coach Lefty Drizzl. Had it not been for
a summer school exam he needed to take on June nineteen,
Baxter would likely have stated at his girlfriend's house, where

(07:38):
he had fallen asleep the night before. Instead, he returned
to the dorm suite he shared with Bias and others
shortly after midnight, expecting to study a bit more. The
group was celebrating Bias's selection by the Celtics in the
NBA draft heil two nights prior.

Speaker 2 (07:55):
I was more so excited. Again, the thoughts too, they
did happen. So my mindset wasn't who wasn't think of that, grandpantsy. Now,
I'll saw a couple of hyges, a little bloodshot red.

Speaker 9 (08:13):
But a few hours later Bias was dead. Baxter was
unaware of any drug use by Bias during their four
years of Maryland. He still insists Bias did not use
drugs before the night he died.

Speaker 10 (08:29):
But I've heard things. I have not heard anything validated
that had had.

Speaker 2 (08:35):
Done drugs. Okay too, that's crazy. I would go on trial,
not that that would matter and deny that.

Speaker 9 (08:44):
Baxter found solo comfort in a familiar place on the
evening of June nineteenth, hours after Bias died, a place
that was special to both Baxter and Bias.

Speaker 10 (08:55):
Yeah, I came to this line.

Speaker 2 (08:58):
It's just kind of because I was trying to just
flash back this whole big in my mind, because actually
I thought I didn't think, but felt like a dream.
I knew it was reality, but I felt like a dream.
So that's why I came. Probably was there until about
three and born big job. So it's write and I

(09:23):
think it's Kramber appertures apputures Kramber, who was a time
away from it all times.

Speaker 9 (09:29):
Baxter spent the next few weeks at his parents' house nearby.
While at home, he was surprised when even his brother
asked him if he had been using drugs.

Speaker 10 (09:38):
The second guess was coming from everywhere.

Speaker 9 (09:40):
Baxter tried out for two NBA teams, and he feels
his connection to Bias hurt his chances of making a team.
He claims he was asked by one team to perform
three drug tests a day for five days, more than
other players during their tryouts. Baxter feels the excessive testing
was due to his connection to the death of Bias.

(10:03):
Two years after Bias died, Baxter returned to Maryland and
completed his public relations degree. For some twenty years, something
would happen every day that would make Baxter think about Bias.
He now mostly reflects on his friend and teammate only
when asked. Baxter attended the premiere of the documentary Without

(10:24):
Bias in two thousand and nine. He recalls an emotional
moment that night with former terrap and basketball star Steve Francis.

Speaker 10 (10:33):
Steve Francis and he was, you know, he was crying.
Oh my god. He almost couldn't stand up. And this
is Steve Chief. He said, Man, the reason why I've
went there, said, I went there because of all of
you guys playing. I mean, he was torn up. I said, man,
just take care of yourself. You gave him a hug
and everything. And I'm trying to watch the movie. That
was like, yeah, that's crazy, but he said, he said,

(10:55):
he said, the reason I went there because that. But
I'm sure he wanted me met Lyn because Linn to start.

Speaker 9 (11:01):
When thinking of Bias, Baxter tries to focus on lessons
learned from his death.

Speaker 2 (11:07):
To me, God's choices, it's solid. Everything has been knocked
into my head by my peers in our family, and
I just gotta be careful what choices you do. And
not all who there to be right, but certain things
you got.

Speaker 9 (11:24):
Like Baxter. Tom Speedy Jones was a senior on the
Maryland basketball team in nineteen eighty six. He admits that
by the time he began his Maryland career in nineteen
eighty four as a junior college transfer, he had stopped
going to church. During a phone conversation in May twenty eleven,
Jones said that the death of Bias reknew his faith

(11:46):
in God. Speedy Jones told me, the sad thing is
it's a hard thing to say, but it was a
positive thing for me. It made me take a look
at how I was living my life during that year.
I was the worst. I had no respect period. Anyone
would tell you if I went into a restaurant, I
treated everyone with disrespect. When he died, I knew I

(12:11):
had to get my life straight. I'm here by the
grace of God. John Johnson, a freshman on the team,
confirms that self assessment by Jones.

Speaker 13 (12:20):
Speedy was always that guy. Whatever that it was also
about him. I could tell he had changed. He was
just he was more of a person whatever that that
was more considerate of you know other people and know
other people's feelings. It was just like, it's almost like

(12:42):
he was a different person.

Speaker 9 (12:43):
Jones was an All American in both high schooled and
junior college. One newspaper described him as a Bias like Leaper,
but his Maryland career failed to reach great heights. As
a senior forward, he averaged seven points and four rebounds
a game to avoid the under one of the ten
that surrounded Maryland's players. After the death of Bias, Jones

(13:04):
fled to Europe. Jones told me, I took the first
flight out to Europe. I couldn't come out of the apartment,
and without a camera getting into my face, I thought
I could get away from it over there, But over
there were the same questions. Jones played four years of
professional basketball in Europe and for several minor league teams

(13:24):
in North America. He later became a special education teacher.
In two thousand and eight, he helped secure Lnice Bias
as a graduation speaker at the school where he was teaching.
Keith Gatlin was the high school player of the Year
in North Carolina in nineteen eighty three. Some considered him

(13:48):
a natural to play for the tar Heels of North Carolina,
but Gatland like Maryland's up tempo style, and some of
his relatives lived near the Maryland campus. Maryland was high
on Gatland's list of schools when he went there for
a visit. Len Bias was assigned to be chaperone. Keith
Gatlin told me, I hit it off with him when
we first met. When you go to a campus to

(14:10):
a visit, most of the coaches put you with somebody
they know will be talkative, outgoing, show you a good time.
He was that guy That visit convinced Gatlan to commit
to Maryland. He was the team's top point guard for
three years with Bias. Gatlin finished his junior year as
the team's second leading scorer. He was primed to be

(14:31):
the team's scoring and assist leader as a senior, and
at six feet and five inches tall, he had the
strong potential to become at least a role player in
the NBA. Gatlin attended summer school in nineteen eighty six
and lived in the same four room suite as Bias.
He had his last conversation with Bias before going to

(14:53):
bed on June eighteen, and early class beckoned the next day.
Gatlin told me, I said I'll see you in the morning.
He said, I'll see you in the morning. Gatlin awoke
the next morning and found Bias unconscious on the floor.
He called Lanice Bias and told her to go to
the wrong hospital. Len's death shattered Gatland's life. After Bias died,

(15:19):
Gatlin cried every day for weeks. He spent lots of
time watching soap operas on television. He ordered pizza and
ate it in bed. He was scared to leave his room,
fearful of people whispering, hey, that's Gatlin. He was in
the room when Bias died. Gatlin told me I was
getting ridiculed and I had nothing to do with it.

(15:40):
I'm thinking, this is crazy. I was guilty by association.
Because we played at Maryland, everybody perceived us as being
a pot smoker and bad kids. I felt like everybody
on the team was being targeted. I was very bitter.
We were young men having a great time in college.
Gatland failed to register for classes in the fall semester

(16:03):
and was ruled ineligible for the next season. He admits
that his thoughts were far from basketball in school. Gatlin
told me, I took the wrong approach. I was young.
I felt like this is not fair. Instead of handling
it like an adult, I went into a shell and
had the f the world mentality. This lasted the whole

(16:25):
year for me. Gatlin played his first home game at
Colefield House since the death of Bias. On January eighth,
nineteen eighty eight. Most in the sellout crowd of fourteen
thy five hundred stood and cheered for him as he
entered the game for the first time about midway through
the first half. Gatlan scored twelve points and led Maryland

(16:48):
in assists with six in a fifteen point win over Clemson.
Gatland was not picked in the nineteen eighty eight NBA draft. Still,
he played that summer with the Milwaukee Bucks before being cut.
Gatlan recently appeared on the Go Turps podcast, hosted by
former Maryland star Travis Garrison. He explained the challenges he

(17:10):
faced trying to make an NBA team.

Speaker 14 (17:13):
I went to the Milwaukee Bucks and then I went
to in the in the paces and I was told.

Speaker 15 (17:20):
Thank you do the wait.

Speaker 14 (17:21):
Things happened at Maryland bad for the community.

Speaker 16 (17:23):
I'm all acc all the time, Assistan leader, you know,
and I'm like, I'm hooping right it comes time to
get in the bag, like can't deal with I'm like,
I take a drug test for you twenty four hours.
Might even say you take a drug test for you
twenty four hours.

Speaker 9 (17:40):
Of that, Gatland did play for pro teams in Europe
for eight years. Even when he played in Europe, Gatlan
couldn't escape the death of bias.

Speaker 14 (17:49):
They knew that I played Maryland and lived bys for
such an icon of figure lost his life. So I
only had one jour Yugoslavian coach in the EuroLeague when
I was in Greece. That made it a big deal
and was just like, hey, well you're in that room whatever.
But oh, I told my wife I ever see him again,
I'm gonna step to him. So he tried to break

(18:12):
me mentally, but he couldn't.

Speaker 17 (18:13):
But he went.

