April 5, 2022 • 52 mins
How does one family recover from the unexpected death of a son, primed to be one of the best basketball players of all time? How does one recover from the unexpected death of another son, who was as good a player as his older brother. What challenges does a young man face never knowing a father whose legacy haunts him?
Those questions are answered in this episode. This is the fourth episode of seven in section three of the series, focusing on the main aspects of Len’s legacy.
About the narrator - Lauren Rosh is currently pursuing a Bachelor of Arts in multi-platform journalism and a double minor in law and general business from The University of Maryland, College Park.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
This podcast is based a large part on the book
Born Ready Mixed Legacy of Lundbyers. Some cults are narrated
by podcast producer and book author Dave and Grady from
interviews done for the book. Recruitings for those comments were
not available.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
Yeah, we always wanted to be like the older guys,
and you always say, man, I want I want to
do what they're doing.
Speaker 3 (00:22):
So they were like a big brother to us.
Speaker 4 (00:26):
I try not to get over excited by anybody in
the beginning, but I knew he was He was athletic.
Speaker 5 (00:32):
I knew he could be a good player.
Speaker 6 (00:36):
Jay has more, much more skill than letter skill ons
as a basketbas player.
Speaker 2 (00:43):
When I turned around, Jay was laying down and I
seen the crowd just come on the court, you know,
fight broke out.
Speaker 4 (00:51):
I thought it was no doubt that he was a
vision one, you know, basketball player.
Speaker 5 (00:57):
He could do anything on the court he wanted.
Speaker 3 (01:00):
Wouldn't do. I just hope that I live the family have.
Speaker 7 (01:04):
Everything I do from now on is dedicated for my brother.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
And he was like, hey, man, your boy got killed.
I said, no, you're talking about this, said Jay Bias.
Speaker 3 (01:16):
Excuse me, I said, nah, man, it stop playing It's
like the whole widus got weak. I couldn't eat, I
couldn't sleep. I just didn't have nothing in and the people.
Speaker 8 (01:27):
I was not prepared for the loss of dre and
nothing that I deal with with.
Speaker 9 (01:33):
Len helped me through.
Speaker 10 (01:34):
Drag through a window. His face flashed an engaged expression
as he talked about Len Bias being his father.
Speaker 11 (01:44):
Michael Bias told me everything has been a struggle financial, emotional.
It's been a tough break for me all my life.
It's been a jinx from when I was born. Because
he died.
Speaker 1 (01:58):
In this episode of Lemby looks Legacy and how the
death of lem Bison packing his Fim.
Speaker 2 (02:03):
And bind Boss we also find us and lived to
the limits, leaning to find Dodds.
Speaker 10 (02:11):
The indoor basketball court at the Columbia Park Recreation Center
is not known for its visual appeal. It has no
windows for bleachers. It's a drab, beige box anchored on
each end with a basketball hoop. For a time, though,
one of its walls caught your attention when walking through
the gym. On that wall was a poster announcing the
dedication of the Wharton Macley Madkins Gymnasium in two thousand
(02:35):
and two. For decades, Madkins was the director of the center,
also known as The Wreck. He helped coach Lund Bias
and others in both football and basketball. Here's Madkins talking
about Bias shortly after his death.
Speaker 3 (02:48):
At first, Kid used to laugh at I mean, I'll
call you a very awkward you know.
Speaker 4 (02:51):
But he kept playing, playing the like every day. He
was up there, like seven days a week, and he
developed one of the basketball players I hate.
Speaker 10 (02:59):
A picture in the poster, located on the bottom right,
includes Jay Bias, the younger brother of Lund Bias. He
flashes an easy smile and wears a green T shirt
emblazoned with the words Boston Celtics in bright white letters.
Below the picture are words attributed to Madkins that read,
they may leave, but they always find a way back.
Jay's legend at the Wreck is as profound as Lens.
(03:22):
For different yet sadly parallel reasons, neither made it back.
Lent died in nineteen eighty six, a victim of drug
overdose during a celebration. Jay died in nineteen ninety, a
victim of gun violence following an argument. The picture in
the poster was taken the winter after Lent died when
a Columbia Park team won a club tournament in North Carolina.
(03:43):
Next to Jay in the picture is Jay's best friend
Clint Mennable. The two had met at the Wreck. Basketball
played a large part in their developing a deep friendship,
one that resembled brothers more than friends.
Speaker 2 (03:55):
Played ball with June. We ate over each other house,
you know, over there. Yeah, he come on my house.
Speaker 3 (04:03):
I mean, that's how all the guys was in the neighborhood.
Speaker 2 (04:06):
And that's when they I can say, you know, especially
about our neighborhood.
Speaker 3 (04:09):
You know, the guys got along. We always had each
other back. We would play like all day. That's all
we knew basketball. We want to go up to gym
play ball.
Speaker 2 (04:22):
If gym weren't open yet, we'd play outside wait for
Mac to get it open. And we couldn't get enough
of basketball. If our parents wanted us, they kne where
to find us. We sit direction in that plumbing park one.
Speaker 10 (04:33):
Bias was a hero to many young people for his
basketball talents, perhaps none more than to Clint Bennable and
Jay Bias. Vennable talks reverently about his mentors Bias, Brian
Waller and Johnny Walker, They all taught Jay and Clint
and others at the Wreck about basketball in life. At times,
they gave up their court time so their mentors could play.
Speaker 2 (04:54):
You know, theyasically kick us off the court because he
was younger than want us to play. Then we could
to sit and watch those guys play. Leonard and Ryan
Ice and Johnny and them.
Speaker 3 (05:04):
Guys used to work out.
Speaker 2 (05:05):
They used to let Jay and myself and Henry never
got to play with us hang out with them. We
just get so excited, like it was like Christmas, and
he's like, you know, be quiet, you know, don't do this,
don't do that.
Speaker 3 (05:17):
And we just wanted to hang out with these guys.
Speaker 10 (05:18):
Watching one play convinced venta Ball that he wanted to
go to college, ideally at Maryland.
Speaker 3 (05:23):
I used to watch the way he worked on the court,
the way he worked without the ball.
Speaker 2 (05:29):
And how you cut off the guy, you know, how
you worked to go get it, how you was square
up to the basket and shoot. Like I said, we
had plenty of drills to do that, you know, watching
up these other guys doing it.
Speaker 3 (05:44):
How he boxed out, you know.
Speaker 2 (05:45):
How he played the game, and a lot of stuff
he was doing was straight, basic, straight basic basketball.
Speaker 10 (05:53):
During the rare times Clint played on the same team
as Lumbias. He understood his role.
Speaker 2 (05:57):
When you're playing with someone like that, you're thinking, like,
I gotta get him in the ball.
Speaker 10 (06:02):
And when Jay played against lend the elder Bias did
not play favorites.
Speaker 2 (06:05):
You know, when he's on the floor, he ain't He's on him,
knock him down. With the younger guys, we always wanted
to be like the older guys.
Speaker 3 (06:12):
They didn't been through what we're going through.
Speaker 2 (06:13):
We probably gonn't go to our parents and talk to them,
you know, about what's going on.
Speaker 3 (06:17):
So they were like a big brother to us.
Speaker 10 (06:20):
Venable felt as if he was a brother to Jay
and by extension, part of the Bias family. Jay, Bias
and Menible we're still in junior high school. When Len
Bias began his career at Maryland, they looked at Lund
as just another guy from the neighborhood. They hung out
together at the Bias family home, just a couple of
bucks away from the wreck. They gathered around the television
set in the Bias basement and watch videos.
Speaker 2 (06:40):
Of one we just go right there and watched the
highlights of Maryland and I mean we watched it from
you know, as freshman on up and you know who
was young. We's going in and watched the games and
you know see some of the dungs that you know
we d ut to see on TV.
Speaker 10 (07:01):
And they were able to play pickup games on the
Maryland campus with their mentors turned tiers.
Speaker 2 (07:06):
Uh wrollside and they play. It had the lights out there.
You know, you got some of the guys from Maryland playing.
Speaker 3 (07:15):
You even had.
Speaker 2 (07:15):
A cute gatling uh, Jeff Baxter Lennard.
Speaker 3 (07:21):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (07:22):
I mean just being on the court with those guys.
You know you're thinking, like and I'm in high school
and they get to go up here and play with
these guys. You know, these guys playing on TV. They
played Division one basketball soon where you know, every kid.
Speaker 3 (07:35):
Want to be.
Speaker 10 (07:36):
Brian Waller was Len's high school teammate. He says Vennaball
and Jay were among a few players they would pick
as the fifth player on their teams in those games.
Here's how Waller compared the skills of.
Speaker 11 (07:46):
Len and j Waller told me Leonard was more power,
Jay was more finesse. Lennard was by far the better shooter,
but Jay could handle the ball, put the ball on
the floor, create his own shots. Jay could use his
left hand. Both were great athletes. Both could jump and leap.
(08:06):
Len was a two footer. Most of his dunks were
off two feet.
Speaker 10 (08:10):
When it came time for Jay Bias and Venable to
pick their high schools, how could they not pick Northwestern?
It was the only place they would be comfortable playing basketball.
Len Bias and Brian Waller, their two idols, made it
to the state finals there in nineteen eighty one during
Len's junior year.
Speaker 2 (08:25):
You watched the older guys play, and you want to
be in their shoes, And I said, man, in fact,
just get in no question.
Speaker 3 (08:32):
We had the best cheerleader school. You know, had a
school spirit.
Speaker 10 (08:36):
Venable was a year older than Jay and played varsity
as a sophomore. Cornell Jones was the junior varsity coach
at Northwestern at the time. He first saw Jay play
as a freshman and picked him to play for the jv.
Speaker 4 (08:47):
I try not to get over excited about anybody in
the beginning, but I knew he was athletic. I knew
he could be a good player doing tryouts. We knew
he was an outstanding player. But We thought putting him
on the jv would be the best thing for him,
so he could grow and wouldn't have the pressure of saying, hey.
Speaker 5 (09:09):
He's a bias, he's going to be this debt and
the other.
Speaker 10 (09:12):
A lot of that atmosphere was due to the school's coach,
Bob Wagner. His last year's coach was in nineteen eighty six,
the year that Leunn died. Earlier that season, Wagner picked
j to play half the year for a Northwestern's varsity
team as a sophomore. Wagner felt it was best to
keep Jay close to him rather than keep him on
the juniversity.
Speaker 6 (09:30):
Jay had much more skill than Leonard did skill wise
as a basketball player, but he also had more mouths
and that held him.
Speaker 5 (09:38):
Back his development.
Speaker 10 (09:48):
On the day Lund died, Jay scored twenty points in
a summer league basketball game Northwestern won by twenty one points.
He also made time to talk about his brother for
a local television new show.
Speaker 3 (09:58):
He was the.
Speaker 7 (09:59):
Best brother that I think ever in the whole world,
the best brother. Anything that he wanted to doe, I mean,
anything that you needed, he'd jump right on it, always on.
Speaker 3 (10:08):
Top of the job, just like my father.
Speaker 7 (10:11):
I just hope that I live to see him at heaven,
and everything I do from now on is dedicated for
my brother.
Speaker 10 (10:18):
But Jay struggled to maintain that focus. He soon showed
signs of trouble dealing with his brother's death. When he
returned to school in the fall, he lost focus on academics.
Jay said the following in a Baltimore Sun story in
March nineteen eighty nine. Quote. When my brother died, I
got a chip on my shoulder. Nothing worse could happen.
Since he was gone. I saw no reason to do
(10:39):
what I was supposed to do. My attitude was forget
the world. I found myself doing things I shouldn't have.
I wouldn't do my schoolwork. Instead, I'd hang out at
clubs with friends. My mother and friends counseled me. I
straightened up. End quote. Venable remembers players doing mean things
to Jay related to Lend's death. At times, Jay struggled
to control his emotions on the court.
Speaker 2 (11:00):
They said a lot of you know, bad things that
Jay going in off the court. I don't care who
you are. You only take them so much. And you know,
like I said, it was rough on the work. It
was for the kids. The team would say something to J.
(11:22):
I know he will go on. Somebody say something, you know,
just kept nagging him. And I say that was probably
part of their game plan to get in his head,
you know, to kind of to beat us.
