In life, Len Bias was a transformative basketball player. In death, he’s a cautionary tale and an iconic symbol of poor decision making. Len Bias is also a cultural catalyst.
In this episode, Len’s story and legacy are juxtaposed with those of many important figures in American cultural history…Emmit Till’s traumatic tale, and racial injustice. The tragic young death of rapper Biggie Smalls…The black folklore fable of John Henry.
His legacy is addressed in contemporary black writings, including by acclaimed poet Reginald Dwayne Betts and Justin Tinsley. Songs have been written about Bias. And a play used his story to teach youth about the perils of drug abuse. All this, in the last narrative episode of this podcast series.
About the Narrator: John Salley - John Salley is an American former professional basketball player, talk show host, and actor. He was the first player in NBA history to win championships with three franchises, as well as the first player in the NBA to win a championship in three different decades.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Yeah, because Gwenlyn Brooks was one of the most distinguished
poets UM in the country at the time. And to
have that person who represents the pinnacle of UM, you know,
(00:21):
of a literary position, have a meeting with UM arguably
the best college basketball player in the United States at
the time. They never I mean, that's remarkable, isn't it.
There were these connections political connections, cultural connections, social connections
(00:47):
that I had no idea about when I was a kid.
But once you started digging deeper into them, do you
realize that this may have been the most impactful moment
any modern sports history where he was prepared to be
but one of the more painful what ifs and pop
(01:07):
culture history. It's called Home Court. It's a play about
an inner city family that's striving to beat the odds,
which I should notice face not too loosely on the
tragedy of of of lambias, just wanted to do more.
And I think it's not just me. I think it's
(01:31):
just like lambias post nineteen eighty six overwhelms. The narrative
of lambias pre ninety, pre overdose and overwhelms is so
much so that with the War for me him as
a basketball player has to constantly try to compete with
effect of the culture in all of those other ways.
(01:53):
In this episode of Limbias and Mixed Legacy cultural catalysts,
the impact of biases legacy on American culture. When it
must have been in the middle of May, no more
than a week or so before the end of term,
when I experienced a len Bias surprise. I know it
was nineteen eighty six because I come to the University
(02:15):
of Maryland to fall before in order to help start
up a Master of Fine Arts program and creative writing.
Of course, I knew about the fine reputation of the
English department. What I was most familiar with from its
national reputation was Maryland's basketball team and its colorful coach,
(02:37):
left A. Grizzelle. Once on the Maryland campus, I followed
Giselle's team with special interest. I say Drizzelle's team, when
what I mean is the team of Len Bias, the
All America forward who was by acclamation, the best basketball
(02:58):
player in the country, a player like the great ones,
who could dominate the other team all by himself in
any number of ways. Those are the words of Stanley Plumbly.
One of the country's prize writers. Plumbly arrived in the
University of Maryland in and started writing program for graduate students.
(03:20):
He was Maryland's Poet Laureate from two thousand and nine
to two thousand eighteen. As a youth, his two obsessions
were reading in basketball, I remember thinking that he played
like a professional. His skill and size, speed and quickness,
grace and aggressiveness set him apart. Yet for all his talent,
(03:43):
he was also a quiet player, no show, voting, no display,
all business. He was what might be called a working
class player, more worth and Plumbly, but that was not
his voice. Plumbly passed away in two thousand nineteen. His
words were read by Michael Collyer, a colleague of Plumbly
(04:04):
at Maryland Call You. His creative thoughts were often intertwined
with those of plumb Lely. For good reason, Collie has
thoughted working at Maryland a year before Plumbly, he helped
Plumberly build the creative writing program for much more than
three decades at Maryland, the officers were adjacent to each other,
and Call You was also Maryland's Poet Laureate from two
(04:26):
thousand and one to two thousand and four. They talked
often about lam Bias his callers. In his own words,
you know, Lynn Bias was on everybody's mind. You know,
Stanley was a basketball player. He played basketball, I think
in college. When he would come over to my house,
we often shot baskets in the driveway because I had
(04:47):
a hoop from my son's plumbly soft tusks extended to
his writings. The words upon Me, read by Callier, first
appeared in a forward in the book Born Ready, The
Mixed Legacy of Lynn Bias, and it is one example
of how the legacy of Lenbias is reflected in American
culture even to day. In this podcast series about the
(05:08):
vast and mixed legacy of Lenbias, we have explained how
his death has impacted society in profoundly different ways. Maryland Athletics,
his friends and family, mandatory minimum prison sentences, the Celtics,
the n b A, his teammates, his family. In this episode,
we examine lens legacy through a cultural lens. We focus
(05:30):
on the impact of his legacy on race and social justice,