Speaker 16 (18:15):
He went where you shouldn't go by saying.

Speaker 14 (18:17):
Stuff like when you're in that room, or or you're
a part of that when you do cocaine. He went
somewhere that you know, as a as an athlete and
a coach, you should never go.

Speaker 9 (18:27):
Gatlin credits his mother with helping guide him through the
challenging time.

Speaker 14 (18:32):
My mom rest of her soul was just like, yo,
you keep doing it the right way and it come
back to your tenfold. And that was poretic from her.
It was the one hundred percent correct. I hung in there,
got my degree, played on a nice level, you know,
made some money.

Speaker 16 (18:49):
But at first it did bother me.

Speaker 14 (18:51):
But the grips with it, like you know, you can't
control people you can control, you can control the controllables.

Speaker 9 (19:00):
Gatlin is an assistant coach at High Court University in
North Carolina. As a longtime coach, he has used his
experiences with Bias to teach life lessons to his players.
Gatlin believes that if Bias had heeded that kind of advice,
he might still be alive. Gatlin told me on the court,

(19:20):
Lenny was a tenacious player. When he was with his
local crew, he did what they did. But when he
was his own person, people said he was too soft.
I tell kids, it's okay to be different. Live to
your own standards. Derek Lewis was walking on the Maryland

(19:41):
campus to take a Calculus test on June nineteenth, nineteen
eighty six, when a teammate stopped him. He told Lewis
to go to a nearby hospital. Something serious had happened
to Lend Bias.

Speaker 10 (19:55):
I got to leave you. I was studying all night
for his test.

Speaker 11 (19:58):
Who p.

Speaker 10 (20:00):
Said, Lewis is something happened to Linda.

Speaker 9 (20:02):
Lewis raced to the hospital. He needed to find out
what happened to Bias missing that test was a minor
inconvenience for Lewis compared to what he endured during his
last three years at Maryland. When he was five years old,
Lewis moved from North Carolina to Temple Hills, Maryland, some
ten miles from bias his hometown of Columbia Park. He

(20:27):
was a high school All American and a big North
Carolina fan, but Lewis, as a coach at North Carolina,
told him he'd have to sit for much of two
years until Michael Jordan was done. So Lewis picked Maryland
as a freshman. Lewis and Bias, and then a junior,
were roommates on the first team trip of the nineteen

(20:48):
eighty four eighty five season. It was at the Alaska Shootout.
On the trip, Lewis witnessed the spontaneous side of Bias, So.

Speaker 3 (20:58):
We ended up staying the room and taking all these
real goofy pictures that he had a dicky on and
no shirt and jeans rolled up and they had a
hat pool that he was had one leg on.

Speaker 10 (21:11):
Chad, We're taking pictures like that. So he spent the
dress that night.

Speaker 9 (21:14):
Doing that Lewis recalls the high confidence level of Bias,
you know Superman. After Bias died, Lewis struggled largely with
the blame given his coach left to Grizzl for the
death of Bias.

Speaker 3 (21:27):
Oh, I'll go quick, because they were they were blaming them.
They said it was just falling that control one and left.
He can't be with us twelve hours a day. Sure,
and it's twelve of us and it's ridiculous, and they
made him mistament goes, you know, there's day I don't
understand why he did that.

Speaker 10 (21:45):
And that's what this one puts me off.

Speaker 9 (21:46):
The ros Lewis decided to stay at Maryland after some
comforting words from Bob Wade, who took over as coach
after Drizzel left the program.

Speaker 3 (21:55):
Yeah, you know, if you was you one of the
leaves it, that's fine, he said, you know, we'd no
help that we'd love for you to stay. And he said,
you healed, heal. See, I know it's tough now. I
can't say I'm not any issues. I have a different
feeling about and he do. He said, I understand. I'll

(22:16):
make a haty decision.

Speaker 9 (22:18):
And then and then that lady In his senior year,
Lewis led the team in scoring and rebounding, and for
the second time, he earned all at that A Coast
Conference second team honors. The Chicago Bulls made him a
third round pick in the nineteen eighty eight NBA draft.
Lewis felt confident about his chances of making the team,

(22:40):
he signed a two year deal that would be in
effect only if he made the team. When Lewis got
to training camp, the topic of bias came up often
during an interview with the Bulls staff.

Speaker 3 (22:52):
And I asked a lot of questions about I thought
I was learning, which I thought was little. I thought
it was strange for the stays. You know how close
we were as far as going with the roommates. Then
you know in the road to the rooms, did we
go out together? A lot of that kind of stuff

(23:14):
to I haven't seen him do anything.

Speaker 10 (23:15):
Yeah, that has been that. So I was happy to
be there. I was getting it thrilled about their bias
and how close we were.

Speaker 9 (23:22):
On the second day of camp, Lewis got food poisoning
from eating tuna fish. He recovered in a couple of days,
but the vomiting prevented him from keeping his blood pressure
medication down. He sat out a full week and missed
the team's first summer league trip. When he was able
to take the medication again, it slowed him down and
made him feel groggy.

Speaker 3 (23:43):
That that hurt just as much as the Probably the
association in Maryland at that time they caught maybe what.

Speaker 9 (23:52):
Lewis was one of the last players cut from the
nineteen eighty eight eighty nine Bolls team that advanced to
the NBA Eastern Conference Finals. An emerging star on that
team was Michael Jordan.

Speaker 3 (24:03):
At the last day we had and Doug Collins told me,
he said, yeah, would like you a good player? I
want to send down a Rocky right now. You have
a problem.

Speaker 10 (24:16):
Garden players your position and practice.

Speaker 3 (24:22):
And I said done with all due respect, I said,
I gone Michael Juan every day, twice a day for
two hours.

Speaker 10 (24:27):
And thirty minutes, and say I haven't seen anybody else
got Michael Jordan up until now.

Speaker 9 (24:34):
Lewis played one year with Rockford in the Continental Basketball Association.
He then played for pro teams in France for fifteen years.
He later became a health education teacher. He has talked
to students about the dangers of drug and alcohol abuse.
For a time, pictures of Lewis, along with some other
Maryland teammates flashed on his computer screen in the classroom.

(24:58):
One was Bias. Students wondered who Bias was. Sensing the
student's interest, Lewis decided to show the ESPN documentary without
Bias to his class. After one viewing, a student said
the documentary helped teach her that abusing drugs even one time,
can kill you.

Speaker 6 (25:20):
Just one time.

Speaker 10 (25:22):
And that's the story. You know. It could have me
one time till one time.

Speaker 11 (25:25):
It's it.

Speaker 9 (25:31):
Like many of his teammates from the nineteen eighty six
Maryland team, Tony Massenberg thought about transferring out of Maryland
after Len Bias died, but he chose to stay instead.
Here's what Massenberg said about it in nineteen ninety in
a newspaper article. Quote, I thought that I'd seen the
worse this program had to offer, So why would I

(25:53):
leave for some place that may be even worse. I
could have said, this is it. I'm not doing this anymore.
Somebody is out to get me. I kept striving. I
knew there would be a rainbow at the end of
all of this. Still, it took some time for Masterberg
to work through some challenges. He learned within weeks of
bias His death that he would be suspended from the

(26:15):
team his sophomore season for cheating on an exam. Here's
Masenburg again in nineteen ninety quote, I didn't think they
had enough evidence. I felt I may have been made
an example of during the time Maryland was supposedly cleaning
up their program. End quote. More academic problems forced Masburg

(26:35):
to miss the early part of the nineteen eighty seven
eighty eight season his third year as well. He played
his first Maryland game since Bias died on December twenty
eighth that season. His next season was delayed too, Masenberg
was suspended for selling complimentary tickets to the nineteen eighty
eight ACC Tournament. Said Masseburg in the nineteen ninety story,

(26:58):
quote lessly say there hasn't been anybody in the history
of NCAA basketball, barring injury, that has had a rougher
career at one school than I have. End quote. There
were signs in the nineteen eighty nine preseason that Massenburg
was disheartened. New head coach Gary Williams remembered him as

(27:19):
lacking aggressionation in practices. Williams said this in the Washington
Post story about Massenburg that year. Quote, I wasn't sure
he wanted to rebound, or play defense or any of
the other things that require the work. I think there
was a tendency to think, why me, Why did I
have to go through this funny thing about the suspension.

(27:42):
He came back from that ready to play end quote.
Williams added to those comments in an interview for this podcast.

Speaker 18 (27:52):
You know, when you have a coach and all of
a sudden he's let go that that's not a fun
time for any player, regardless of felt for the coach.
And I'm sure Tony has some feelings about that.

Speaker 11 (28:04):
You know.

Speaker 18 (28:04):
The only thing I could do was make a promise.
I'd try to make him as good as possible. And
you know, I didn't blow a lot of smoke at
him and tell him how great he was or anything
like that. But Tony was the type of player that
it was worth running your offense to get the ball
inside that first year.