Speaker 10 (11:34):
During his junior year, Jay was ejected from the first
game of the season for throwing an elbow. He was
involved in a shoving incident in another The most dramatic
incident happened in a game against county opponent Eleanor Roosevelt
at the end of the season. Players were trying their
best to prevent Jay from dunking the ball on fast breaks.
After j completed an Ali who play on a pass
(11:54):
from Venable, he ended up on the floor.
Speaker 2 (11:58):
And when I turned around, Jay was laying down and
that the fight broke out, and I seen the crowd
just coming on a court.
Speaker 3 (12:06):
You know, the fight broke out when people.
Speaker 2 (12:07):
Came out the stands and you know, I mean it
was like just it's terrible.
Speaker 3 (12:13):
But a lot of that players that got hurt, I
know that.
Speaker 2 (12:16):
And if one of the us fight, he said, all
of us fighting. Bob Wagner's also you know, he said
the same thing. Really, you know, we're not gonna start
a fight, you know, become to play ball.
Speaker 9 (12:30):
He tall.
Speaker 2 (12:30):
This is a basketball team. We have family. We helped
each other build it out for one another.
Speaker 10 (12:36):
Bias was taken to a hospital and treated for bruses.
In a Washington Post story about a month later in
March nineteen eighty seven, Bias admitted he had trouble controlling
his temper. He said the following in the story quote,
I felt a lot of pressure after Lund died. I
think people expected me to do what Lund did when
he was here. It bothered me a lot, and I
didn't have the patience to deal with it. I was
(12:58):
also getting sick and tired of always being referred to
as Len Bias his brother. For the rest of my life,
I will be Jay, and I want to be accepted
on what I do. When teams play against me, I
want to feel they are playing against me, not against
Len's little brother. Right now, I'm just trying to help
us have the best season we can have quote, And
he did. Some nine months after Lunn died, Northwestern One
(13:21):
its first state title since nineteen sixty eight at cole
Field House, Len's home court at Maryland. As Venable remembers,
Jay could display a loose demeanor similar to Lenz, often
joking with his teammates before games to stay relaxed, but
before the state championship final in nineteen eighty seven, he
was quiet and reflective. Venable remembered seeing tears well in
(13:42):
Jay's eyes in the locker room before the game. He
recalled Jay writing Lens Maryland number thirty four in the
back of his basketball shoes. He scrawled Len on one
shoe and Bias on the other, Inspired perhaps by his
brother's spirit. In the arena he had once dominated. Jay
scored a game high twenty five points. He also grabbed
fourteen rebounds. Cornell Jones was their coach.
Speaker 5 (14:03):
He was probably the year that we wanted to state.
Speaker 4 (14:05):
He was probably our probably second best player behind Clinton Venable.
And the only thing this was I think was this
Clinton had experience in Jay didn't.
Speaker 10 (14:16):
Things were different. The next season, Northwestern finished with the
ten and twelve record. I missed the state playoffs, but
Jay put up big numbers, averaging twenty five points and
twelve rebounds a game. By this time, Jones saw stardom
in Jay's future.
Speaker 5 (14:30):
I saw him as a potential superstar.
Speaker 4 (14:32):
I thought that he would be able to do anything
that he wanted to do in the basketball court.
Speaker 5 (14:36):
If he worked at he could do everything. He could shoot,
he could.
Speaker 4 (14:39):
Handle the ball, he could attack the basket. The only
thing again slinder bill. But again he was only what
sixteen seventeen years old, so he hadn't developed that man's
body yet, and he.
Speaker 10 (14:51):
Managed to avoid the on court altercations that soured his
junior season. Still, Jones wondered if Jay was ready to
play in college.
Speaker 5 (14:58):
Jay was fun level, Jay was fun loving, like, hey,
let's do this, Let's do it.
Speaker 4 (15:02):
I would say, more impulsive, you know, and that's what
could get him in trouble sometime, being impulsive like j
and I still think he even though he was a senior,
I still think he hadn't reached that maturity level that
you need some time to bridge that gap between high
school and college or bridge that came from high school
(15:23):
and just graduate from high school. He didn't have the
greatest grades in the world, so I think that kind
of back some schools off right.
Speaker 5 (15:32):
I would say Jay was an average student.
Speaker 10 (15:35):
Jay's mother, Lenise Bias, said that Jay earned a two
point eight three academic average during his senior year, but
he failed to reach seven hundred on his SATs. That
prevented him from earning scholarship offers from Division one schools.
Jay chose instead to attend to Allegheny Community College, considered
a top junior college in the country. Some of its
(15:55):
past players included former Terps Steve Francis, an All American
who had a prominent NBA career, and Speedy Jones, a
teammate of one Bias. Linnie's Bias told The Washington Post
that she was very pleased that he was going to
alleghany quote, it will give him a chance to get
himself together. She said, Jay has been under a lot
of pressure lately, and Allegheny will be good for him.
(16:17):
Quote it was for one year. It helped that Bennable,
a year older, was already a member of the Allegheny team.
He and Jay were reunited as teammates. As a freshman,
Jay put up good numbers on and off the court.
He scored a two point nine grade point average in
his first semester. On the court, he averaged seventeen points
and eight rebounds per game on a team that finished
(16:40):
thirty two and four. Quote. I studied play basketball and
go to high school games. Jay said in a Baltimore
Sun's story in March nineteen eighty nine, It's like I'm
on vacation. I love basketball. It's my food. I have
to have it. It's like I'm an addict. End quote.
But Jay showed signs of uncertainty with basketball and life
years Fennible, We.
Speaker 2 (17:01):
Was sitting down plenty of nights and we just have
long talks, you know, about the neighborhood and basketball, and
you know how things was in life.
Speaker 3 (17:11):
And I remember when I was my last year.
Speaker 2 (17:14):
He said, you know when you when you leave, He said,
I don't think I'm coming back down again. He said,
I probably won't even play basketball. And Lene it would
have been you know there. I think he'd have really
went somewhere and played four years. And I may he
may have been an approach, and I guess he didn't
really have that drive, you know, like basketball wasn't really
important to him that you know, anymore.
Speaker 3 (17:36):
Like it was.
Speaker 10 (17:38):
Gennibal went on to play for Boling Green University. Jay
chose to quit basketball and college. You wandered for a
couple of years, not sure what he wanted to do
with his life. Bias worked in a dining facility at
a church and also a bank. He registered for an
algebra class at American University in the summer of nineteen ninety,
but to not earn a grade. During that summer, Annibal
(17:59):
noticed that you is not his usual self. He thought
it was because he was no longer playing basketball. At
about that time, Bob Wagner, Jay and Len's high school coach,
saw a Jay at a basketball game not far from
the Bias home.
Speaker 12 (18:12):
Mister Wagner, he says, my mom's on the road.
Speaker 13 (18:14):
My dad's a mess. He says, I don't have anybody.
Speaker 3 (18:17):
To talk to.
Speaker 13 (18:17):
I said, well, you know you're gonna play again or
you know?
Speaker 12 (18:20):
And I always remember him saying, he says, you know,
I thought about it, and Leonard, you know, my brother
would have wanted me to continue playing.
Speaker 10 (18:28):
Jay Bias brings up an uncomfortable topic in that comment
you made to Wagner, the occasional absence of his mother
in the immediate years after Lund's death. Within weeks of
Lund's death, Linise Bias became a popular speaker teaching lessons
learned from One's death. By December third, nineteen eighty six,
less than five months of the death of one Linise
Bias had done sixty speaking engagements. During one stretch leading
(18:51):
up to the first anniversary of Lund's death in nineteen
eighty seven, Linise Bias gave eight speeches in eight days.
ESPN basketball analysts Jay Billis, who played against Bias while
at Duke University, feels any criticism of Linny's Bias for
speaking so often is unwarranted.
Speaker 14 (19:07):
You know, there are things that were said that I
heard that really upset me.
Speaker 15 (19:13):
And one of them was when when Jay Bias tragically died,
I heard someone say about their mother that maybe if
she weren't out giving speeches all the time, she would
have been able to do something about about that.
Speaker 14 (19:29):
I'm like, how could you say that? Where's the empathy
and compassion for the horrible tragedy suffered? You know, like
so you you don't want their their mother to be
out trying to help it, like to your point, trying
to help educate young people that you know you need
(19:49):
to avoid this, you know, the cautionary tale aspect of that.
And it's not that that wasn't the only thing I
heard in that vein, and and you know, you just
kind of shake your head, going where where does this
kind of of mean spirited stuff come from.
Speaker 10 (20:09):
In the summer of nineteen ninety, Bias was sorting out
his life. It was then that Johnny Walker, Jay and
Lund's youth coach and mentor, saw something he thought he
would never see, Jay walking into the east Side Club
in Southeast Washington, d C. With Brian Tribble, who was
with Bias when he died. Dribble was acquitted on drug
charges related to the death of Len Bias. He later
(20:29):
served ten years in prison for drug convictions.
Speaker 11 (20:32):
Walker told me it was unbelievable. I just looked at them.
I was thrown back.
Speaker 10 (20:39):
Here's Bob Wagner.
Speaker 16 (20:40):
I'm going to be with who I want to be with,
and you know I'm not going to make the same
mistake my brother.
Speaker 17 (20:47):
Ma.
Speaker 10 (20:47):
He didn't know what he was doing, as Jay Bias
showed uncertainty. Venable settled in at Bowling Green in nineteen ninety.
He was a preseason Conference Player of the Year candidate,
and his senior season started well. Bowling Green hosted fifth
ranked Michigan State, led by all Americans Steve Smith on
December first, nineteen ninety.
Speaker 18 (21:06):
Clint Venable has just hit both for labrizro line twenty
three and afternoon eighty eight seventy seven, Michigan stayed down eleven.
Speaker 10 (21:13):
In a game recognized as one of the most memorable
in the team's history. Venable led Bowling Green to a
big win.
Speaker 18 (21:21):
That is joining the two this basketball him is all
the Holy Green as rent as for a fourteen point win,
wulverg Michigan State as a crowd. Frenchy's Heer and Anderson
are in an unofficially Clinton Venable finished with twenty five points,
believe to be g Hill attack. Joe Moore had twenty three.
Speaker 10 (21:40):
Cannibal also had five assists. He was carried off Bowling
Green's home court by his teammates as the game hero.
Within a few days, though, Vennable's life would take a
stunning turn.
Speaker 8 (21:56):
I was not prepared for the loss of Jay, and
nothing that I dealed with with Lenn helped me through Jay,
because I had already buried one son. God, what is this?
What are you talking about? My daughter called me and
she said, mon Jay has been shot.
Speaker 10 (22:15):
I said, what, that's Lenise bias talking about how she
reacted to the news that her second son, Jay had
been shot. He died soon after. Two sons dead within
five years. Both destined for greatness as basketball players, their
legacies instead defined by tragic, unforeseen, and fatal consequences. On
December fourth, Jay had gone to a jewelry store to
(22:37):
check on an engagement ring he had ordered for his girlfriend.
In the store, Jay saw Jerry Tyler, who thought Jay
was flirting with his wife, a store clerk. The two
men argued. Jay then left the store. Minutes later, someone
in a Mercedes Benz drove next to the car. Jay
sat in the passenger seat of that car. It was
waiting at a stop sign outside the mall. Someone from
(22:58):
the Mercedes Benz car fired a gun, killing Jay. Tyler
was later convicted of the murder and sentenced to life
in prison.
Speaker 9 (23:06):
And he looked up to his brother.
Speaker 8 (23:08):
He looked up to his brother even until the day
Jay died. He missed his brother so much. He missed
his brother so much until the very day he died.
Speaker 10 (23:22):
A few months before Jay died, Bob Wagner asked former
Georgetown coach John Thompson to have a talk with Jay.
Speaker 12 (23:29):
John apparently talked to him, and if John can't talk
to a kid off the street and get him, and
he said, and he told me.
Speaker 13 (23:35):
He said, well, I can't do.
Speaker 3 (23:36):
Anything with that kidd.
Speaker 13 (23:37):
He you know, he's not going to make the commitment.
He's not going to do what he has to do.
Speaker 3 (23:41):
And that was sad.
Speaker 13 (23:42):
And then, of course, you know, a few months later
Jay's dead.
Speaker 19 (23:44):
Anyway, Ed basically said to me, mister Wagner, my brother
didn't know what he was doing, and I'm not going
to make the same mistake Jay made the Prelium game
or whatever, Capitol Classic.