how it influenced music and how it connected to literature,
how it was presented in the theater, and how it
has even recently been reference in popular television series. In life,
Lenbias was a transformative basketball player. In death, He's a
(05:51):
cautionary tale, an iconic symbol of poor decision making. Lenbias
is also a cultural catalyst in this episode. In story
and legacy are juxtaposed with those many important figures in
American cultural history, Emmett Tell's Terrible Tale and racial injustice,
the tragic young death of rapper Biggie Smalls, the Black
(06:13):
folklore fable of John Henry. His legacy is reflected in
the writings of contemporary black culture, included by Reginald Dwayne Betts,
and just intensely. The impact of his death is even
woven in the storyline of TV series Snowfall, about the
drug culture of the eighties. The debut of the show's
fifth season in February of two began with the recreation
(06:38):
of Bias collapsing in his Maryland dorm room on the
morning of June nineteenth, nine six. There are references to
Bias and his death in later episodes. For Stanley Plumbly,
Bias represents both a heroic and tragic figure in his
forward in the book Born Ready, The Mixed Legacy of
lamb Bias. Plumbly re account the day he met Bias
(07:01):
while working at Maryland. It was part of an event
hosted by his department, Call You picks up the story
from there, I was asked by the Dean's Office Arts
and Humanities to introduce Gwendolyn Brooks, the National Poet Laureate
who in became the first black poet to win the
Pulitzer Prize. I remember asking her to read one or
(07:26):
two particular favorites of mine, one of which is her
signature poem we Real Cool, We Real Cool. We left school,
learned Light, Wait straight waiting seven then jim we jesz
(07:49):
June Wait that Call Your continues as narration of the
forward written by Plumbly. The structure of the event called
for the Dean to introduce me, followed by my introduction
of Brooks. For a moment, Brooks and I were standing
there together when suddenly, from the opposite side of the stage,
(08:10):
there arrives a very tall young man bearing a large
bouquet of red roses. It was led Bias, whose presence
came at the request of Joyce, and Joyce, a professor
of Afro American literature at Maryland. Bias took Joyce's class
(08:32):
in the nineteen eighty three False Semester, and, as Joyce
explained it, graciously earned a de grade despite the fact
he missed classes frequently and flunked the two assignments he completed.
It was not her policy to flunk athletes. Joyce developed
(08:52):
a friendship with Bias and considered him sweet and thoughtful.
Joyce arranged the reading by Brooks and asked Bias if
he would present Brooks with a bouquet of flowers. She
thought bias Is gesture would help show a link between
the excellence of black basketball players and black poets and
(09:16):
showcase the artistry of both. She had hoped that biases
participation could translate to increased respect for poetry to the
level students respect basketball players. The Maryland basketball banquet was
being held at the same time at the Stamp Student
(09:38):
Union about a half mile away, but that did not
stop Bias from surprising Brooks and everyone else attending the event.
He shakes my hand and then embraces the diminutive Brooks
and places the great flowers into her open arm. The
(10:01):
audience goes slightly wild. I can see the tears in
Brooks's eyes, and everyone can see the smile on Len
Biases face. At the reception, we all talked, but who
knows what about likely? We talked about the future, notably
(10:25):
the future of the basketball star. It is not often
a prominent athlete connects with the icon of poetry for
such a rare event. That fact was not lost on
car you. He reflected on significance of Bias meeting Brooks.
There's Gwen Alan Brooks was one of the most distinguished
poets UM in the country at the time, and she
(10:48):
was finishing her stint as poetry consultant to the Library
of Congress, a position that's now known as the US
Poet Laureate. And to have that person who represents the
pinnacle of UM, you know, of a literary position have
(11:10):
a meeting with UM arguably the best UH college basketball
player in the United States at the time. I mean,
that's remarkable, isn't it. That doesn't First of all, athletes
and poets don't get together like that in a public way.
They really don't. UM. And it meant to me the
(11:33):
coming together of two cultures, you know, the literary humanities
culture and the student athlete culture. UH. And that doesn't
happen in that way in a public way very often,
And it seemed clear to me that UM len Bias
recognized the importance of the moment, and so I also
(11:57):
I also thought that that was UM some thing very
honorable and what you might not expect out of UM.
A student athlete. Many years later, Call You was compelled
to write a poem about Brooks meeting Bias in the
form of something called a golden shovel, a poetic style
that pays homage to Brooks by incorporating a line from
(12:19):
one of her poems. I chose two lines from the
Gwendoline Brooks poem titled the Last Quatrain of the Ballad
of Emmett till And we all know who Emmett till
Uh is, a fourteen year old African American young man
(12:45):
who was lynched in Money, Mississippi. In these are the
lines that I chose for my my golden shovel. She
kisses her killed boy and she is sorry. Call You
(13:06):
narrates the poem he wrote about Brooks and Bias. It's
called Len Bias of Bouquet of Flowers and Ms Brooks.