Speaker 9 (28:21):
By the end of his Maryland career, Massenburg was twice
selected to All Atlantic Coast Conference teams. The San Antonio
Spurs picked Masenberg in the second round of the nineteen
ninety NBA Draft. In thirteen NBA seasons, he played for
more than a dozen teams and won a championship with
the Spurs in two thousand and five. In twenty eleven,

(28:46):
Massenberg had agreed to an interview for the book Born
Ready The Mixed Legacy of len Bias. Two months later,
he notified me that he had a quote conflict of
interest close quote and would not do the interview. It
turned out Massenberg and former Maryland star Williams were working
on a book about Bias. The book was published in

(29:07):
twenty eighteen. At a promotional appearance, Masenberg explained what inspired
him to write the book, called Lessons from Lenny, The.

Speaker 4 (29:17):
Inspiration that Lin Bias was to Walt Williams and I
and the fact that that motivated us to not only
stay at Maryland at the time when we left, but
we also came back and contributed to the program in
the rebuilding process that ultimately led to it winning the
championship in two thousand and two. So we talk about
that journey and the lessons that we learned that actually
made us better people. Because lin Bias was inspirational.

Speaker 11 (29:42):
I'm surprised the Lenby's story is not being told on
a yearly basis when new athletes come into college or
into high school. The Lenbis story is one of the
better stories you can use to get an individual or team.

Speaker 10 (29:56):
To do the right thing.

Speaker 9 (29:57):
That's Dave Dickerson, a freshman on the Maryland team when
Lan Bias died. From the death of Bias, Dickerson learned
fortitude and perseverance. Those lessons, some twenty years later, helped
him navigate through another tragedy. In April two thousand and five,
Dickerson was one of about eighty people who applied for

(30:17):
the head coach's job at Tulane University in New Orleans.
He was chosen in part for how he handled himself
at Maryland after Bias died. A letter from former Maryland
Chancellor John Slaughter to Tulane athletic director Rick Dixon helped.
In the letter, Slaughter called Dickerson a quote, pillar of
calm during the storm and a national spokesperson not just

(30:41):
for basketball but for the university end quote. Dickerson took
over a program that recorded one winning season in five years.
Then Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans, the home city for
Tulane men's basketball was one of five school teams forced
to relocate to the campus of Tech to Say and
M University, some four hundred miles away. Dickerson had to

(31:05):
think of ways to keep players focused on playing basketball.
He told them the story about Len Bias. Dickerson told
me when I got them together for the first time
in Texas. I told them the story about sticking with
the University of Maryland and not transferring and weathering the storm,
and look where it got me. Without that story, I

(31:27):
think I would have lost half my team. They had
to remain loyal to a coach who hadn't recruited anyone
on that team. I just told them what happened and
what type of player Bias was. I told them to
this day he was the best player I played with,
or against or saw during my coaching career. I compared
him to Michael Jordan and Carl Malone and Larry Bird.

(31:50):
I talked to them about what happened in the morning
of June nineteenth, nineteen eighty six. I went through that
step by step. The Len Bias story was the catch
to get their attention, to get guys to be loyal,
maintaining the course, and yes, there will be some ups
and downs, tragedies here and there. We needed to continue

(32:10):
to work and stick together. I told them at the
end of the day, you will benefit from it. Before
taking the job at Tulane, Dickerson worked as an assistant
coach at three programs, including one season at James Madison University.
The head coach then was Lefty Drizzl. In nineteen ninety six,

(32:31):
Dickerson began a nine year career as an assistant at Maryland.
When he started, it marked the end of a boycott
of sorts for Dickerson. Here's Don Marcus, a podcast producer
who covered Maryland athletics during the Gary Williams era.

Speaker 19 (32:46):
I remember talking to Dave Dickerson when Gary Williams hired him,
and what struck me was something that Dave said about
his time as a player at Maryland. After graduating in
nineteen eighty nine, he didn't wear his college reigned until
he showed up in nineteen ninety six, mainly because he
didn't want to talk about the years he was at

(33:06):
Maryland and he didn't want to talk about the death
of one Bias.

Speaker 9 (33:10):
As an assistant coach, Dickerson recruited such all Americans and
future pro players as Steve Francis and Juan Dixon. Dickerson
was an all state player in high school out of
South Carolina. He played in fifteen games as a freshman,
with forwards Bias and Speedy Jones ending their eligibility in
nineteen eighty six. Dickerson felt good about his chances at

(33:31):
forward the next season, but then Bias died and chaos
became the new normal. Dickerson considered transferring, but chose to
stay at Maryland. He felt it was too risky to leave.
He also feared that if he left Maryland he would
suffer the wrath of his father, whom he called, quote

(33:52):
an old school guy. Close quotes, Dickerson told me, if
you start something, you finish it. I scared of my father.
In a profound understatement, Dickerson says that playing for the
Terrapians that first season after Bias died was not fun.
Dickerson told me we were viewed in a different light

(34:13):
than any other athlete on campus. The perception of that
team and the players on it was that we were
drug abusers, we all didn't go to class, and that
we all were all part of what happened that night.
There were stairs, people being standoffish. There weren't a lot
of people reaching out and hugging you. It was a
life altering experience. Dickerson ended his career at Maryland as

(34:36):
a part time starter. He was the team captain his
senior season in nineteen eighty nine and earned his government
and politics degree in nineteen ninety Perhaps his most cherished
moment from Maryland took place after his junior season in
nineteen eighty eight. That's when he met his future wife, Lorette,
a nineteen ninety one graduate of Maryland. Dickerson told me,

(35:00):
I'm at peace with everything that happened. I don't look
back and say would a In twenty twenty one, Dickerson
began his fourth season as the men's basketball head coach
at South Carolina Upstate Thrat his coaching career, he has
answered questions about bias from players he's coached. Dickerson told me,

(35:22):
was he really that good? What kind of person was he?
Did you know what he was doing in that room
that night? I got those questions from my son when
he was ten years old. He did not fully understand
the scope of what happened. I talked to him about
what's right and wrong about making good decisions and the
consequences of making bad decisions. To this day, I consider

(35:44):
len Bias a role model. Role Models don't always make
the right decisions. When you make a bad decision, sometimes
you pay for it with your life. Len Bias taught
me more about life in the one year I spent
with him than any other person outside of my family.

Speaker 6 (36:07):
I feel like, sitting next to his jerseys, can you
feel anything from this, any kind of.

Speaker 10 (36:11):
Emotion knowing that you're not really.

Speaker 13 (36:22):
Because he's anywhere I go, anywhere, I could feel Lendy's
present or whatever. A lot of times when I'm by myself,
I can be riding along or whatever and just break down, you.

Speaker 11 (36:33):
Know what I mean.

Speaker 10 (36:34):
He's always with me.

Speaker 9 (36:37):
Minutes earlier, John Johnson had returned to a familiar setting,
eager but wary of how everything would feel. He had
not walked through the doors of R. J. Bentley's restaurant
in College Park in more than two decades. Johnson walked
into a back room in the restaurant toward the number
thirty four len Biased jersey hanging on the wall in

(36:58):
a glass protected frame. He did so without guidance. It
was as if he was propelled by a spiritual force
that was Back in twenty ten, Johnson was about to
sit down for his first in depth interview about Bias,
almost twenty five years after he died. As Johnson looked
back across the room, he asked, do you mind if

(37:19):
we sit next to Len's jersey? Not waiting for an answer,
he had it toured it. Let's sit next to Lenny,
he said. Then he talked for three hours about his
life since the death of Bias, whom he called a brother, firing.

Speaker 20 (37:34):
His eyes, the person that he was, his personality, his spirit,
whatever his attitude about the game and his love for
the game.

Speaker 10 (37:45):
Let me keep it right there and everybody else can
have the rest what he gave to me. Whatever is
he turned, I'll always remember that.

Speaker 9 (37:52):
Speedy Jones, a senior on the Maryland team with Johnson,
says no member of the team was as affected by
the death of Bias as Johnson, and that includes David
greg and Terry Long, who were in the room with
Bias when he died. Dave Dickerson, a freshman with Johnson,
witnessed Bias and Johnson form a special friendship. Dickerson told me,

(38:15):
throughout our first year, he hit a natural bond with Lenny.
After Johnson left Maryland in nineteen eighty nine, he struggled
to even play pickup basketball games for years. During the interview,
Johnson expressed pride for not fading into a deep, prolonged
despair after Bias died.

Speaker 13 (38:32):
You see the two ways that I could have gone.
I could have crashed and burned or whatever. I could
have just picked myself up and used him as a
motivator and to go forward. I've never been arrested, never
been locked up. You know, my record as clean as
a whistle. Don't have any do you do, Duiy's I
had no d W eyes or whatever.

Speaker 9 (38:55):
Johnson and Bias bonded within moments of meeting in the
summer of nineteen eighty four. It was on Johnson's recruiting
trip to Maryland. Johnson opened a door to a dorm
room full of Maryland basketball players. Bias tackled him almost immediately.
They started to wrestle, acting like two young teenagers testing
their competitive edge.

Speaker 13 (39:16):
And one of the biggest reasons why I came was
because the fact that when I got here, you know,
he and I are down and wrestling in the floor
or whatever you know. I'll never forget that now. I
had no idea who Limbias was when I was at
Senior Hospital. He walcomed me almost like a teammate.