Speaker 13 (23:56):
I was watching a practice and it was at Springbrook.
Jay was late.
Speaker 12 (24:00):
So anyway, Jay walks into gym at Springbrook with Brian
Tribble and I said, what are you doing with him?
Because Isay? In my mind he's still the guy that
killed Leonard. He said, well, I didn't have a ride,
so Brian gave me a ride.
Speaker 9 (24:12):
I said, Jay, what are you doing?
Speaker 12 (24:14):
You can't have bron And that's when he made the
comment about.
Speaker 13 (24:17):
You know, I'm going to be who if I want
to be with, and.
Speaker 16 (24:22):
You know, I'm not going to make the same mistake
my brother may he didn't know what he was doing.
Speaker 10 (24:26):
Jerry Tayler's wife, the store clerk Jay was talking to,
testified at the trial of her husband, Seanelle Tyler, claimed
in the testimony that Jay Buys repeatedly pursued her in
the weeks before he died. The two had dated each
other in high school. She claimed that Jay had asked
her out a few days before the shooting, four days
after it's big win over Michigan State, and the day
(24:48):
after Jay Buys died, Bowling Green was preparing for an
evening game at Western Kentucky. Clint Venable, Jay's best friend
in the team starguard, had just beenish showering in the
team hotel following a shooter.
Speaker 2 (25:01):
We had one of the rooms for the connecting doors
some of the two other guys on the team, and
they was, you know, watching.
Speaker 3 (25:09):
The sports with its being I think it was, and uh,
I just.
Speaker 2 (25:13):
Got the shower and they was like, hey man, your
boy just got killed. I said, now you're talking about this,
said Jay Byes.
Speaker 3 (25:21):
Excuse me.
Speaker 2 (25:21):
I said, nah, man, stop playing. It's right here on
TV again. So I looked at it and it's like
everything just you know, it just messed me up, and
it's like the whole bodies got weak. I went down
there and called my parents on the pay and I
(25:43):
just couldn't leave it. I couldn't eat, I couldn't sleep
that whole time we was in West Kentucky.
Speaker 3 (25:50):
I'm walking around, went down to the lobby. Uh.
Speaker 2 (25:54):
The first game we played, I just didn't have nothing
in there.
Speaker 3 (25:58):
I just couldn't. I couldn't played, couldn't play at all
the whole time.
Speaker 10 (26:02):
He tried, though, against unrayed Western Kentucky. That night, Venable
scored just eight points, shooting two of thirteen from the fields.
He missed all of his shots from three point range.
Bowling Green loss by thirteen points. In nineteen eighty six,
when Lundbias died, Venable made sure to attend the funeral.
(26:24):
He interrupted his day at the five star basketball camp
to attend the funeral. When Venable returned to the camp,
he was surprised how everyone reacted to lun stuff.
Speaker 2 (26:34):
He had a moment of silence, thought Lena and the
counselors and some of the you know, ball play the
young kids kind of you know, was crying, and I
got cheeryot and I was sitting it looking like, you know,
I couldn't believe it because I knew Leonard was good,
but I didn't look at him like.
Speaker 3 (26:55):
Everyone else looked at him because he was from the neighborhood,
you know.
Speaker 2 (26:58):
And I was sitting here like, you know, these cats
don't even know len it and they you know, crying
and you know, they was weeping.
Speaker 3 (27:05):
So I was like, wow, you know, it was amazing.
Speaker 10 (27:08):
It was different. For Jay's funeral, Venable chose to stay
with this Bowling Green team rather than return to Maryland.
Speaker 2 (27:16):
I wanted to come home for the funeral, but when
I had talked to him Bides, she told me, you know,
just go ahead and stay up school and you know,
everything is fine. We're doing okay, and you know, she
just told me, you know, everything would be all right.
I wish I would have been there, but you know,
(27:37):
like I said, I don't know how I would have
took it, you know, you know that's all.
Speaker 3 (27:42):
I kept thinking. I'm like, wow, I go home. I'm
not gonna see him no more. He's not gonna be.
Speaker 20 (27:49):
There because so many times we're always ready to throw
in the towel.
Speaker 14 (28:03):
Life is too hard.
Speaker 5 (28:05):
I can't make it. I can't go on.
Speaker 20 (28:08):
But I stand here is a wakeness today, understanding that
what my family.
Speaker 17 (28:14):
And I went through was not for us.
Speaker 20 (28:17):
It was to stand up in such a time as
this to let people know you can't make it.
Speaker 10 (28:25):
That's Lenise Bias speaking at a college in Pennsylvania in
January twenty eleven. For the past three plus decades, Bias
has turned personal grief into a catalyst for change. The
middle class Christian mom has become a national icon. She
hopes that others can benefit from her unrelatable losses. Within
weeks of the famous death of her eldest son, Lan,
(28:45):
Lonise began speaking out against drug abuse, and the murder
a few years later of Jay only fueled her mission
with a relentless passion. Lenise Bias still preaches a series
of messages. One is to realize we all have good
in us.
Speaker 20 (28:59):
Fun, don't be weary and doing well.
Speaker 17 (29:03):
The only way you can get boiled.
Speaker 20 (29:06):
The only way you can get oil from an units
to crush it.
Speaker 3 (29:10):
The only way you can.
Speaker 9 (29:11):
Get juice from an ora just to squeeze it.
Speaker 8 (29:15):
The only way you can get a diamond.
Speaker 20 (29:17):
For coal is on a millions and millions and millions.
Speaker 5 (29:20):
Of tons of pressed And we all have some good
in us.
Speaker 20 (29:27):
Something that someone is waiting on.
Speaker 11 (29:29):
We haven't used all that we have to be able.
Speaker 9 (29:32):
To give.
Speaker 10 (29:34):
A message to embrace yourself worth.
Speaker 20 (29:36):
You get up and look in that mirror, you're gonna
find one of the reasons why you should hate yourself.
Learn to feel good in your skin, knowing that you're
theorically and wonderfully made. Knowing that you're beautiful, know that
no one else in the world has a set of
pupils like yours or finger prints.
Speaker 13 (29:54):
You are orally and wonderfully made.
Speaker 5 (29:57):
You are a thing of beauty.
Speaker 9 (29:59):
You are hid.
Speaker 10 (30:01):
And to embrace those close to you because you never know.
Speaker 20 (30:04):
Don't wait until someone died and were how valuable they work.
Speaker 5 (30:10):
In you and your right because stop you.
Speaker 17 (30:15):
Stop the grudges of.
Speaker 13 (30:17):
The things that that could not be paying here while
they were alive.
Speaker 20 (30:21):
When give me right, it will be not nothing.
Speaker 17 (30:28):
And so if I just had a share.
Speaker 20 (30:33):
Just saying I'm sorry.
Speaker 5 (30:36):
I didn't mean.
Speaker 10 (30:38):
The death of UnBias affected millions of people in a
variety of ways. Life saver, career changer, cautionary tale, eye opener,
program devastator, and inspiration against drug abuse. His death affected
no one as much as Limmy's Bias. The middle class
mom turned motivational speaker, an emotional healer, one whose mantra
(30:59):
is young. People are reachable, teachable, lovable and savable. If
only someone could have saved her son's one and jay.
It started when the phone rang at six thirty five
am on June Nineteenthlenise remembers getting a phone call. Keith Gatlin,
a teammate of one called to sell her Lenn had
a seizure and was on his way to the hospital.
Speaker 8 (31:21):
We're laying there in bed on June nineteenth and a
call comes, And what I remember clearly about that morning
is that the room was filled with so much sunlight
till it was almost like your eyes watered when you
open your eyes. The phone rang and it was someone
(31:45):
saying that Lynn was sick.
Speaker 9 (31:47):
He's at the hospital.
Speaker 8 (31:48):
I said what, and so I told my husband He
said what, And we got up and we went to
the hospital.
Speaker 9 (31:55):
And we got there and.
Speaker 8 (31:59):
I saw the players outside crying and torn up and
media all over the place, and I was saying, well,
what's going on? And when we got in, they said
that Lynn had gotten sick, something that happened to him.
And I asked the.
Speaker 2 (32:24):
Nurse.
Speaker 8 (32:24):
She said, we have him on life support. I said, well,
is he breathing on his own?
Speaker 9 (32:29):
She said no.
Speaker 8 (32:30):
I said, is this heart beating? And she said no,
And it was one other thing I asked. I said, well,
he's gone, and she said, no, he's not gone. The
doctor isn't here yet or arrived and he gave the
official declaration, if you will, that he's gone. And then
(32:52):
everything fell the pieces, everything went crazy, and we went
in and we looked at it and lying there and
my husband torn up, just torn to pieces. And God
had given me a strength to stand there, to look
(33:15):
and to rub his head and to get home.
Speaker 10 (33:21):
Jeff Baxter, a teammate of Lens, was also at the hospital.
Baxter noticed the calm demeanor of Lenise Bias amid the
emotional storm.
Speaker 3 (33:30):
How do that she was calm as hell?
Speaker 2 (33:32):
That surprised me, not because of her persoda, but it
surprised me because of the advent they have at that point.
Speaker 3 (33:38):
I don't know how you could be as calm.
Speaker 9 (33:40):
As she was.
Speaker 10 (33:41):
For Lanise Bias, there has been a new life after
the death of one Bias. She gave her first speech
on July twenty sixth, nineteen eighty six, at a church
not far from the Bias home. A young female friend
of Lens invited her to speak after She appeared on
The seven hundred Club, a television show syndicated on a
national Christian work. She gave speeches within the first year
(34:02):
of one's death to young people and business groups. One
of those speeches took place on December third, nineteen eighty six.
New Marilynd men's basketball coach Bob Wade was among those
in the audience. Here's part of what Bias said in
that speech. Quote, God had to take something special to
save a generation. Somebody has got to get out and
(34:24):
say something. I believe God is using me. I'm basically
a sewer seeds. I tell people what is right and
what is wrong. Maybe some will get the message.
Speaker 9 (34:33):
End quote.
Speaker 10 (34:41):
In the late nineteen eighties, Lenise Bias earned the chance
to speak to the NBA rookies as part of its
orientation program. Former Celtics star Sach Sanders operated the program
for the NBA.
Speaker 21 (34:52):
Well, I think the player came out thinking that players
came out thinking that they are mother or grandmother was
somehow connected with the NBA's program. After having this woman talk,
they they hadn't left home. The lectures were there, the
(35:16):
voice was there. She brought an important piece for a
few years that she came and spoke to the players.
A lot of players, you know, if they're thinking that
they have arrived in terms of being grown. Now they're
leaving home and going to get paid to play professional basketball,
and all of a sudden, here was the voice of
(35:41):
the mother. Aunt grandmother got in. Whoever they respected was
right there in the program because not only did she
talk to them, she stayed around a couple of days
and sat with players and talked to them, and you know,
cause they really wanted to know more about Thank thank
(36:05):
for the program.
Speaker 10 (36:16):
In the immediate months after the death of his oldest son,
Lenn James Bias acted like any father would, with a
mix of grief, anger, confusion, and resolve. During a memorial
service for lend a few days after he died, James
spotted Len's two most prominent coaches about Wagner from high
school and left Tea yourself from college. Here's Wagner recalling
(36:37):
the incident.
Speaker 13 (36:38):
At the wake. I was deeply hurt by this.
Speaker 12 (36:42):
At the wake, I wrote down with Lefty because we
didn't know where we were going.
Speaker 13 (36:49):
We come into the church and I know.
Speaker 12 (36:51):
Mister Bias was still hurt and upset, but Lefty walks
over to give his condolences, and mister Bias has something
like te Lefty like, you stay away from me. You
killed mich saw this, Oh, I'm staying right and you too,
and pointed to me. I just took that very personally.
I never said anything to him. I thought there were
(37:11):
times when I thought about just driving through Columbia Park
and maybe talking to mister Bias and seeing you know,
like you know, I'm sorry about what happened.
Speaker 10 (37:18):
James Bias has stayed mostly in the background since the
death of Lend. He has spoken little about his son's death.
His most profound words came about a year from Lend's death.
Here's what he said in a Washington Post story. Quote,
the biggest problem for me was looking at Leonard's possessions,
all piles up in the bedroom. They say time heals
all wounds, but you never outlive it because there's always
(37:40):
these question marks. What really happened to Lend Bias end quote.