Speaker 9 (39:35):
Bro As a senior in high school, Johnson was named
the top player in Tennessee and an All American. Bias
called Johnson about a dozen times while Maryland was recruiting him.
That was even more important for convincing Johnson to attend
Maryland once Bias called from Alaska while Maryland was playing
in the Great Alaska Shootout.

Speaker 13 (39:56):
The thing about it, you think I care about what
happened one night in a room when you got to
calling you to Alaska.

Speaker 9 (40:02):
Johnson was referring to the night Bias die.

Speaker 10 (40:05):
I'm nobody. I'm just a kid that's trying to get
into a university. But he got it.

Speaker 15 (40:09):
He was.

Speaker 9 (40:10):
As a freshman, Johnson shared a dorm suite with Bias,
Terry Long, and Speedy Jones. He seemed to be enjoying
his first year at Maryland. Sue Tyler, an associate athletic
director at Maryland, then remembers Johnson during his freshman year
as a person with a promising future and.

Speaker 21 (40:29):
He was just a just a sweet, nice, upbeat, smiley
faced kid and just the brightest smile on his face
all the time, and a positive word for everybody and
find loving. And he just strutted around, and I just
knew that he was going to be somebody and he

(40:49):
was going to make a difference.

Speaker 6 (40:50):
I mean, he was just a good guy.

Speaker 9 (40:53):
Johnson finished the year with the best numbers of any
of the five Maryland freshmen. He led the class and
overall appearances with thirty and with five point eight points
per game. Johnson also ended the season enjoying his bond
with Bias. He felt it was unique for a freshman
to be spending so much time with a senior, especially

(41:14):
a superstar such as Bias. He remembers Bias embracing his
Tennessee country leanings. In Johnson's fondness for pop bands such
as New Addition, Bias preferred go go music, a genre
that originated in Washington, d C.

Speaker 13 (41:30):
I guess he never thought he was going to be
listening to, you know, New Edition in Bobby Brown and
some of these other casts I was listening to at
the time. But you know, he started liking my music,
and I remember he started joking, joking with me about that,
you know, about how these you know, little you know,
catchy songs was starting to grow on him and.

Speaker 10 (41:50):
Stuff like that.

Speaker 9 (41:51):
After Bias died, Johnson says he and most of his
Maryland teammates went back to the rooms and stayed there,
relying on friends to provide food for us to a week.
They waited until the media interest waned. They turned away
a grief counselor. The first class Johnson attended after Bias
died took place in a large lecture hall. He and

(42:12):
a friend walked through a door at the front of
the hall, visible to the dozens of students who had
already taken their seats. The buzz of idle chatter suddenly stopped.
He walked through row after row of students, all silent,
and took a seat at the back.

Speaker 10 (42:29):
Your crickets and this is that quiet? So me, I
don't know, I don't know what y'all said about that.
You know, you associated me with being a drug head?
What did you mean? So I started feeling bad about
you know, where are these people thinking? I'm not ready

(42:51):
for it?

Speaker 9 (42:51):
Johnson stayed for about fifteen minutes and then left to
escape the pressures. Johnson spent time after bias his death
a friend's house in Columbia, Maryland. His routine once he
returned to school was going from class, to the gym,
to the training table, and to his room. He often
read scripture for comfort and considered transferring to anywhere. He

(43:15):
struggled with what people were saying about Bias, the team
and coach Lefty Grisel.

Speaker 21 (43:21):
He seemed to be the one that was most affected
by Len's death because his posture changed. He was rounded
shoulders and he never looked up anymore.

Speaker 6 (43:32):
His smile was gone.

Speaker 21 (43:34):
Was I think he was deeply saddened and deeply affected
by Len's death.

Speaker 9 (43:41):
Comforting words from Lenise Bias helped Johnson deal with his grief.
It happened a few months after lenn died, during a
chance meeting at a shopping mall near the Maryland campus.

Speaker 10 (43:55):
He encouraged me, and I'll never forget it. She was
wanted meiggest ones or whatever. The reason why I stayed
because of the fact that she had so much to say.
Lenny loved you, and.

Speaker 22 (44:11):
You keep doing what you're doing because God wants you
to be here. And she just had so much conviction
in her spirit, in her heart or whatever. I remember
after a conversation with her, me and the young.

Speaker 10 (44:23):
Lady I was with, I was already shaken the Holy spirit.

Speaker 9 (44:27):
You know.

Speaker 10 (44:28):
She encouraged me to keep going. Man when she saw
you know, Lenny used to talk about you all the time.

Speaker 9 (44:34):
Johnson also found inspiration from an unlikely source. Brian Tribble,
one of the three people with bias when he died.
It happened in a barbershop and Tocoma Park, Maryland, frequented
by Maryland players. He saw Trible sitting in a chair.

Speaker 13 (44:51):
And going to barbershop trying to figure out Now, I'm
trying to sort out my feelings now.

Speaker 10 (44:57):
Should I feel angry either?

Speaker 23 (45:00):
Why?

Speaker 8 (45:00):
When?

Speaker 9 (45:00):
Was like?

Speaker 10 (45:05):
Probably? Probably?

Speaker 13 (45:07):
It was my first encounter with him after after the situation,
after Lynn died.

Speaker 10 (45:12):
So I'm sitting there, Go back outside, get my car
where we go up? After he was in there? If
you didn't want to be in there.

Speaker 13 (45:20):
With us, Yeah, I'm trying to sort out my feelings
right now about that. Better go in the barbershop, go
back in, sit down next to Brian. Don't know what
to say, don't know what to talk about. But we
just started something, just some conversation whatever, man, and Brian
looks at me and said, you know, Johnny, Lenny used

(45:41):
to always say that the next person that was going
to come out of here was going.

Speaker 10 (45:45):
To be here, said Lennie used to tell me, he said.
I used to ask Lenny, who's gonna take over after
you leave? He said. Lenny was always saved Johnny Johnson.

Speaker 13 (45:57):
So hearing Brian say say that to me and not
hearing it from Lenny or whatever, it is almost like
Lenny talking to me.

Speaker 9 (46:06):
The season after the death of Bias, Johnson started every
game as a sophomore, averaging about ten points a game,
but it's playing time diminished as a junior. Interestingly, he
found ways to have fun that year.

Speaker 24 (46:19):
Oh my god, it was my best year in regardless
fact that guess what. Every day when I went to
practice or whatever. Even ask any of them guys, Greg
Dave about this or whatever. They had no answer from me.
I played like Lenny and I were playing just free.
The year that I didn't play my best year at
the university in Maryland. He lad, we're having fun.

Speaker 9 (46:44):
Johnson ended his senior year as one of the team's
top players, starting all twenty nine games and posting a
career best fifteen point five points per game. Still, Maryland
struggled and finished nine and twenty, and the effects of
bias his death still lingered. Johnson recalls that once while

(47:05):
he sat in Massenberg's dorm room, they suddenly both grew silent.
Moments later, Masenberg erupted in a spasm of crying.

Speaker 10 (47:14):
See him break down like that with his life? Man,
what do I do?

Speaker 15 (47:21):
You know what I mean? Oh?

Speaker 10 (47:24):
What did he say?

Speaker 13 (47:25):
You can't say anything or whatever because we've already been
through so much.

Speaker 9 (47:29):
You know, I was older.

Speaker 10 (47:30):
So did you cry along with of you?

Speaker 9 (47:34):
Remember?

Speaker 10 (47:36):
Man?

Speaker 12 (47:41):
You know it's.

Speaker 10 (47:44):
I just remember a big fellow broke down, and I'm
pretty sure I tear up to.

Speaker 9 (47:54):
Johnson admits that during his senior year, he and a
couple other players threatened to quit the team. They had
just lost to eighth rank North Carolina in late January.
The record was six and eight.

Speaker 10 (48:07):
Now we're trying to shake off, you know, the death
ofly In by Camis. Everybody was just at their breaking fee.
But me, I was done with it.

Speaker 15 (48:17):
I was.

Speaker 10 (48:19):
I was ready to pack it in. What you going
to do tonight? Rokan Scholarship. I'm already going graduate, so
what do I call?

Speaker 9 (48:28):
Johnson and the others decided to play through the year
that allowed Johnson and Massenburg to share a tribute to Bias.
It took place in the first round of the ACC Tournament. Maryland,
the lowest seed, defeated top seed at NC State seventy
one to forty nine. It was Maryland's biggest win of
the season, and on the last play of the game,

(48:50):
Johnson took an outlet pass off a rebound and looked
up court as Maryland began to break away. He threw
a lob pass to Massenburg, who responded with a resounding
Bias like dunk. Massenberg then ran to Johnson for an
emotional embrace. Said Johnson at the time, quote, it was
like an exclamation point to my career, me saying to Tony, Hey,

(49:14):
big fella, this is my last pass to you. Tear
that rim down and let's have a little Lenny Bias celebration.

Speaker 10 (49:22):
Close quote.