There was a collective resolve by Lenise and James Bias
to find out what happened to the money they felt
was due Len's estate. In June nineteen eighty seven, the
Bias family filed a twenty seven million dollar lawsuit alleging
fraud and negligence by Leaf Interest and Advantage International. Ventris
(38:00):
was the agent for Bias and worked for Advantage. The
company was in negotiations with the Boston Celtics and Rebock
on behalf of Bias. The Bias family believed that Advantage
had secured a one million dollar life insurance policy on Bias.
The Biases claim in the lawsuit that they did not
buy the life insurance because they believed Ventris had already
purchased it. The suit also asked for two point six
(38:23):
million dollars from Reebok. It claimed the company told James
and Lanni's Bias that an agreement had been made between
Rebok and Lun Bias. It claimed Bias would have been
paid three hundred twenty five thousand dollars a year for
five years. Advantage denied the existence of a contract. Joanne
Brazaki and Alette worked as a marketing manager for Rebok
when the company was negotiating a deal with Bias. She
(38:46):
worked closely with Bias.
Speaker 5 (38:48):
So there was nothing signed. I can honestly tell you that.
Speaker 10 (38:51):
Further, the Bias family sued an insurance company for breach
of contract. The Biases had purchased a one million dollar
policy on behalf of Lund district, and appeals courts ruled
against the Bias estate in both cases. They appealed the
lawsuits against Reebok and Advantage to the US Supreme Court,
which refused to hear the appeal. To make matters worse,
the Bias family had to pay back alone of about
(39:13):
twenty thousand dollars they had taken out for Lund in
the months before he died.
Speaker 20 (39:18):
When len died, I prayed to die.
Speaker 4 (39:20):
I did not want to live.
Speaker 5 (39:23):
I did not want to live.
Speaker 20 (39:26):
Four years later, Jay died, I prayed to die a day.
I guess what here?
Speaker 5 (39:31):
I am alive and well.
Speaker 20 (39:33):
I could not see anything but darkness when lead and die.
And then when Jay died the same hospital, the same
bad duds all over again.
Speaker 9 (39:49):
I didn't think I have made it.
Speaker 10 (40:00):
The calm that Lenise Bias displayed after the death of
one was not evident. Four years later, after j Byas
died in a surreal manner, Jay was taken to the
same hospital as was one.
Speaker 8 (40:11):
So I go to the same waiting room and knock
on the same door, and my daughter opens it. I said,
how is Jay doing? She said, Man, Jay is gone.
I said what she said, Jay is gone. I went
(40:32):
completely off. I took my fists and I beat the
walls in in that waiting room with my fists. I
beat holes in the wall. I took the lamps. I
threw them in the floor. I screamed, I hollered. I
was so angry with God. I was so mad. This
was not fair. And as I walked out of the door,
(40:56):
my husband and my daughter were trying to calm me down.
As I walked out of the door, there was a
nurse on my left, and she said, oh, we have
prepared Jay's body for you to look at. And at
that time I could have spit in her face.
Speaker 9 (41:11):
I told her get away from me.
Speaker 8 (41:12):
I'm not going to look at anybody. I'm not going
to look at a body. And we got home, and
when we pulled up, here's the whole thing getting ready
to start again. And I walked in. There were people
sitting and seated in my house. I told him to
get out of my house, get out my house. And
then I went to my bedroom and shut the door
(41:35):
and stayed in there for three days.
Speaker 9 (41:37):
And every time I.
Speaker 8 (41:38):
Thought about what God had allowed to happen to our
family again. I would get mad. I would lay there.
Someone would bring me a cup of water. I'd take
it and throw it up against the wall. So God
let me have my temper tantrum for three days. And
on the third day day I got up and I
(41:59):
started to move forward.
Speaker 10 (42:02):
Over the years, Lenise and James Bias have seen some
groups recently except the legacy of her sons more willingly,
most notably of one. Since twenty twelve, one has been
inducted into three athletic Halls of Fame, the most recent
one in November twenty twenty one. We will have more
on that in a later segment. Perhaps more profoundly, One's
legacy lives on in the everyday lives of some who
(42:24):
have used his death as a red light to stop
abusing drugs. Denise Bias sees the signs often.
Speaker 8 (42:31):
I was on a plane one time, traveling to speak
in a flight attendant handed me a note saying, I
know it's you.
Speaker 9 (42:41):
I know it's you. I know it's you.
Speaker 8 (42:44):
I stopped cocaine the day your son died. This was
a flight attendant. I have received letters and cards, emails
from people over the years who said they literally stopped
you drugs. The day LN Dye, my husband and I
(43:04):
were in what was it, Walmart last year, year before last,
a man walked up to us. He said, Miss Bias,
I've been saying forever that I wanted to tell you this,
he said. I was in college. Never use drugs, he said.
(43:26):
And a friend of mine, who was in grad school,
someone that I respected, told me they have this stuff
out called cocaine, and they she said that you would
feel so good when you just rub it on your teeth.
And he said, because of who she was he was
in school, he respected her. He was going to try it,
(43:50):
he said. The next day, ln Dye, and he never
touched it. I mean wherever I have gone from, I
had been everywhere to speak, from the wealthiest, the porest,
and everything in between. And everybody has their stories of
how Len's death.
Speaker 9 (44:12):
Saved them.
Speaker 10 (44:18):
Michael Bias spoke calmly as he sat in a chair
on the secured side of the visitors area through a window.
His face flashed an engaged expression as he talked about
his father.
Speaker 11 (44:28):
Michael Bias told me everything has been a struggle financially, emotionally,
it's been a tough break for me all my life.
It's been a jinx from when I was born because
he died.
Speaker 10 (44:40):
The conversation took place in July twenty eleven at the
ann Arundel County Detention Center in Maryland, in the same
month that Michael was born to Tina Maynard twenty five
years earlier. Both Michael Bias and Maynard claim Lund Bias
is Michael's father. Leonard Kevin Bias, which matches Leund's name,
is listed as the father on My's birth certificate. A
(45:01):
DNA test has never been done before. Others have confirmed
that Michael Bias is one's son. Michael Bias has spent
the early part of his adulthood incarcerated for crimes that
range from driving without a license to arm robbery and
reckless endangerment. Michael made it clear that the most important
thing he wants from the Bias family is recognition. He
did meet Linise and James Bias when he was about
(45:23):
one month old.
Speaker 11 (45:25):
Michael told me, I want to meet the other side
of my family. They owe me an open conversation. It's
like a missing piece in the puzzle of my life.
Speaker 10 (45:35):
Michael Leonard Bias was born in July third, nineteen eighty six.
Maynard had first seen Len Bias when she was thirteen.
She attended a high school step playoff game to support
the brother of a friend who was playing in the game,
but after she saw Lan on the court, her focus
shifted away from her friend's brother.
Speaker 11 (45:51):
Maynard told me, I was young, he was tall, and
he was the star ball player.
Speaker 10 (45:57):
Several years later, Maynard met Bias at a party on
the Maryland campus in fall of nineteen eighty five. Bias
was just beginning his senior year. Within weeks of meeting Bias,
Maynard says she was pregnant by him. Maynard, as she
spent time that school year on the Maryland campus, often
in Lem's dormitory suite, She says she knew that Lem
was romantically involved with other women.
Speaker 11 (46:19):
Maynard told me, I never thought that he was only
dating me. I was not bothered by it at all.
Speaker 10 (46:26):
Maynard says that during the time she knew Bias, he
would use cocaine on occasion. When Maynard told Bias she
was pregnant with his child, she says he asked if
she was certain. After she started crying, she says he
asked what was wrong.
Speaker 11 (46:39):
Maynard told me, I said, I'm so young. He said,
You're going to be okay. He could have been, well,
it ain't my baby, but he didn't say that.
Speaker 10 (46:49):
Several teammates of Bias during his senior year all denied
knowing of Bias being the father of Maynard's child. Only one,
Phil Nevin, recalled seeing someone who resembled Maynard. He was
a roommate of Bias during bias his last year. When
told during a phone conversation that a woman claimed to
have given birth to Len's child, Nevin asked, without being
(47:09):
told her name, was it Athenia Tina? I remember? Was
she light skinned? He asked, yes, that's her. He says,
I saw her occasionally. Maynard set up a meeting to
introduce her son to the Bias family within a few
weeks of Michael Bias's birth. Maynard says she visited them
at their home along with her mother, a sister, and
(47:29):
her uncle, Joseph Sastro Simms. Maynard didn't make the call
herself because she was concerned about how the Biased family
would react to the news. She was on sure if
Linise Bias knew that Lenn had fathered a child and
Maynard says she was concerned about the perception that she
was trying to take advantage of Bias's fame. She felt
people would think she was, as she put it, a
(47:50):
gold digger. Maynard remembers the gathering lasting a few hours.
She claims that Linise and James Bias held the baby
throughout much of a meeting, and that James cried often
during the visit. Maynard says at the meeting that she
expressed a willingness to take a DNA test to confirm
that Michael was one son, but she says she received
no response from the Bias family. Simms, Maynard's uncle, also
(48:11):
attended the meeting. He remember the meeting is mostly uncomfortable.
Speaker 11 (48:15):
Sims told me, speaking of Lenise's Bias. I wasn't expecting
her to run out and say, here's my son's child,
and I wasn't expecting the cold and aloopness that I got.
Speaker 10 (48:27):
Maynard says the Bias family showed little interest in Michael
after that day. Once she and Sims brought Michael long
to a speech by Linise Bias so she could see Michael.
Sims took Michael to greet Lenise after her speech Sims
recalled the brief encounter.
Speaker 11 (48:41):
Sims told me she didn't completely ignore me, but it
wasn't that great of a meeting. It was no better
than thirty seconds.
Speaker 10 (48:50):
During our interview in twenty eleven, Maynard wondered why Linise
Bias and her family have for the most part, ignored him.
Speaker 11 (48:57):
Maynard told me, why don't you acknowledge your grandson? That's
what I would want to ask her. When asked if
she thinks it will happen, she said no, it hasn't
thus far.
Speaker 10 (49:08):
There are no indications that Michael Bias has met members
of Len Bias's immediate family. Michael Bias declined an interview
for this podcast. Linise Bias was not contacted for this podcast.
She was asked in emails, phone calls, and a letter
for an interview for the book of which this podcast
is based. She refused all requests. Based on her past reluctance,
producers have chosen not to reach out to her for
(49:30):
this podcast series.
Speaker 2 (50:00):
Yeah, it's just dedicated.
Speaker 3 (50:11):
Up next on Len Bias and Mixed Legacy. Faming Legacy.
Speaker 22 (50:17):
I found out after calling Lefty Uh that Lenn had
never been inducted into the Maryland Basketball Hall of Fame.
And so I said, he deserves to be recognized.
Speaker 2 (50:32):
I remember one kid, recently departed alumni has said that
he would have his name removed from the Hall of
Fame if then Bias got in.
Speaker 5 (50:41):
So that was how strong they thought.
Speaker 4 (50:43):
About we are here today experiencing history, the.
Speaker 9 (50:51):
Bias today here.
Speaker 17 (51:06):
It was strictly based on his achievements at Maryland. And
and you often heard due of those deliberations you heard,
you know, comparisons to Michael Jordans. Treble was not going
to be blamed.
Speaker 5 (51:22):
This is a time when drug use is tolerated.
Speaker 17 (51:25):
They were not going to play the blame game.
Speaker 23 (51:29):
One tragedy story when Lin Bias passed away from using cocaine,
My father came in the house furious, furious, if you
ever do this, I'll kill you. You ain't gonna have time
to overdose.
Speaker 3 (51:43):
I'll kill you.
Speaker 1 (51:45):
This podcast series is based on the book Born Ready
The Mixed Legacy of Limby's, published by Go Grading Media.