Speaker 9 (49:23):
Johnson did not have reason to celebrate basketball much after that.
Maryland lost its next game in the tournament and was
done for the season. He says a scheduled tryout for
the Celtics never happened due to injury. His passion for
basketball continued to fade. He would not even play in
a pickup game. It was not an easy decision for

(49:45):
Johnson to discuss bias in twenty ten. He had not
talked with the media about him since nineteen ninety. In
a Washington Post feature about Massenburg, as he considered doing
the interview, he consulted the Bible to.

Speaker 10 (50:00):
Say that he wasn't an anger because the fact that how.

Speaker 13 (50:02):
Many people didn't say, how many people actually went to Christ,
because the fact that they threw away a lot of
drugs that in the same night they found out and
decided they were going to change their.

Speaker 10 (50:14):
Lives for the better. In my estimation, whatever, he was
a angelist.

Speaker 13 (50:18):
But you know, if you think about it, you know
how many other people look at him and change it
because of the fact that he saved their lives.

Speaker 10 (50:27):
Without a lambias. Whatever, Where would those people? Do?

Speaker 11 (50:30):
You know?

Speaker 9 (50:37):
Terry Long was one of three people with len bias
when he had the heart attack that led to his death.
Long achieved more notoriety for his connection to the death
of the Maryland Star than for his accomplishments on a
basketball court. For most of his Maryland career, Long played
a supportive role as a six foot eight inch forward.

(50:58):
He was not a frequent starter until his junior year.
Long averaged less than four points and four rebounds a game.
A Washington Post story described Long as a polite, soft
spoken sword with an easy smile but an anxious demeanor.
The birth of a daughter about eighteen months before the
death of Bias was an additional challenge for Long, said

(51:22):
Long in March nineteen eighty six. It was something for
me to get adjusted to. It's made me mature faster.
Long claims that Bias introduced him to cocaine in nineteen
eighty four, at the beginning of a sophomore season. He
says Bias gave him the drug in a folded dollar bill.

(51:44):
Speedy Jones was a senior on the team in nineteen
eighty six. Long's cocaine connection to Bias was not a
surprise to Jones. Jones told me Terry Long was hooked
on cocaine. If Bias hadn't died, Long might have died
from cocaine. Long was charged with possessing cocaine and obstructing

(52:06):
justice related to bias his death, but the charges were
dismissed in exchange for his testimony against Brian Tribble, another
person with Bias. When he died, Long's life took dramatic
turns after the death of Bias. He returned to the
Maryland campus two days later along with the police escort.
He had received death threats. In October nineteen eighty six,

(52:30):
Long was suspended indefinitely from the team following his indictment.
He withdrew from Maryland in late December nineteen eighty six.
Derek Lewis was a sophomore on the team when Bias died.

Speaker 10 (52:44):
He doesn't.

Speaker 3 (52:45):
He doesn't talk about it at all. Every once in
a while, yeah, he'll call and say happy birthday, but
he doesn't. He doesn't discuss it at all. I think
because he was in the room and people have so
many questions as what does Havy have.

Speaker 9 (52:57):
But during a brief phone call in the spring of
twenty eleven, Long was asked to talk about how bias
His death has affected his life. He responded politely and calmly,
saying I'm not interested. In subsequent calls, he provided only
brief background information. Long has not talked publicly about the

(53:19):
death of Bias. He is the only one who was
with Bias when he passed out, who has not done so.
A few years ago, Long, in a phone call, agreed
to an interview, but it has not yet been secured.
He has not returned multiple follow up phone messages and
text messages. Long returned to the Maryland campus for the

(53:39):
first time when the school's athletic department honored their coach
left in Brazil at a Maryland basketball game against North
Carolina State in two thousand and three. Here's Jeff Baxter,
a senior on the team in nineteen eighty six.

Speaker 2 (53:55):
I think Terry's deeply about I have not bought that
because I think it's it's a time and place for everything. Well,
I think he's very stand office. Yeah, I think that's
the biggest piece. I think he's hurt heart. I think
I think I think Terry Terry.

Speaker 10 (54:12):
Phils that this is his I will I will. I
think I think he will put that type of pressure
on himself.

Speaker 9 (54:19):
Speedy Jones says Long broke down and quote told him
everything end quote about how Bias died, but Jones did
not provide details. He says that every time he talks
too long about Bias, he can still see the pain
in Long's eyes. Keith Gatlin, who entered Maryland the same

(54:40):
year as Long, talks with him occasionally and visits him
in Baltimore. He wishes Long would talk. Gatlin told me
it would be therapeutic for Terry, and the perception of
Terry that he was a bad guy. We're not a
good kid is something that is really not true. More

(55:03):
than any other member of Maryland's nineteen eighty five eighty sixteen,
David Greg lives in the large and looming shadow of
Len Bias. As a player at Maryland, Greg was six
feet nine inches tall and just under two hundred pounds.
Greg could have passed as Bias's brother. In fact, they

(55:23):
jokingly referred to each other as cousins. Like Bias, he
was born in Washington, d c. Like Bias, Greg seemed
to share an endearing personality. Like Bias, Greg played for
the same coach, Bob Wagner, at the same high school, Northwestern.
At Northwestern, Greg was MacDonald's All America, something Bias did

(55:45):
not achieve. Like Bias, Greg was very familiar with Maryland basketball.

Speaker 10 (55:50):
While in high school.

Speaker 9 (55:51):
Greg was one of three people with Bias when he
had the heart attack that led to his death. Mike
Marrison has known Greg since the third grade and was
a high school teammate.

Speaker 25 (56:02):
So all the home games we had tickets on Press Road,
so me and mister Wagner and Dave would go to
all the games. We were We were at the game
when Michael Jordan did the Rock the Cradle dumb. We
were sitting on the baseline. We were talking in before
and after game. So Lynn would come back to the
gym some days before games and shooting our gym. So
we were constantly in contact with him. We will constantly

(56:23):
see him, so you know, you know, David was excited
about going to Maryland. He was working real hard to
wait room with mister Wagner and Lynn's.

Speaker 9 (56:32):
Charles Payne met Greg when both were eleven years old
and also played high school basketball with Greg. He says
Greg came out of a shell at Maryland.

Speaker 6 (56:41):
But he was always the quiet one, you know, he
just kind of followed our lead, you know, and you know,
a great, great guy. Everybody loved to be around him.
But he loved to laugh and have fun and have
a good time.

Speaker 9 (56:54):
At Maryland. The good time seemed to continue after Greg
settled in. Greg admitted in him Miami Herald report in
nineteen eighty eight that he stopped going to classes during
the second semester of his freshman year. He chose instead
to quote date girls, talk to friends, just hang out
close quote. Maryland teammate Terry Long said in court testimony

(57:18):
that he snorted cocaine with Greg and Bias at Brian
Tribble's apartment. It was after a game against NC State
in College Park on January twenty three, nineteen eighty six.
Greg was in his dorm room talking on the phone
when Bias knocked on his door in the early morning
hours of June nineteenth, nineteen eighty six. Bias wanted Greg

(57:42):
to help celebrate the start of his new career with
the Celtics. After they started consuming cocaine, Greg became concerned
that Bias was snorting too much of it, but he
did not know how to tell Bias to stop. Payne
remembers getting a call later that morning that woke him up, and.

Speaker 7 (58:00):
It was Dave and he was just telling me. He
was like, hey, man, I need you to come get me.
I could immediately I could tell something was wrong. And
I said, what do you mean you need me to
come and get you. He goes, I just need you
to come get me. I said, well, what's going on?
And then he tells me, he goes, man, let me
just die.

Speaker 10 (58:15):
I said what.

Speaker 6 (58:17):
He goes, Yeah, he just he just died.

Speaker 7 (58:20):
I said, how, I said, you know what, wait until
I get there. And so he gets in my car
and he explains to me, you know, what had happened.

Speaker 16 (58:30):
And so.

Speaker 6 (58:32):
I'm shocked.

Speaker 7 (58:33):
I'm trying to deal with that news myself, but at
the same time, I'm trying to be there for him.

Speaker 9 (58:39):
Payne gave Gregor ride to the house of coach Lefty forsell.

Speaker 7 (58:43):
You know, Lefty let me in just like I was
a part of the team, and so we were just
sitting there and you know, Lefty came in and he
started talking. He started talking to the team and telling
them about you know how you know tragic this is.

Speaker 6 (59:01):
But you know Lynn was ready. You know, Lynn was
a good, good guy.

Speaker 7 (59:05):
He's a Christian, He's he's okay, and you know, we
know that this is going This is is very shocking
and hard to deal with.

Speaker 10 (59:13):
You know, We're going to have people for you guys
to talk to if you need it.

Speaker 7 (59:16):
Just going kind of back and forth because you know,
At this point, Lefty doesn't know the story.

Speaker 6 (59:20):
He doesn't really know what's happened himself.

Speaker 9 (59:24):
Payne then took Greg to his mother's house.

Speaker 7 (59:27):
The next couple of days really just got crazy when
all of a sudden, you know, criminal charges are going
to be brought against him and everybody in the room,
and then death threats. But clearly they got David and
Terry Long out of town. I can't remember how long
it was, but I know they left town for a while.