The series is produced by Go Grading Media in partnership
with Octagon Entertainment. This segment was produced by Dave on
Grady and Don Mark. It was written by Dave and
edited by Don Marcus. The narrator was Lauren Rosh, with
additional narration by Jamal Williams. Technical production was provided by
(52:07):
Octagon Entertainment. Production assistance was produced by Kevin McNulty, Tino Quagliata,
Lauren Rosh, Georgia Brown, Casey Fair, Jamal Williams, Kelsey Mannix
and enzol Al Varenia. Matt Dewhurst is providing the social
media systems special thanks to the University of Maryland and
American University providing instruments. The Decision Education Foundation is a
(52:30):
content and promotional partner of this podcast series. More information
go to gogradymedia dot com. This has been a production
of go Grady Media and the Eighth Side Network
This podcast is based a large part on the book
Born Ready Mixed Legacy of Lundbyers. Some cults are narrated
by podcast producer and book author Dave and Grady from
interviews done for the book. Recruitings for those comments were
not available.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
Yeah, we always wanted to be like the older guys,
and you always say, man, I want I want to
do what they're doing.
Speaker 3 (00:22):
So they were like a big brother to us.
Speaker 4 (00:26):
I try not to get over excited by anybody in
the beginning, but I knew he was He was athletic.
Speaker 5 (00:32):
I knew he could be a good player.
Speaker 6 (00:36):
Jay has more, much more skill than letter skill ons
as a basketbas player.
Speaker 2 (00:43):
When I turned around, Jay was laying down and I
seen the crowd just come on the court, you know,
fight broke out.
Speaker 4 (00:51):
I thought it was no doubt that he was a
vision one, you know, basketball player.
Speaker 5 (00:57):
He could do anything on the court he wanted.
Speaker 3 (01:00):
Wouldn't do. I just hope that I live the family have.
Speaker 7 (01:04):
Everything I do from now on is dedicated for my brother.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
And he was like, hey, man, your boy got killed.
I said, no, you're talking about this, said Jay Bias.
Speaker 3 (01:16):
Excuse me, I said, nah, man, it stop playing It's
like the whole widus got weak. I couldn't eat, I
couldn't sleep. I just didn't have nothing in and the people.
Speaker 8 (01:27):
I was not prepared for the loss of dre and
nothing that I deal with with.
Speaker 9 (01:33):
Len helped me through.
Speaker 10 (01:34):
Drag through a window. His face flashed an engaged expression
as he talked about Len Bias being his father.
Speaker 11 (01:44):
Michael Bias told me everything has been a struggle financial, emotional.
It's been a tough break for me all my life.
It's been a jinx from when I was born. Because
he died.
Speaker 1 (01:58):
In this episode of Lemby looks Legacy and how the
death of lem Bison packing his Fim.
Speaker 2 (02:03):
And bind Boss we also find us and lived to
the limits, leaning to find Dodds.
Speaker 10 (02:11):
The indoor basketball court at the Columbia Park Recreation Center
is not known for its visual appeal. It has no
windows for bleachers. It's a drab, beige box anchored on
each end with a basketball hoop. For a time, though,
one of its walls caught your attention when walking through
the gym. On that wall was a poster announcing the
dedication of the Wharton Macley Madkins Gymnasium in two thousand
(02:35):
and two. For decades, Madkins was the director of the center,
also known as The Wreck. He helped coach Lund Bias
and others in both football and basketball. Here's Madkins talking
about Bias shortly after his death.
Speaker 3 (02:48):
At first, Kid used to laugh at I mean, I'll
call you a very awkward you know.
Speaker 4 (02:51):
But he kept playing, playing the like every day. He
was up there, like seven days a week, and he
developed one of the basketball players I hate.
Speaker 10 (02:59):
A picture in the poster, located on the bottom right,
includes Jay Bias, the younger brother of Lund Bias. He
flashes an easy smile and wears a green T shirt
emblazoned with the words Boston Celtics in bright white letters.
Below the picture are words attributed to Madkins that read,
they may leave, but they always find a way back.
Jay's legend at the Wreck is as profound as Lens.
(03:22):
For different yet sadly parallel reasons, neither made it back.
Lent died in nineteen eighty six, a victim of drug
overdose during a celebration. Jay died in nineteen ninety, a
victim of gun violence following an argument. The picture in
the poster was taken the winter after Lent died when
a Columbia Park team won a club tournament in North Carolina.
(03:43):
Next to Jay in the picture is Jay's best friend
Clint Mennable. The two had met at the Wreck. Basketball
played a large part in their developing a deep friendship,
one that resembled brothers more than friends.
Speaker 2 (03:55):
Played ball with June. We ate over each other house,
you know, over there. Yeah, he come on my house.
Speaker 3 (04:03):
I mean, that's how all the guys was in the neighborhood.
Speaker 2 (04:06):
And that's when they I can say, you know, especially
about our neighborhood.
Speaker 3 (04:09):
You know, the guys got along. We always had each
other back. We would play like all day. That's all
we knew basketball. We want to go up to gym
play ball.
Speaker 2 (04:22):
If gym weren't open yet, we'd play outside wait for
Mac to get it open. And we couldn't get enough
of basketball. If our parents wanted us, they kne where
to find us. We sit direction in that plumbing park one.
Speaker 10 (04:33):
Bias was a hero to many young people for his
basketball talents, perhaps none more than to Clint Bennable and
Jay Bias. Vennable talks reverently about his mentors Bias, Brian
Waller and Johnny Walker, They all taught Jay and Clint
and others at the Wreck about basketball in life. At times,
they gave up their court time so their mentors could play.
Speaker 2 (04:54):
You know, theyasically kick us off the court because he
was younger than want us to play. Then we could
to sit and watch those guys play. Leonard and Ryan
Ice and Johnny and them.
Speaker 3 (05:04):
Guys used to work out.
Speaker 2 (05:05):
They used to let Jay and myself and Henry never
got to play with us hang out with them. We
just get so excited, like it was like Christmas, and
he's like, you know, be quiet, you know, don't do this,
don't do that.
Speaker 3 (05:17):
And we just wanted to hang out with these guys.
Speaker 10 (05:18):
Watching one play convinced venta Ball that he wanted to
go to college, ideally at Maryland.
Speaker 3 (05:23):
I used to watch the way he worked on the court,
the way he worked without the ball.
Speaker 2 (05:29):
And how you cut off the guy, you know, how
you worked to go get it, how you was square
up to the basket and shoot. Like I said, we
had plenty of drills to do that, you know, watching
up these other guys doing it.
Speaker 3 (05:44):
How he boxed out, you know.
Speaker 2 (05:45):
How he played the game, and a lot of stuff
he was doing was straight, basic, straight basic basketball.
Speaker 10 (05:53):
During the rare times Clint played on the same team
as Lumbias. He understood his role.
Speaker 2 (05:57):
When you're playing with someone like that, you're thinking, like,
I gotta get him in the ball.
Speaker 10 (06:02):
And when Jay played against lend the elder Bias did
not play favorites.
Speaker 2 (06:05):
You know, when he's on the floor, he ain't He's on him,
knock him down. With the younger guys, we always wanted
to be like the older guys.
Speaker 3 (06:12):
They didn't been through what we're going through.
Speaker 2 (06:13):
We probably gonn't go to our parents and talk to them,
you know, about what's going on.
Speaker 3 (06:17):
So they were like a big brother to us.
Speaker 10 (06:20):
Venable felt as if he was a brother to Jay
and by extension, part of the Bias family. Jay, Bias
and Menible we're still in junior high school. When Len
Bias began his career at Maryland, they looked at Lund
as just another guy from the neighborhood. They hung out
together at the Bias family home, just a couple of
bucks away from the wreck. They gathered around the television
set in the Bias basement and watch videos.
Speaker 2 (06:40):
Of one we just go right there and watched the
highlights of Maryland and I mean we watched it from
you know, as freshman on up and you know who
was young. We's going in and watched the games and
you know see some of the dungs that you know
we d ut to see on TV.
Speaker 10 (07:01):
And they were able to play pickup games on the
Maryland campus with their mentors turned tiers.
Speaker 2 (07:06):
Uh wrollside and they play. It had the lights out there.
You know, you got some of the guys from Maryland playing.
Speaker 3 (07:15):
You even had.
Speaker 2 (07:15):
A cute gatling uh, Jeff Baxter Lennard.
Speaker 3 (07:21):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (07:22):
I mean just being on the court with those guys.
You know you're thinking, like and I'm in high school
and they get to go up here and play with
these guys. You know, these guys playing on TV. They
played Division one basketball soon where you know, every kid.
Speaker 3 (07:35):
Want to be.
Speaker 10 (07:36):
Brian Waller was Len's high school teammate. He says Vennaball
and Jay were among a few players they would pick
as the fifth player on their teams in those games.
Here's how Waller compared the skills of.
Speaker 11 (07:46):
Len and j Waller told me Leonard was more power,
Jay was more finesse. Lennard was by far the better shooter,
but Jay could handle the ball, put the ball on
the floor, create his own shots. Jay could use his
left hand. Both were great athletes. Both could jump and leap.
(08:06):
Len was a two footer. Most of his dunks were
off two feet.
Speaker 10 (08:10):
When it came time for Jay Bias and Venable to
pick their high schools, how could they not pick Northwestern?
It was the only place they would be comfortable playing basketball.
Len Bias and Brian Waller, their two idols, made it
to the state finals there in nineteen eighty one during
Len's junior year.
Speaker 2 (08:25):
You watched the older guys play, and you want to
be in their shoes, And I said, man, in fact,
just get in no question.
Speaker 3 (08:32):
We had the best cheerleader school. You know, had a
school spirit.
Speaker 10 (08:36):
Venable was a year older than Jay and played varsity
as a sophomore. Cornell Jones was the junior varsity coach
at Northwestern at the time. He first saw Jay play
as a freshman and picked him to play for the jv.
Speaker 4 (08:47):
I try not to get over excited about anybody in
the beginning, but I knew he was athletic. I knew
he could be a good player doing tryouts. We knew
he was an outstanding player. But We thought putting him
on the jv would be the best thing for him,
so he could grow and wouldn't have the pressure of saying, hey.
Speaker 5 (09:09):
He's a bias, he's going to be this debt and
the other.
Speaker 10 (09:12):
A lot of that atmosphere was due to the school's coach,
Bob Wagner. His last year's coach was in nineteen eighty six,
the year that Leunn died. Earlier that season, Wagner picked
j to play half the year for a Northwestern's varsity
team as a sophomore. Wagner felt it was best to
keep Jay close to him rather than keep him on
the juniversity.
Speaker 6 (09:30):
Jay had much more skill than Leonard did skill wise
as a basketball player, but he also had more mouths
and that held him.
Speaker 5 (09:38):
Back his development.
Speaker 10 (09:48):
On the day Lund died, Jay scored twenty points in
a summer league basketball game Northwestern won by twenty one points.
He also made time to talk about his brother for
a local television new show.
Speaker 3 (09:58):
He was the.
Speaker 7 (09:59):
Best brother that I think ever in the whole world,
the best brother. Anything that he wanted to doe, I mean,
anything that you needed, he'd jump right on it, always on.
Speaker 3 (10:08):
Top of the job, just like my father.
Speaker 7 (10:11):
I just hope that I live to see him at heaven,
and everything I do from now on is dedicated for
my brother.
Speaker 10 (10:18):
But Jay struggled to maintain that focus. He soon showed
signs of trouble dealing with his brother's death. When he
returned to school in the fall, he lost focus on academics.
Jay said the following in a Baltimore Sun story in
March nineteen eighty nine. Quote. When my brother died, I
got a chip on my shoulder. Nothing worse could happen.
Since he was gone. I saw no reason to do
(10:39):
what I was supposed to do. My attitude was forget
the world. I found myself doing things I shouldn't have.
I wouldn't do my schoolwork. Instead, I'd hang out at
clubs with friends. My mother and friends counseled me. I
straightened up. End quote. Venable remembers players doing mean things
to Jay related to Lend's death. At times, Jay struggled
to control his emotions on the court.
Speaker 2 (11:00):
They said a lot of you know, bad things that
Jay going in off the court. I don't care who
you are. You only take them so much. And you know,
like I said, it was rough on the work. It
was for the kids. The team would say something to J.
(11:22):
I know he will go on. Somebody say something, you know,
just kept nagging him. And I say that was probably
part of their game plan to get in his head,
you know, to kind of to beat us.
Speaker 10 (11:34):
During his junior year, Jay was ejected from the first
game of the season for throwing an elbow. He was
involved in a shoving incident in another The most dramatic
incident happened in a game against county opponent Eleanor Roosevelt
at the end of the season. Players were trying their
best to prevent Jay from dunking the ball on fast breaks.
After j completed an Ali who play on a pass
(11:54):
from Venable, he ended up on the floor.
Speaker 2 (11:58):
And when I turned around, Jay was laying down and
that the fight broke out, and I seen the crowd
just coming on a court.
Speaker 3 (12:06):
You know, the fight broke out when people.
Speaker 2 (12:07):
Came out the stands and you know, I mean it
was like just it's terrible.
Speaker 3 (12:13):
But a lot of that players that got hurt, I
know that.
Speaker 2 (12:16):
And if one of the us fight, he said, all
of us fighting. Bob Wagner's also you know, he said
the same thing. Really, you know, we're not gonna start
a fight, you know, become to play ball.
Speaker 9 (12:30):
He tall.
Speaker 2 (12:30):
This is a basketball team. We have family. We helped
each other build it out for one another.
Speaker 10 (12:36):
Bias was taken to a hospital and treated for bruses.
In a Washington Post story about a month later in
March nineteen eighty seven, Bias admitted he had trouble controlling
his temper. He said the following in the story quote,
I felt a lot of pressure after Lund died. I
think people expected me to do what Lund did when
he was here. It bothered me a lot, and I
didn't have the patience to deal with it. I was
(12:58):
also getting sick and tired of always being referred to
as Len Bias his brother. For the rest of my life,
I will be Jay, and I want to be accepted
on what I do. When teams play against me, I
want to feel they are playing against me, not against
Len's little brother. Right now, I'm just trying to help
us have the best season we can have quote, And
he did. Some nine months after Lunn died, Northwestern One
(13:21):
its first state title since nineteen sixty eight at cole
Field House, Len's home court at Maryland. As Venable remembers,
Jay could display a loose demeanor similar to Lenz, often
joking with his teammates before games to stay relaxed, but
before the state championship final in nineteen eighty seven, he
was quiet and reflective. Venable remembered seeing tears well in
(13:42):
Jay's eyes in the locker room before the game. He
recalled Jay writing Lens Maryland number thirty four in the
back of his basketball shoes. He scrawled Len on one
shoe and Bias on the other, Inspired perhaps by his
brother's spirit. In the arena he had once dominated. Jay
scored a game high twenty five points. He also grabbed
fourteen rebounds. Cornell Jones was their coach.
Speaker 5 (14:03):
He was probably the year that we wanted to state.
Speaker 4 (14:05):
He was probably our probably second best player behind Clinton Venable.
And the only thing this was I think was this
Clinton had experience in Jay didn't.
Speaker 10 (14:16):
Things were different. The next season, Northwestern finished with the
ten and twelve record. I missed the state playoffs, but
Jay put up big numbers, averaging twenty five points and
twelve rebounds a game. By this time, Jones saw stardom
in Jay's future.
Speaker 5 (14:30):
I saw him as a potential superstar.
Speaker 4 (14:32):
I thought that he would be able to do anything
that he wanted to do in the basketball court.
Speaker 5 (14:36):
If he worked at he could do everything. He could shoot,
he could.
Speaker 4 (14:39):
Handle the ball, he could attack the basket. The only
thing again slinder bill. But again he was only what
sixteen seventeen years old, so he hadn't developed that man's
body yet, and he.
Speaker 10 (14:51):
Managed to avoid the on court altercations that soured his
junior season. Still, Jones wondered if Jay was ready to
play in college.
Speaker 5 (14:58):
Jay was fun level, Jay was fun loving, like, hey,
let's do this, Let's do it.
Speaker 4 (15:02):
I would say, more impulsive, you know, and that's what
could get him in trouble sometime, being impulsive like j
and I still think he even though he was a senior,
I still think he hadn't reached that maturity level that
you need some time to bridge that gap between high
school and college or bridge that came from high school
(15:23):
and just graduate from high school. He didn't have the
greatest grades in the world, so I think that kind
of back some schools off right.
Speaker 5 (15:32):
I would say Jay was an average student.
Speaker 10 (15:35):
Jay's mother, Lenise Bias, said that Jay earned a two
point eight three academic average during his senior year, but
he failed to reach seven hundred on his SATs. That
prevented him from earning scholarship offers from Division one schools.
Jay chose instead to attend to Allegheny Community College, considered
a top junior college in the country. Some of its
(15:55):
past players included former Terps Steve Francis, an All American
who had a prominent NBA career, and Speedy Jones, a
teammate of one Bias. Linnie's Bias told The Washington Post
that she was very pleased that he was going to
alleghany quote, it will give him a chance to get
himself together. She said, Jay has been under a lot
of pressure lately, and Allegheny will be good for him.
(16:17):
Quote it was for one year. It helped that Bennable,
a year older, was already a member of the Allegheny team.
He and Jay were reunited as teammates. As a freshman,
Jay put up good numbers on and off the court.
He scored a two point nine grade point average in
his first semester. On the court, he averaged seventeen points
and eight rebounds per game on a team that finished
(16:40):
thirty two and four. Quote. I studied play basketball and
go to high school games. Jay said in a Baltimore
Sun's story in March nineteen eighty nine, It's like I'm
on vacation. I love basketball. It's my food. I have
to have it. It's like I'm an addict. End quote.
But Jay showed signs of uncertainty with basketball and life
years Fennible, We.
Speaker 2 (17:01):
Was sitting down plenty of nights and we just have
long talks, you know, about the neighborhood and basketball, and
you know how things was in life.
Speaker 3 (17:11):
And I remember when I was my last year.
Speaker 2 (17:14):
He said, you know when you when you leave, He said,
I don't think I'm coming back down again. He said,
I probably won't even play basketball. And Lene it would
have been you know there. I think he'd have really
went somewhere and played four years. And I may he
may have been an approach, and I guess he didn't
really have that drive, you know, like basketball wasn't really
important to him that you know, anymore.
Speaker 3 (17:36):
Like it was.
Speaker 10 (17:38):
Gennibal went on to play for Boling Green University. Jay
chose to quit basketball and college. You wandered for a
couple of years, not sure what he wanted to do
with his life. Bias worked in a dining facility at
a church and also a bank. He registered for an
algebra class at American University in the summer of nineteen ninety,
but to not earn a grade. During that summer, Annibal
(17:59):
noticed that you is not his usual self. He thought
it was because he was no longer playing basketball. At
about that time, Bob Wagner, Jay and Len's high school coach,
saw a Jay at a basketball game not far from
the Bias home.
Speaker 12 (18:12):
Mister Wagner, he says, my mom's on the road.
Speaker 13 (18:14):
My dad's a mess. He says, I don't have anybody.
Speaker 3 (18:17):
To talk to.
Speaker 13 (18:17):
I said, well, you know you're gonna play again or
you know?
Speaker 12 (18:20):
And I always remember him saying, he says, you know,
I thought about it, and Leonard, you know, my brother
would have wanted me to continue playing.
Speaker 10 (18:28):
Jay Bias brings up an uncomfortable topic in that comment
you made to Wagner, the occasional absence of his mother
in the immediate years after Lund's death. Within weeks of
Lund's death, Linise Bias became a popular speaker teaching lessons
learned from One's death. By December third, nineteen eighty six,
less than five months of the death of one Linise
Bias had done sixty speaking engagements. During one stretch leading
(18:51):
up to the first anniversary of Lund's death in nineteen
eighty seven, Linise Bias gave eight speeches in eight days.
ESPN basketball analysts Jay Billis, who played against Bias while
at Duke University, feels any criticism of Linny's Bias for
speaking so often is unwarranted.
Speaker 14 (19:07):
You know, there are things that were said that I
heard that really upset me.
Speaker 15 (19:13):
And one of them was when when Jay Bias tragically died,
I heard someone say about their mother that maybe if
she weren't out giving speeches all the time, she would
have been able to do something about about that.
Speaker 14 (19:29):
I'm like, how could you say that? Where's the empathy
and compassion for the horrible tragedy suffered? You know, like
so you you don't want their their mother to be
out trying to help it, like to your point, trying
to help educate young people that you know you need
(19:49):
to avoid this, you know, the cautionary tale aspect of that.
And it's not that that wasn't the only thing I
heard in that vein, and and you know, you just
kind of shake your head, going where where does this
kind of of mean spirited stuff come from.
Speaker 10 (20:09):
In the summer of nineteen ninety, Bias was sorting out
his life. It was then that Johnny Walker, Jay and
Lund's youth coach and mentor, saw something he thought he
would never see, Jay walking into the east Side Club
in Southeast Washington, d C. With Brian Tribble, who was
with Bias when he died. Dribble was acquitted on drug
charges related to the death of Len Bias. He later
(20:29):
served ten years in prison for drug convictions.
Speaker 11 (20:32):
Walker told me it was unbelievable. I just looked at them.
I was thrown back.
Speaker 10 (20:39):
Here's Bob Wagner.
Speaker 16 (20:40):
I'm going to be with who I want to be with,
and you know I'm not going to make the same
mistake my brother.
Speaker 17 (20:47):
Ma.
Speaker 10 (20:47):
He didn't know what he was doing, as Jay Bias
showed uncertainty. Venable settled in at Bowling Green in nineteen ninety.
He was a preseason Conference Player of the Year candidate,
and his senior season started well. Bowling Green hosted fifth
ranked Michigan State, led by all Americans Steve Smith on
December first, nineteen ninety.
Speaker 18 (21:06):
Clint Venable has just hit both for labrizro line twenty
three and afternoon eighty eight seventy seven, Michigan stayed down eleven.
Speaker 10 (21:13):
In a game recognized as one of the most memorable
in the team's history. Venable led Bowling Green to a
big win.
Speaker 18 (21:21):
That is joining the two this basketball him is all
the Holy Green as rent as for a fourteen point win,
wulverg Michigan State as a crowd. Frenchy's Heer and Anderson
are in an unofficially Clinton Venable finished with twenty five points,
believe to be g Hill attack. Joe Moore had twenty three.
Speaker 10 (21:40):
Cannibal also had five assists. He was carried off Bowling
Green's home court by his teammates as the game hero.
Within a few days, though, Vennable's life would take a
stunning turn.
Speaker 8 (21:56):
I was not prepared for the loss of Jay, and
nothing that I dealed with with Lenn helped me through Jay,
because I had already buried one son. God, what is this?
What are you talking about? My daughter called me and
she said, mon Jay has been shot.
Speaker 10 (22:15):
I said, what, that's Lenise bias talking about how she
reacted to the news that her second son, Jay had
been shot. He died soon after. Two sons dead within
five years. Both destined for greatness as basketball players, their
legacies instead defined by tragic, unforeseen, and fatal consequences. On
December fourth, Jay had gone to a jewelry store to
(22:37):
check on an engagement ring he had ordered for his girlfriend.
In the store, Jay saw Jerry Tyler, who thought Jay
was flirting with his wife, a store clerk. The two
men argued. Jay then left the store. Minutes later, someone
in a Mercedes Benz drove next to the car. Jay
sat in the passenger seat of that car. It was
waiting at a stop sign outside the mall. Someone from
(22:58):
the Mercedes Benz car fired a gun, killing Jay. Tyler
was later convicted of the murder and sentenced to life
in prison.
Speaker 9 (23:06):
And he looked up to his brother.
Speaker 8 (23:08):
He looked up to his brother even until the day
Jay died. He missed his brother so much. He missed
his brother so much until the very day he died.
Speaker 10 (23:22):
A few months before Jay died, Bob Wagner asked former
Georgetown coach John Thompson to have a talk with Jay.
Speaker 12 (23:29):
John apparently talked to him, and if John can't talk
to a kid off the street and get him, and
he said, and he told me.
Speaker 13 (23:35):
He said, well, I can't do.
Speaker 3 (23:36):
Anything with that kidd.
Speaker 13 (23:37):
He you know, he's not going to make the commitment.
He's not going to do what he has to do.
Speaker 3 (23:41):
And that was sad.
Speaker 13 (23:42):
And then, of course, you know, a few months later
Jay's dead.
Speaker 19 (23:44):
Anyway, Ed basically said to me, mister Wagner, my brother
didn't know what he was doing, and I'm not going
to make the same mistake Jay made the Prelium game
or whatever, Capitol Classic.
Speaker 13 (23:56):
I was watching a practice and it was at Springbrook.
Jay was late.
Speaker 12 (24:00):
So anyway, Jay walks into gym at Springbrook with Brian
Tribble and I said, what are you doing with him?