Speaker 9 (59:47):
Greg and Long later went to the house owned by
Bob Wagner, Greg's high school coach.

Speaker 26 (59:52):
Well, Lufty, you know, can can David and Terry stay
there until their parents could get with their.

Speaker 10 (59:58):
Attorneys to get record? Can they stay where my house? Okay?
So they stayed upstairs.

Speaker 6 (01:00:03):
I had a little upstairs that I often had rented.

Speaker 5 (01:00:06):
One to make extra money to pay my pills.

Speaker 10 (01:00:09):
Again, and then I had to go someplace.

Speaker 26 (01:00:14):
When I came back, day were gone there they'd gotten
their attorneys.

Speaker 9 (01:00:18):
Greg spent the next two weeks at his mother's house.
He stayed mostly to himself. A grand jury indicted Greg
for possession of cocaine an obstruction of justice related to
the death of bias. The charges were dropped in exchange
for testifying against Brian Tribble at Tribble's trial. Greg was
suspended from the Maryland team for the next season, but

(01:00:39):
he continued to attend classes and played in occasional pickup games.
In early July nineteen eighty seven, Greg announced that he
would transfer from Maryland. Said Greg at the time, quote,
it's been very tough. Wherever I go, people point and say, oh,
there goes David Greg. I've been getting more attention for

(01:01:00):
this than I did for my basketball close quote. Greg
wasn't sure what to do next. Payne was starting his
junior year as a player at Florida International University and
had an idea.

Speaker 6 (01:01:12):
So the next move was what you know, what are
you going to do?

Speaker 7 (01:01:15):
Where do you want to go? My coach was like, hey,
do you think he would like to come here? You know,
get him away from that area. You know, we're in
an up and coming program. You know, it won't be
as many people going after him, So you know, I
reached out to Dave and.

Speaker 6 (01:01:29):
He was interested.

Speaker 9 (01:01:30):
Rick Walker was the coach of Florida International at the time.

Speaker 27 (01:01:35):
I had seen David play on television and he reminded
me of a young Sam Perkins.

Speaker 10 (01:01:42):
David was the top of the line.

Speaker 27 (01:01:44):
We were still an independent at that time, so we
had just this would have been our first or second
year in Division one. But this gave us a credibility
in terms of recruiting, in terms of having a bigger.

Speaker 9 (01:02:00):
But it seemed like a good opportunity for Greg. A
Miami Herald story in June nineteen eighty eight tauted Greg's
pending arrival at FIU. It all goes well at RED,
he could be the player who lifts the program to respectability.
But all did not go as well as hoped. First,

(01:02:21):
Greg had to wait to play for FFIU. He was
academically ineligible, so he took classes at Miami Dade Junior
College and FIU throughout that first year.

Speaker 7 (01:02:33):
And so David didn't want to use any of his
eligibility in his basket, so he was just going to
go there to get his school work so he could
transfer into FIU full time.

Speaker 10 (01:02:44):
So what he did was he was a full time
student at.

Speaker 7 (01:02:46):
Daye North and he took like two classes at FIU
so he could live on campus at FIU.

Speaker 6 (01:02:51):
So the basketball coach at Dayton North wanted him to,
you know, play, and Dave was.

Speaker 10 (01:02:57):
Like, now, I'm not going to play.

Speaker 6 (01:02:58):
I'm just going to focus on my academics. And he did,
and he did.

Speaker 9 (01:03:02):
Well, and Greg joined the FIU team in the fall
of nineteen eighty eight. His start with the team lacked inspiration,
says Walker, than the FIU coach.

Speaker 27 (01:03:12):
The reality was, there was not that fire that was
there that I thought might have been there.

Speaker 10 (01:03:20):
Prior to this.

Speaker 5 (01:03:21):
So I thought he was lacking a little.

Speaker 10 (01:03:24):
Bit of self motivation.

Speaker 27 (01:03:26):
You know, if we were talking of fire from one
to ten, his was about a sixth.

Speaker 9 (01:03:31):
Greg then found a spark in late December nineteen eighty eight.
In his third game for FIU, he scored eighteen points
and grabbed eleven rebounds and a home loss to Radford
in front of only four hundred and seventy six spectators.
He appeared to enjoy playing the game more than he
ever had in his life.

Speaker 6 (01:03:51):
We're in school, We're just having a good time. He
had some really good games.

Speaker 10 (01:03:55):
I mean he was playing.

Speaker 6 (01:03:56):
I mean, it was it was fun. I mean, I
think for the first time in while, you know that
he was starting to feel like his true self.

Speaker 9 (01:04:03):
Through early February, Greg played twelve games for FIU, averaging
sixteen point seven points and seven point eight rebounds, but
that momentum stopped suddenly on February seven, nineteen eighty nine.
That's when FIU placed Greg on indefinite academic suspension. An
official at Miami Dade had claimed Greg did not earn

(01:04:27):
what was described as appropriate credits in three classes at
the school. Charles Payne explains what happened.

Speaker 7 (01:04:36):
So, in the spring semester Dave had to take there
were he needed two classes, right, so I think one
class ended, one class ended at twelve forty. Let's say
it started ended at twelve forty, but one of the
classes began at twelve fifteen, so they overlapped. So he
had to give special permission to take those classes. He
registered for those classes. They knew of the overlap, they

(01:04:59):
were fine with it. He did all of He did
all the work for those classes when he finished, and
he got his degree and he transferred over to FIU,
all of that.

Speaker 6 (01:05:09):
But the head coach went back, looked at his.

Speaker 7 (01:05:11):
Schedule, saw that he took those two classes, and then
he brought it to the attention of you know, Day North,
to some other you know I guess I don't know
who wouldn't.

Speaker 6 (01:05:22):
Step up and say, hey, we approved this, we let
the guy do it.

Speaker 7 (01:05:25):
But once that coach exposed it, then what they did
was they took those two classes away from me. I
just think that he didn't like the fact that he
didn't play for him and that he went to FIU.

Speaker 9 (01:05:38):
Greg had an option to keep playing at FIU, but
he needed to set out the rest of the year
and take the classes in question again at Miami Dade
before he could return. FIU coach Rick Walker was devastated.

Speaker 27 (01:05:53):
I'm like, what, I know, I had to set the
team down, but I had to tell everybody and they
had to rule him ineligible. He was disappointed, the kids
were disappointed. I mean, it was like, or here we
go again, something else negative.

Speaker 6 (01:06:11):
And I tried my.

Speaker 7 (01:06:12):
Best to like get to him and just say, hey, look, man,
I know that's disappointing. I know it's not fair, and
I know you did the work, but just do it again,
because I didn't because I knew if he didn't do
that that he would go home and just not play
anymore and not go to school anymore. But I just
I just didn't want to see him you know, give
in to, you know, the bad actions of adults.

Speaker 9 (01:06:36):
Greg would have none of it. He left for home
two days later, disgruntled and disheartened. His family could not
afford to pay for him to take the classes again.

Speaker 7 (01:06:46):
At this point, you know, you're thinking, how much more,
you know can one person endure?

Speaker 9 (01:06:53):
Greg since then has endured more challenges. Court record show
that he was charged with driving under the influence of
alcohol in September twenty ten, and in two thousand and eight,
he lost his nine year old son to brain cancer.

Speaker 25 (01:07:09):
His death and Len's death are the only two times
I've ever seen that man cry.

Speaker 9 (01:07:14):
Greg has attended Maryland basketball games, but he appears to
have kept a low profile among his Maryland teammates over
the last thirty five years. Neither Jeff Baxter nor Derrek Lewis,
who both live in the Washington, DC area, knew how
to contact Greg or where he was living. Speedy Jones

(01:07:34):
has tried to counsel Greg. Jones would not elaborate on
Greg's issues. Jones told me he's dealing with some personal
issues as a result of Len's death. I don't know
that he's ever sought help to deal with it. I
think he needs to. I told him he needs to.
Here's Bob Wagner, the high school coach for both Greg

(01:07:56):
and Bias.

Speaker 10 (01:07:58):
I don't know if Dad's ever been the same.

Speaker 26 (01:08:00):
David was not a strong psychological person to begin I
didn't want him to go to Maryland because.

Speaker 10 (01:08:06):
I didn't want to be with Lennard.

Speaker 28 (01:08:15):
Lefty Drizzel came to Maryland in nineteen sixty nine. He
turned a team that had a pension for losing and
made them a national power where they were always winning.

Speaker 23 (01:08:24):
Marylynd He had nothing for Why gouttie, I'm called absolutely nothing.

Speaker 9 (01:08:28):
That's a clip from a video about former Maryland head
coach left To Drizzel, produced by a Washington, DC area
television news station in nineteen eighty six. Perhaps it's a
bit of hyperbole to say Maryland basketball had nothing before
Drizzel became the school's basketball coach, but there was not
a whole lot to brag about. Maryland had only four

(01:08:51):
winning seasons in the nineteen sixties, along with no national rankings.
By the early nineteen eighties, Drizzel had built a well
deserved reputation as a pioneer and a pretty good self
promoter among college basketball coaches.