Because Isay? In my mind he's still the guy that
killed Leonard. He said, well, I didn't have a ride,
so Brian gave me a ride.
Speaker 9 (24:12):
I said, Jay, what are you doing?
Speaker 12 (24:14):
You can't have bron And that's when he made the
comment about.
Speaker 13 (24:17):
You know, I'm going to be who if I want
to be with, and.
Speaker 16 (24:22):
You know, I'm not going to make the same mistake
my brother may he didn't know what he was doing.
Speaker 10 (24:26):
Jerry Tayler's wife, the store clerk Jay was talking to,
testified at the trial of her husband, Seanelle Tyler, claimed
in the testimony that Jay Buys repeatedly pursued her in
the weeks before he died. The two had dated each
other in high school. She claimed that Jay had asked
her out a few days before the shooting, four days
after it's big win over Michigan State, and the day
(24:48):
after Jay Buys died, Bowling Green was preparing for an
evening game at Western Kentucky. Clint Venable, Jay's best friend
in the team starguard, had just beenish showering in the
team hotel following a shooter.
Speaker 2 (25:01):
We had one of the rooms for the connecting doors
some of the two other guys on the team, and
they was, you know, watching.
Speaker 3 (25:09):
The sports with its being I think it was, and uh,
I just.
Speaker 2 (25:13):
Got the shower and they was like, hey man, your
boy just got killed. I said, now you're talking about this,
said Jay Byes.
Speaker 3 (25:21):
Excuse me.
Speaker 2 (25:21):
I said, nah, man, stop playing. It's right here on
TV again. So I looked at it and it's like
everything just you know, it just messed me up, and
it's like the whole bodies got weak. I went down
there and called my parents on the pay and I
(25:43):
just couldn't leave it. I couldn't eat, I couldn't sleep
that whole time we was in West Kentucky.
Speaker 3 (25:50):
I'm walking around, went down to the lobby. Uh.
Speaker 2 (25:54):
The first game we played, I just didn't have nothing
in there.
Speaker 3 (25:58):
I just couldn't. I couldn't played, couldn't play at all
the whole time.
Speaker 10 (26:02):
He tried, though, against unrayed Western Kentucky. That night, Venable
scored just eight points, shooting two of thirteen from the fields.
He missed all of his shots from three point range.
Bowling Green loss by thirteen points. In nineteen eighty six,
when Lundbias died, Venable made sure to attend the funeral.
(26:24):
He interrupted his day at the five star basketball camp
to attend the funeral. When Venable returned to the camp,
he was surprised how everyone reacted to lun stuff.
Speaker 2 (26:34):
He had a moment of silence, thought Lena and the
counselors and some of the you know, ball play the
young kids kind of you know, was crying, and I
got cheeryot and I was sitting it looking like, you know,
I couldn't believe it because I knew Leonard was good,
but I didn't look at him like.
Speaker 3 (26:55):
Everyone else looked at him because he was from the neighborhood,
you know.
Speaker 2 (26:58):
And I was sitting here like, you know, these cats
don't even know len it and they you know, crying
and you know, they was weeping.
Speaker 3 (27:05):
So I was like, wow, you know, it was amazing.
Speaker 10 (27:08):
It was different. For Jay's funeral, Venable chose to stay
with this Bowling Green team rather than return to Maryland.
Speaker 2 (27:16):
I wanted to come home for the funeral, but when
I had talked to him Bides, she told me, you know,
just go ahead and stay up school and you know,
everything is fine. We're doing okay, and you know, she
just told me, you know, everything would be all right.
I wish I would have been there, but you know,
(27:37):
like I said, I don't know how I would have
took it, you know, you know that's all.
Speaker 3 (27:42):
I kept thinking. I'm like, wow, I go home. I'm
not gonna see him no more. He's not gonna be.
Speaker 20 (27:49):
There because so many times we're always ready to throw
in the towel.
Speaker 14 (28:03):
Life is too hard.
Speaker 5 (28:05):
I can't make it. I can't go on.
Speaker 20 (28:08):
But I stand here is a wakeness today, understanding that
what my family.
Speaker 17 (28:14):
And I went through was not for us.
Speaker 20 (28:17):
It was to stand up in such a time as
this to let people know you can't make it.
Speaker 10 (28:25):
That's Lenise Bias speaking at a college in Pennsylvania in
January twenty eleven. For the past three plus decades, Bias
has turned personal grief into a catalyst for change. The
middle class Christian mom has become a national icon. She
hopes that others can benefit from her unrelatable losses. Within
weeks of the famous death of her eldest son, Lan,
(28:45):
Lonise began speaking out against drug abuse, and the murder
a few years later of Jay only fueled her mission
with a relentless passion. Lenise Bias still preaches a series
of messages. One is to realize we all have good
in us.
Speaker 20 (28:59):
Fun, don't be weary and doing well.
Speaker 17 (29:03):
The only way you can get boiled.
Speaker 20 (29:06):
The only way you can get oil from an units
to crush it.
Speaker 3 (29:10):
The only way you can.
Speaker 9 (29:11):
Get juice from an ora just to squeeze it.
Speaker 8 (29:15):
The only way you can get a diamond.
Speaker 20 (29:17):
For coal is on a millions and millions and millions.
Speaker 5 (29:20):
Of tons of pressed And we all have some good
in us.
Speaker 20 (29:27):
Something that someone is waiting on.
Speaker 11 (29:29):
We haven't used all that we have to be able.
Speaker 9 (29:32):
To give.
Speaker 10 (29:34):
A message to embrace yourself worth.
Speaker 20 (29:36):
You get up and look in that mirror, you're gonna
find one of the reasons why you should hate yourself.
Learn to feel good in your skin, knowing that you're
theorically and wonderfully made. Knowing that you're beautiful, know that
no one else in the world has a set of
pupils like yours or finger prints.
Speaker 13 (29:54):
You are orally and wonderfully made.
Speaker 5 (29:57):
You are a thing of beauty.
Speaker 9 (29:59):
You are hid.
Speaker 10 (30:01):
And to embrace those close to you because you never know.
Speaker 20 (30:04):
Don't wait until someone died and were how valuable they work.
Speaker 5 (30:10):
In you and your right because stop you.
Speaker 17 (30:15):
Stop the grudges of.
Speaker 13 (30:17):
The things that that could not be paying here while
they were alive.
Speaker 20 (30:21):
When give me right, it will be not nothing.
Speaker 17 (30:28):
And so if I just had a share.
Speaker 20 (30:33):
Just saying I'm sorry.
Speaker 5 (30:36):
I didn't mean.
Speaker 10 (30:38):
The death of UnBias affected millions of people in a
variety of ways. Life saver, career changer, cautionary tale, eye opener,
program devastator, and inspiration against drug abuse. His death affected
no one as much as Limmy's Bias. The middle class
mom turned motivational speaker, an emotional healer, one whose mantra
(30:59):
is young. People are reachable, teachable, lovable and savable. If
only someone could have saved her son's one and jay.
It started when the phone rang at six thirty five
am on June Nineteenthlenise remembers getting a phone call. Keith Gatlin,
a teammate of one called to sell her Lenn had
a seizure and was on his way to the hospital.
Speaker 8 (31:21):
We're laying there in bed on June nineteenth and a
call comes, And what I remember clearly about that morning
is that the room was filled with so much sunlight
till it was almost like your eyes watered when you
open your eyes. The phone rang and it was someone
(31:45):
saying that Lynn was sick.
Speaker 9 (31:47):
He's at the hospital.
Speaker 8 (31:48):
I said what, and so I told my husband He
said what, And we got up and we went to
the hospital.
Speaker 9 (31:55):
And we got there and.
Speaker 8 (31:59):
I saw the players outside crying and torn up and
media all over the place, and I was saying, well,
what's going on? And when we got in, they said
that Lynn had gotten sick, something that happened to him.
And I asked the.
Speaker 2 (32:24):
Nurse.
Speaker 8 (32:24):
She said, we have him on life support. I said, well,
is he breathing on his own?
Speaker 9 (32:29):
She said no.
Speaker 8 (32:30):
I said, is this heart beating? And she said no,
And it was one other thing I asked. I said, well,
he's gone, and she said, no, he's not gone. The
doctor isn't here yet or arrived and he gave the
official declaration, if you will, that he's gone. And then
(32:52):
everything fell the pieces, everything went crazy, and we went
in and we looked at it and lying there and
my husband torn up, just torn to pieces. And God
had given me a strength to stand there, to look
(33:15):
and to rub his head and to get home.
Speaker 10 (33:21):
Jeff Baxter, a teammate of Lens, was also at the hospital.
Baxter noticed the calm demeanor of Lenise Bias amid the
emotional storm.
Speaker 3 (33:30):
How do that she was calm as hell?
Speaker 2 (33:32):
That surprised me, not because of her persoda, but it
surprised me because of the advent they have at that point.
Speaker 3 (33:38):
I don't know how you could be as calm.
Speaker 9 (33:40):
As she was.
Speaker 10 (33:41):
For Lanise Bias, there has been a new life after
the death of one Bias. She gave her first speech
on July twenty sixth, nineteen eighty six, at a church
not far from the Bias home. A young female friend
of Lens invited her to speak after She appeared on
The seven hundred Club, a television show syndicated on a
national Christian work. She gave speeches within the first year
(34:02):
of one's death to young people and business groups. One
of those speeches took place on December third, nineteen eighty six.
New Marilynd men's basketball coach Bob Wade was among those
in the audience. Here's part of what Bias said in
that speech. Quote, God had to take something special to
save a generation. Somebody has got to get out and
(34:24):
say something. I believe God is using me. I'm basically
a sewer seeds. I tell people what is right and
what is wrong. Maybe some will get the message.
Speaker 9 (34:33):
End quote.
Speaker 10 (34:41):
In the late nineteen eighties, Lenise Bias earned the chance
to speak to the NBA rookies as part of its
orientation program. Former Celtics star Sach Sanders operated the program
for the NBA.
Speaker 21 (34:52):
Well, I think the player came out thinking that players
came out thinking that they are mother or grandmother was
somehow connected with the NBA's program. After having this woman talk,
they they hadn't left home. The lectures were there, the
(35:16):
voice was there. She brought an important piece for a
few years that she came and spoke to the players.
A lot of players, you know, if they're thinking that
they have arrived in terms of being grown. Now they're
leaving home and going to get paid to play professional basketball,
and all of a sudden, here was the voice of
(35:41):
the mother. Aunt grandmother got in. Whoever they respected was
right there in the program because not only did she
talk to them, she stayed around a couple of days
and sat with players and talked to them, and you know,
cause they really wanted to know more about Thank thank
(36:05):
for the program.
Speaker 10 (36:16):
In the immediate months after the death of his oldest son,
Lenn James Bias acted like any father would, with a
mix of grief, anger, confusion, and resolve. During a memorial
service for lend a few days after he died, James
spotted Len's two most prominent coaches about Wagner from high
school and left Tea yourself from college. Here's Wagner recalling
(36:37):
the incident.
Speaker 13 (36:38):
At the wake. I was deeply hurt by this.
Speaker 12 (36:42):
At the wake, I wrote down with Lefty because we
didn't know where we were going.
Speaker 13 (36:49):
We come into the church and I know.
Speaker 12 (36:51):
Mister Bias was still hurt and upset, but Lefty walks
over to give his condolences, and mister Bias has something
like te Lefty like, you stay away from me. You
killed mich saw this, Oh, I'm staying right and you too,
and pointed to me. I just took that very personally.
I never said anything to him. I thought there were
(37:11):
times when I thought about just driving through Columbia Park
and maybe talking to mister Bias and seeing you know,
like you know, I'm sorry about what happened.
Speaker 10 (37:18):
James Bias has stayed mostly in the background since the
death of Lend. He has spoken little about his son's death.
His most profound words came about a year from Lend's death.
Here's what he said in a Washington Post story. Quote,
the biggest problem for me was looking at Leonard's possessions,
all piles up in the bedroom. They say time heals
all wounds, but you never outlive it because there's always
(37:40):
these question marks. What really happened to Lend Bias end quote.
There was a collective resolve by Lenise and James Bias
to find out what happened to the money they felt
was due Len's estate. In June nineteen eighty seven, the
Bias family filed a twenty seven million dollar lawsuit alleging
fraud and negligence by Leaf Interest and Advantage International. Ventris
(38:00):
was the agent for Bias and worked for Advantage. The
company was in negotiations with the Boston Celtics and Rebock
on behalf of Bias. The Bias family believed that Advantage
had secured a one million dollar life insurance policy on Bias.
The Biases claim in the lawsuit that they did not
buy the life insurance because they believed Ventris had already
purchased it. The suit also asked for two point six
(38:23):
million dollars from Reebok. It claimed the company told James
and Lanni's Bias that an agreement had been made between
Rebok and Lun Bias. It claimed Bias would have been
paid three hundred twenty five thousand dollars a year for
five years. Advantage denied the existence of a contract. Joanne
Brazaki and Alette worked as a marketing manager for Rebok
when the company was negotiating a deal with Bias. She
(38:46):
worked closely with Bias.
Speaker 5 (38:48):
So there was nothing signed. I can honestly tell you that.
Speaker 10 (38:51):
Further, the Bias family sued an insurance company for breach
of contract. The Biases had purchased a one million dollar
policy on behalf of Lund district, and appeals courts ruled
against the Bias estate in both cases. They appealed the
lawsuits against Reebok and Advantage to the US Supreme Court,
which refused to hear the appeal. To make matters worse,
the Bias family had to pay back alone of about
(39:13):
twenty thousand dollars they had taken out for Lund in
the months before he died.
Speaker 20 (39:18):
When len died, I prayed to die.
Speaker 4 (39:20):
I did not want to live.
Speaker 5 (39:23):
I did not want to live.
Speaker 20 (39:26):
Four years later, Jay died, I prayed to die a day.
I guess what here?
Speaker 5 (39:31):
I am alive and well.
Speaker 20 (39:33):
I could not see anything but darkness when lead and die.
And then when Jay died the same hospital, the same
bad duds all over again.
Speaker 9 (39:49):
I didn't think I have made it.
Speaker 10 (40:00):
The calm that Lenise Bias displayed after the death of
one was not evident. Four years later, after j Byas
died in a surreal manner, Jay was taken to the
same hospital as was one.
Speaker 8 (40:11):
So I go to the same waiting room and knock
on the same door, and my daughter opens it. I said,
how is Jay doing? She said, Man, Jay is gone.
I said what she said, Jay is gone. I went
(40:32):
completely off. I took my fists and I beat the
walls in in that waiting room with my fists. I
beat holes in the wall. I took the lamps. I
threw them in the floor. I screamed, I hollered. I
was so angry with God. I was so mad. This
was not fair. And as I walked out of the door,
(40:56):
my husband and my daughter were trying to calm me down.
As I walked out of the door, there was a
nurse on my left, and she said, oh, we have
prepared Jay's body for you to look at. And at
that time I could have spit in her face.
Speaker 9 (41:11):
I told her get away from me.
Speaker 8 (41:12):
I'm not going to look at anybody. I'm not going
to look at a body. And we got home, and
when we pulled up, here's the whole thing getting ready
to start again. And I walked in. There were people
sitting and seated in my house. I told him to
get out of my house, get out my house. And
then I went to my bedroom and shut the door
(41:35):
and stayed in there for three days.
Speaker 9 (41:37):
And every time I.
Speaker 8 (41:38):
Thought about what God had allowed to happen to our
family again. I would get mad. I would lay there.
Someone would bring me a cup of water. I'd take
it and throw it up against the wall. So God
let me have my temper tantrum for three days. And
on the third day day I got up and I
(41:59):
started to move forward.
Speaker 10 (42:02):
Over the years, Lenise and James Bias have seen some
groups recently except the legacy of her sons more willingly,
most notably of one. Since twenty twelve, one has been
inducted into three athletic Halls of Fame, the most recent
one in November twenty twenty one. We will have more
on that in a later segment. Perhaps more profoundly, One's
legacy lives on in the everyday lives of some who
(42:24):
have used his death as a red light to stop
abusing drugs. Denise Bias sees the signs often.
Speaker 8 (42:31):
I was on a plane one time, traveling to speak
in a flight attendant handed me a note saying, I
know it's you.
Speaker 9 (42:41):
I know it's you. I know it's you.
Speaker 8 (42:44):
I stopped cocaine the day your son died. This was
a flight attendant. I have received letters and cards, emails
from people over the years who said they literally stopped
you drugs. The day LN Dye, my husband and I
(43:04):
were in what was it, Walmart last year, year before last,
a man walked up to us. He said, Miss Bias,
I've been saying forever that I wanted to tell you this,
he said. I was in college. Never use drugs, he said.
(43:26):
And a friend of mine, who was in grad school,
someone that I respected, told me they have this stuff
out called cocaine, and they she said that you would
feel so good when you just rub it on your teeth.
And he said, because of who she was he was
in school, he respected her. He was going to try it,
(43:50):
he said. The next day, ln Dye, and he never
touched it. I mean wherever I have gone from, I
had been everywhere to speak, from the wealthiest, the porest,
and everything in between. And everybody has their stories of
how Len's death.
Speaker 9 (44:12):
Saved them.
Speaker 10 (44:18):
Michael Bias spoke calmly as he sat in a chair
on the secured side of the visitors area through a window.
His face flashed an engaged expression as he talked about
his father.
Speaker 11 (44:28):
Michael Bias told me everything has been a struggle financially, emotionally,
it's been a tough break for me all my life.
It's been a jinx from when I was born because
he died.
Speaker 10 (44:40):
The conversation took place in July twenty eleven at the
ann Arundel County Detention Center in Maryland, in the same
month that Michael was born to Tina Maynard twenty five
years earlier. Both Michael Bias and Maynard claim Lund Bias
is Michael's father. Leonard Kevin Bias, which matches Leund's name,
is listed as the father on My's birth certificate. A
(45:01):
DNA test has never been done before. Others have confirmed
that Michael Bias is one's son. Michael Bias has spent
the early part of his adulthood incarcerated for crimes that
range from driving without a license to arm robbery and
reckless endangerment. Michael made it clear that the most important
thing he wants from the Bias family is recognition. He
did meet Linise and James Bias when he was about
(45:23):
one month old.
Speaker 11 (45:25):
Michael told me, I want to meet the other side
of my family. They owe me an open conversation. It's
like a missing piece in the puzzle of my life.
Speaker 10 (45:35):
Michael Leonard Bias was born in July third, nineteen eighty six.
Maynard had first seen Len Bias when she was thirteen.
She attended a high school step playoff game to support
the brother of a friend who was playing in the game,
but after she saw Lan on the court, her focus
shifted away from her friend's brother.
Speaker 11 (45:51):
Maynard told me, I was young, he was tall, and
he was the star ball player.
Speaker 10 (45:57):
Several years later, Maynard met Bias at a party on
the Maryland campus in fall of nineteen eighty five. Bias
was just beginning his senior year. Within weeks of meeting Bias,
Maynard says she was pregnant by him. Maynard, as she
spent time that school year on the Maryland campus, often
in Lem's dormitory suite, She says she knew that Lem
was romantically involved with other women.
Speaker 11 (46:19):
Maynard told me, I never thought that he was only
dating me. I was not bothered by it at all.
Speaker 10 (46:26):
Maynard says that during the time she knew Bias, he
would use cocaine on occasion. When Maynard told Bias she
was pregnant with his child, she says he asked if
she was certain. After she started crying, she says he
asked what was wrong.
Speaker 11 (46:39):
Maynard told me, I said, I'm so young. He said,
You're going to be okay. He could have been, well,
it ain't my baby, but he didn't say that.
Speaker 10 (46:49):
Several teammates of Bias during his senior year all denied
knowing of Bias being the father of Maynard's child. Only one,
Phil Nevin, recalled seeing someone who resembled Maynard. He was
a roommate of Bias during bias his last year. When
told during a phone conversation that a woman claimed to
have given birth to Len's child, Nevin asked, without being
(47:09):
told her name, was it Athenia Tina? I remember? Was
she light skinned? He asked, yes, that's her. He says,
I saw her occasionally. Maynard set up a meeting to
introduce her son to the Bias family within a few
weeks of Michael Bias's birth. Maynard says she visited them
at their home along with her mother, a sister, and
(47:29):
her uncle, Joseph Sastro Simms. Maynard didn't make the call
herself because she was concerned about how the Biased family
would react to the news. She was on sure if
Linise Bias knew that Lenn had fathered a child and
Maynard says she was concerned about the perception that she
was trying to take advantage of Bias's fame. She felt
people would think she was, as she put it, a
(47:50):
gold digger. Maynard remembers the gathering lasting a few hours.
She claims that Linise and James Bias held the baby
throughout much of a meeting, and that James cried often
during the visit. Maynard says at the meeting that she
expressed a willingness to take a DNA test to confirm
that Michael was one son, but she says she received
no response from the Bias family. Simms, Maynard's uncle, also
(48:11):
attended the meeting. He remember the meeting is mostly uncomfortable.
Speaker 11 (48:15):
Sims told me, speaking of Lenise's Bias. I wasn't expecting
her to run out and say, here's my son's child,
and I wasn't expecting the cold and aloopness that I got.
Speaker 10 (48:27):
Maynard says the Bias family showed little interest in Michael
after that day. Once she and Sims brought Michael long
to a speech by Linise Bias so she could see Michael.
Sims took Michael to greet Lenise after her speech Sims
recalled the brief encounter.
Speaker 11 (48:41):
Sims told me she didn't completely ignore me, but it
wasn't that great of a meeting. It was no better
than thirty seconds.
Speaker 10 (48:50):
During our interview in twenty eleven, Maynard wondered why Linise
Bias and her family have for the most part, ignored him.
Speaker 11 (48:57):
Maynard told me, why don't you acknowledge your grandson? That's
what I would want to ask her. When asked if
she thinks it will happen, she said no, it hasn't
thus far.
Speaker 10 (49:08):
There are no indications that Michael Bias has met members
of Len Bias's immediate family. Michael Bias declined an interview
for this podcast. Linise Bias was not contacted for this podcast.
She was asked in emails, phone calls, and a letter
for an interview for the book of which this podcast
is based. She refused all requests. Based on her past reluctance,
producers have chosen not to reach out to her for
(49:30):
this podcast series.
Speaker 2 (50:00):
Yeah, it's just dedicated.
Speaker 3 (50:11):
Up next on Len Bias and Mixed Legacy. Faming Legacy.
Speaker 22 (50:17):
I found out after calling Lefty Uh that Lenn had
never been inducted into the Maryland Basketball Hall of Fame.
And so I said, he deserves to be recognized.
Speaker 2 (50:32):
I remember one kid, recently departed alumni has said that
he would have his name removed from the Hall of
Fame if then Bias got in.
Speaker 5 (50:41):
So that was how strong they thought.
Speaker 4 (50:43):
About we are here today experiencing history, the.
Speaker 9 (50:51):
Bias today here.
Speaker 17 (51:06):
It was strictly based on his achievements at Maryland. And
and you often heard due of those deliberations you heard,
you know, comparisons to Michael Jordans. Treble was not going
to be blamed.
Speaker 5 (51:22):
This is a time when drug use is tolerated.
Speaker 17 (51:25):
They were not going to play the blame game.
Speaker 23 (51:29):
One tragedy story when Lin Bias passed away from using cocaine,
My father came in the house furious, furious, if you
ever do this, I'll kill you. You ain't gonna have time
to overdose.
Speaker 3 (51:43):
I'll kill you.
Speaker 1 (51:45):
This podcast series is based on the book Born Ready
The Mixed Legacy of Limby's, published by Go Grading Media.
The series is produced by Go Grading Media in partnership
with Octagon Entertainment. This segment was produced by Dave on
Grady and Don Mark. It was written by Dave and
edited by Don Marcus. The narrator was Lauren Rosh, with
additional narration by Jamal Williams. Technical production was provided by
(52:07):
Octagon Entertainment. Production assistance was produced by Kevin McNulty, Tino Quagliata,
Lauren Rosh, Georgia Brown, Casey Fair, Jamal Williams, Kelsey Mannix
and enzol Al Varenia. Matt Dewhurst is providing the social
media systems special thanks to the University of Maryland and
American University providing instruments. The Decision Education Foundation is a
(52:30):
content and promotional partner of this podcast series. More information
go to gogradymedia dot com. This has been a production
of go Grady Media and the Eighth Side Network
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