Speaker 28 (01:09:08):
One of the winningest coaches in ACC and NCAA history
is our next legend from Maryland, with seven hundred and
eighty six career wins. Arriving in College Park in nineteen seventy,
he built the Terrapins into a national power and twice
was named ACC Coach of the Year. His nineteen seventy
four Terrapins played NC State in the ACC Championship Game,

(01:09:29):
which even today many consider the greatest game in conference history.

Speaker 9 (01:09:34):
That clip came from an Atlantic Coast Conference Legends brunch
in two thousand and eight. In another video released shortly
after he resigned as Maryland's coach, in nineteen eighty six,
a local television network aired a tribute to Drasel. It
featured a typical confident comment from the coach.

Speaker 23 (01:09:53):
I would like to brag. See that's why y'all don't
think I can coach. But I'm bragging today, Okay, because
I don't like to talk about what i'd doing, what
I don't do. But don't ever say that I can't coach.
I may not be a good speaker, I may not
be intelligent as some of these other coaches.

Speaker 10 (01:10:08):
I may not throw you a whole lot of x
is and oh crap, but I can coach. We were
in the top ten my whole career.

Speaker 17 (01:10:14):
How many Maryland teams are in the final top ten?

Speaker 9 (01:10:17):
That was Tom McMillan, a three time All American at
Maryland in the early nineteen seventies, And the answer, only
five teams that did not include McMillan have finished in
the top ten in the final Associated Press national poll.
Over the course of some seventy years after Lembias died,

(01:10:38):
the perception of Drizzel had changed dramatically. In the mind
of his critics, Drizzel had morphed into a coach who
was at worst indifferent to the academic needs of his
players and at best blind to their off court mishaps.
This all made Drizl a prime target of blame for
the death of Bias. Russ Potts is a Maryland graduate

(01:11:02):
from the nineteen sixties. He was also the first marketing
director for Maryland's athletic department. Potts took that position one
year after Drizzel started at Maryland.

Speaker 8 (01:11:13):
Whenever you have a tragedy, whether it's Pearl Harbor or
nine to eleven or whatever, you're going to always have
a fall guy. And so they tried to make the
Lefty the fall guy. Well what poor Lefty had no
more to do with that than you or I did, unfortunately, and.

Speaker 9 (01:11:33):
He was in the wrong place at the wrong.

Speaker 8 (01:11:35):
Time, and it was a tragic happening that still to
this day affects the University of Maryland.

Speaker 9 (01:11:43):
Here's McMillan.

Speaker 17 (01:11:44):
It really bothers Lefty that his tenure at Maryland ended
this way. It was really it was very tragic for
him because he did so much for Maryland and then
they have this one incident, which was a terrible mistake.

Speaker 9 (01:12:00):
That mistake, Len Bias abusing cocaine and then dying transformed
Drizzel from a Maryland basketball icon to a maligned and
minimized figure. By those who struggled to understand the death
of Bias, it was a situation few could foresee at
the start of Drizzel's Maryland career.

Speaker 14 (01:12:21):
Nudged mister Child.

Speaker 9 (01:12:25):
By the early nineteen seventies, sell out crowds with a
norm at Maryland's home arena, cole Fieldhouse. Some fourteen thousand
fans wanted to watch a trio of eventual All Americans
as well as impact players in the NBA McMillan, Len Elmore,
and John Lucas. Early in his career, Drizzell boldly promised

(01:12:47):
to turn Maryland into the UCLA of the East. If
not for two teams, he just might have done so.
One was the real UCLA, which continued to dominate college basketball.
The other was North Carolina State, which interrupted UCLA's championship
run in nineteen seventy four, but the Terps were still

(01:13:10):
among the best teams in the country. In four different
regular seasons between nineteen seventy and nineteen eighty, Drizzell's team
reached number two in the rankings. Four times they finished
in the top ten. In his seventeen years as Maryland's
head coach, Drizzel won only one ACC Tournament title, and

(01:13:31):
it was with Bias. In nineteen eighty four, Bias, then
a sophomore, won the tournament's MVP Award. Bias praised Bdrizel's
influence on him in a nineteen eighty six Maryland basketball
recruiting video.

Speaker 29 (01:13:46):
He told me the things that I could do, and
he put a lot of faith in me and told
me that I will be able to score and I
will be able to rebound.

Speaker 11 (01:13:52):
Now I can do it.

Speaker 29 (01:13:53):
And when you got a coach that puts confidence and
faith in you like that, you can't go out but play.

Speaker 9 (01:13:59):
Here's Drizzell in that same recruiting video.

Speaker 23 (01:14:01):
Of course, having let Ad Biased being the player of
the year in the ACC and make first Team All ACC,
First Team of AP and first Team UP is all American.
You know, you know, in my opinion, he was probably
player of the year in the country.

Speaker 9 (01:14:14):
Criticism towards Drizzel replaced praise for him after the death
of Bias. Some of it came from the Bias family.
Bob Wagner, Len's high school coach and a friend of Grizel,
remembers a moment of hostility from Len's father. It was
at Bias's wake. Once there, Drizzl and Wagner walked over
to James Bias to offer condolences.

Speaker 26 (01:14:38):
At the wake, I wrote down with Lefty because we
didn't know where we were going. We come into the
church and I know mister Bias was still hurt and upset.
But Lefty walks over to give his condolences and mister
Bias says something like the Lefty like, you stay away
from me.

Speaker 9 (01:14:57):
You killed myself. Media reports claimed instructed a coach to
clean the room in which Bias died before police arrived.
Dresel admitted that he instructed the coach to clean the room,
but the coach, Oliver Parnell, did not do so, in
part due to a police presence. Assistant coach Jeff Atkins

(01:15:17):
went to the room with Parnell. Atkins told me that
when they reached the Washington Hall dorm, where Bias's suite
was located, police would not let them pass a secured area.
Trozzelle is not charged with a crime. During this time,
Drizell indicated he would not back down from the challenges

(01:15:37):
facing him.

Speaker 5 (01:15:38):
If you know me, I do the best when my
back's up against the wall, right. I like for people
get me in a corner and get me around the neck.

Speaker 10 (01:15:46):
Then I like to get out of there.

Speaker 9 (01:15:48):
But the forces against Rizel grew too strong. Chancellor John
Slaughter felt that Drizzel had not provided the leadership needed
At the time he removed Brizel's coach. Slaughter told me
my conclusion was we were not going to turn that
around unless the change was made. I could come up
with a whole lot of reasons, but I consider that

(01:16:10):
a closed chapter. I don't want to open it anymore.
I like Lefty a great deal. I'm not sure it's reciprocated.
When asked about his feelings towards Slaughter, Driselle told me,
no comment. I have a lot of feelings about Slaughter,
but I'd rather not say. Mally Glassman was a reporter

(01:16:31):
for the Baltimore Sun covering Maryland basketball at the time.

Speaker 30 (01:16:35):
He was a chancellor who was very concerned about the
reputation of himself and the school, and the reputation was
in tatters, as you say, academically when the revelations came
out that these kids weren't going to class. And this
wasn't the first year that this had happened, that there

(01:16:57):
was a history of lefties players not staying in school,
not graduating. But Lefty he wouldn't have gone. He wouldn't
have left of his own accord, and he fought it
till the end.

Speaker 9 (01:17:12):
Trizell claims he was asked to remain as coach for
one more year and then resigned with nine years left
on us contract. Drissell told me, my lawyer said, we
can fight this thing and you can keep your job,
but I'd be working for free because his fees would
be so big. I said, let's settle. It was a

(01:17:34):
great seventeen years at Maryland, except for my last year.
Trizell's lawyer was famed Washington defense attorney Edward Bennett. Williams
Russ Potts, Maryland's first marketing manager, was a good friend
of Durzel. He reached out to Williams after it became
a parent that Brazil's future employment at Maryland was in jeopardy.

Speaker 8 (01:17:55):
I called ed Williams and I asked ed Williams if
he would represent Lefty in this terrible mess at Maryland.
And I pleaded with him. I said, please please represent
him because he has no idea in what's going to happen.

(01:18:16):
Get Lefty to call me tonight. And so I said,
you need to call in Williams at home tonight, and
he did. But he said, Lefty effective immediately this very second.
If you say one word about this case, if you
so much as say a comma or a sema Colman,

(01:18:38):
I will not represent you affective Immediately you shut up.

Speaker 6 (01:18:43):
I do all the talking.

Speaker 8 (01:18:47):
That was a hell of a challenge for Lefty because
getting Lefty to shut up was not easy, and they
had a meeting with Williams and the President and the
Universe Attorney.

Speaker 9 (01:19:01):
Drizzell resigned on October twenty nine, nineteen eighty six, and
received a comfortable settlement. He was paid one hundred and
twenty thousand dollars a year for nine years, the remainder
of his tenure coaching contract, and he could continue his
basketball camps at the school for the same length of time.

(01:19:21):
Drazell collected the full salary even after he left. As
Pots recalls, Williams took a hard stance with Maryland while
representing Brazell. He recounts the following story from a conversation
he had with Williams shortly after the meeting.

Speaker 29 (01:19:37):
And.

Speaker 8 (01:19:39):
The Maryland attorney arrogantly walked into room and he laid
a contract on the desk.

Speaker 10 (01:19:45):
Left.

Speaker 8 (01:19:46):
He had eight and a half years left on his contract,
and Maryland offered him a year and a half. They
laid that on the table and ed Williams looked at it.
He jumped up and grabbed the contract. He tore it
to shreds in front of me. He said, I'll see
you in hell. Before we'd ever signed this. You want

(01:20:07):
to go to war, We'll go to war. The next day,
the next day, they called Williams and gave lasty All
eight and a half years.

Speaker 9 (01:20:18):
Brazila added more context to the negotiation on a phone
call in the summer of twenty twenty, so Slaughter called
back tomorrow.

Speaker 23 (01:20:26):
He said, your contract is good.

Speaker 5 (01:20:28):
We've got to pay left before it nine years and he.

Speaker 6 (01:20:33):
Can stay here as an athletic.

Speaker 5 (01:20:35):
Director for two years and he will get the same.

Speaker 22 (01:20:40):
Salary he will be making as.

Speaker 12 (01:20:42):
The head coach.

Speaker 5 (01:20:44):
He can also have his basketball camp and used the
dorms free and the Jim free.

Speaker 29 (01:20:51):
And that was the deed.

Speaker 5 (01:20:53):
Williams said, look, you can take that if you want to.

Speaker 6 (01:20:58):
You ain't got to work for seven more years, and
or can go eight and coach.

Speaker 23 (01:21:05):
Take the deal.

Speaker 28 (01:21:06):
He's off on you and forget it.

Speaker 9 (01:21:08):
Forget coaching.

Speaker 6 (01:21:10):
That's what I did.

Speaker 9 (01:21:12):
As part of the deal, Drizzel transitioned to an assistant
athletic director who oversaw the department sports information and marketing departments.
He also helped manage the Maryland Educational Foundation, which raised
money for scholarships and other department needs. When asked in
twenty ten what the athletic department wanted him to do

(01:21:33):
in his new role, Drazzel paused for a couple moments, laughed,
and then said, quote hide end quote. Part of Drizzel's
job was to convince the elderly to place their life
insurance policy in their will and make the athletic department
the beneficiary when they died. Drissel told me I was

(01:21:53):
getting ready to do that, but never got that much involved.
When I took the job. Then athletic director louke and said,
just come on over when you want and do what
you want. Trazelle left Maryland in nineteen eighty eight to
become head coach at James Madison University. In nineteen ninety four,
he became the head coach at Georgia State, where he

(01:22:14):
stayed through two thousand and three. Trizell retired with the
fourth most wins in Division one history, with seven hundred
and eighty six. In the summer of two thousand and two,
Drizzell returned to Maryland's campus for the first time since
taking the job at James Madison. He attended his induction
ceremony into Maryland's Athletics Hall of Fame.

Speaker 31 (01:22:38):
For his accomplishments during his coaching career. At his successful
tenure at the University of Maryland coach Charles Lefty Drizzl
is tonight being inducted into the University of Maryland Athletic
Hall of Fame.

Speaker 9 (01:22:53):
Trizell returned the next winter when the Terrapins honored his
retirement from coaching during halftime i'm of a game against
Encia State at the Comcast Center, Maryland's new basketball arena.
Drizzel stopped by Maryland's arena again in twenty seventeen for

(01:23:15):
another special ceremony Brazil. The crowd was loud as Drizzel
flashed the familiar victory sign with his right hand pointing
to the rafters. It must have felt as if he
were back in Colefieldhouse, in the building where he helped

(01:23:38):
develop Maryland basketball into a nationally respected program, ready to
lead his Maryland team to another of its many victories.
John Lucas played for Drizzel from nineteen seventy two to
nineteen seventy six. He departed Maryland as a three time
All America and was the top pick in the nineteen
seventy six NBA draft. He offered perhaps the most balanced

(01:24:02):
assessment of Drizzel's personality, which endeared many and irritated others
At Maryland. Lucas told me coach was genuine to a fault.
What you saw was what you got. He doesn't have
any gray areas.

Speaker 4 (01:24:18):
Presenting Lefty for enshrinement or Mike Krzewsky, George Raveling, John Thompson,
ladies and gentlemen, Charles Lefty Drizzl.

Speaker 9 (01:24:30):
In twenty eighteen, at the age of eighty six, Drazzell
received the highest honor for a basketball coach, induction into
the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.

Speaker 32 (01:24:41):
I'm so happy to be here. This is probably one
of the happiest days in my wife, my life and
my wife whatever. And look, is anybody in here eighty
six years old? Raise your hand, will you?

Speaker 29 (01:24:56):
So?

Speaker 5 (01:24:57):
So if I screw up? So look if I if
I screw up, wait till you get eighty six.

Speaker 12 (01:25:09):
I made the statement, then we're gonna be the UCLA
at the East again. I was kind of drunk or
someone I said that. And so I've been.

Speaker 5 (01:25:19):
Lucky to be able to coach, and to be able
to coach and recruit.

Speaker 12 (01:25:28):
At four great at two great high schools and four
Division one universities.

Speaker 9 (01:25:35):
I had a conversation with Drizzla in the summer of
twenty twenty. He was typical lefty, engaging, curious, and combative,
and he expressed some frustration when the topic of Bias
came up.

Speaker 12 (01:25:49):
Do you think I see anything to do with the
about your death?

Speaker 31 (01:25:52):
You know, if you look back at the record, what
was Maryland in basketball before I got there?

Speaker 9 (01:25:58):
About Trail finds comfort in his story he has told
about Bias. During the early summer of twenty ten, a
man approached him as they walked out of church near
Drizzel's home in Virginia Beach, Virginia. The man explained that
shortly before Bias's death, he had reached a personal love,
losing his job and his family due to a cocaine addiction.

(01:26:23):
When friends told the man that Bias had died, he
immediately stopped abusing cocaine. The man told Grisel that Bias
was one of his favorite players and that Bias saved
his life. I bet several people tell me that they've
never used drugs.

Speaker 12 (01:26:40):
They've plied that.

Speaker 9 (01:26:42):
At a press conference shortly after Bias died, Drizzel expressed
a connection between the two of them, a connection that
he feels is eternal.

Speaker 23 (01:26:52):
As my wife said, He's in a better position right
now than we are. He's at home with the Lord,
and I really sincerely believe bad. I mean, I'm sad,
but I'm not even worried because I know where Leonard is.

Speaker 15 (01:27:04):
I know he's in heaven, and I've been missing him,
and I don't everybody else here will tell me. I
really can't say a whole lot more to I love you, Leonard,
and I mission I'll see you Evan one day.

Speaker 1 (01:27:26):
Next on Lemby some mixed legacy how the death of
Lemby some packet.

Speaker 10 (01:27:30):
His family memories.

Speaker 6 (01:27:31):
Remember me, I hope they.

Speaker 13 (01:27:33):
Always wanted to be like the older guys, and you
always say, man, I want I want to do what
they doing, you know, I want to be there in
that spot.

Speaker 10 (01:27:39):
So they was like a big brother to us.

Speaker 26 (01:27:45):
Jay had more, much more skill than Leonard did skill
wise as a basketball player.

Speaker 5 (01:27:50):
It would have been so sick.

Speaker 2 (01:27:53):
When I turned around, Jay was laying down and I
seen the crowd to see me coming on the court.

Speaker 10 (01:27:58):
You know, the fight broke out.

Speaker 13 (01:28:01):
I thought it was no doubt that he was a
Division one, you know, basketball player.

Speaker 10 (01:28:08):
He could do anything on the court.

Speaker 7 (01:28:09):
He warned, I just hope that I leave to Sam
and Hen and everything I do from now on this
dedicator for my brother.

Speaker 29 (01:28:21):
I was not prepared for the loss of j and
nothing that I deal with with Lynn helped me through
the day.

Speaker 1 (01:28:30):
This podcast series is based on the book Born Ready
The Mixed Legacy of Lumby's, published by.

Speaker 10 (01:28:35):
Go Grady Media.

Speaker 1 (01:28:36):
The series is produced by Go Grady Media in partnership
with Octagon Entertainment. This segment was produced by Dave Ngrady
and Don Marcus. It was written by Dave Grady and
edited by Don Marcus. The narrator was Dave Ungrady, with
additional narration by Jamal Williams. Technical production was provided by
Octagon Entertainment. Production assistance was produced by Kevin McNulty, Tino Quagliata,

(01:28:58):
Lauren Ross, Georgia Brown, Casey Fair, Jamal Williams, Kelsey Mannox,
and Anzel Al Varenda. Matt Dealers is providing the social
media as Systems special thanks to the University of Maryland
and American University for providing instruments. The Decision Education Foundation
is a content and promotional partner of this podcast series.

(01:29:18):
More information go to go Gradymedia dot com. This has
been a production of Go grading Media and the Eighth
Side Network

Speaker 11 (01:29:30):
God