He arrives in the middle of her reading she has
to stop and taking the flowers he's brought, kisses the
(13:26):
beautiful young man whose yellow socks are her dowdy sweaters. Antithesis.
What's said between them is killed by applause, but not
his smile, which is the smile of a boy standing
(13:50):
in the silence he's created, and not her magnified stare,
which says she understands why he's arrived late, he is
already leaving, and that he is sorry. It's the only
(14:12):
poem I've ever written about uh an experience I had
at the University of Maryland. I've never written about anything
that happened at the University of Maryland. And yet when
I was given this assignment, this moment immediately came back
to me in a really powerful way. And it was
(14:33):
a kind of coincidence that I came across these lines
in the last quadrain from the ballot of of Emmett Till.
But they seem to fit perfectly. Call you see is
a connection between bias until that includes a maternal extension.
And I think too, there's a kind of congruence not perfect,
(14:55):
between Emmett Till and Len Bias. There are definitely connections
that you can make between their their deaths and and
mat Til was a complete victim of a moment, uh
and in a moment defined by American culture, UM, American
(15:17):
racist culture. UM. And you know we're not we're not
over that and len Bias, I think you can say
not in the not in the same way. But he
is a kind of of I don't like the word victim,
but but I but I see Biases as a kind
(15:39):
of his death as a kind of tragedy that was
also a way of reading it into a national tragedy,
into narratives American narratives that follow national tragedies after his death.
There are so many things that were racialized about it
(16:01):
for me, a kind of terrifying um poignancy to it.
You know. The other thing too that connects them is
the role that that mother's played, their mother's played in
their desks UM, because Lenn Biases mother was and has
been very forceful. And of course Emmett Tills mother did
(16:25):
that almost unbelievable thing of allowing um m it to
be in an open casket and um and also allowing
um the photographer to come in and and and and
(16:46):
take a series of of pictures of him in the
autopsy room. But um as a way of not allowing
his death to go you know, a notice that it
would that that that it could help people. And and
(17:07):
what had helped was, you know, directly someone like Rosa
Parks make a decision to stay on, to stay in
in in the seat at the front of the bus
rather go to the back. There's a direct connection there. Um.
So he his death was not in vain, to use
a cliche. Uh. And the mother was behind that very
(17:29):
eloquently and movingly. One of the things that allowed other
people to learn from deaths, let's say not was the mothers.
The mothers. It's kind of interesting, huh. Ronald Delhi was
inspired to write a song about Bias after he heard
(17:49):
the news about his death. He was living in Washington,
d c. Area and was a big fan of Lambias,
often Merland fan for quite three years. I used to
live right across from the campus, a little town called Lakeland.
I used to go to the games back, uh, you know,
when I graduated from high school. Um, back into the
(18:13):
nineteen sixties, three sixty four, somewhere in there, you know.
But h only went to one of the then biases games.
You know how popular he was. I just wanted to
see him play because I heard a lot about him,
you know how how good he was. And uh, I
told my son, let's go up and see. You know
how great that is. Daily played in the band called
the Chain Band in the nineteen sixties and seventies. He
(18:36):
also tried songwriting. It took the death of Bias to
convince Daily to write a song about him and for
Daly to finally record a song that he had written.
At the time, he was working for the electric company
that he partially owned. Yes, so I was driving down
the road and I was on delivery and I heard
the news on the radio about his death, and uh,
(19:00):
I just said, this is really really sad. I said,
I want to write a song about this guy. You
know what I said, because he's so great. I just
I just started, you know, singing. I said, Lynby he
was in Maryland Scooperstar. And it took me about twodays
to really write the song. He was. He was the
(19:28):
prettiest one of my father. He was this guy, you
well s I played it more his father. For Father's Day,
I dedicated to to him. Yeah, for Father's Day. Delhi
(19:51):
was living at the time in a town called Bladensburg,
about five miles from where by his family lived. He
sent the producers of this podcast there is a copy
of a picture of imposing with Lenise Bias and others
in the Buya's house. At that time. They didn't really
know of me, and uh, I wanted to meet the family.
(20:13):
That was the first time I met the family, you know,
with my kids, my my son's and they were sitting
in Lym bias Is chairing all. It was really beautiful,
you know. Nittle Bias told me I was like part
of the family tree because of you know, how close
that I was, you know, writing this song and how
fast I've done it, you know, in two days, and
(20:34):
you know, she got a copy of the song. I
(21:00):
wanted to proceed you to go to the Bias family.
I didn't want to do that just for myself. I
just wanted to do it for the Bias family, which
I would like to see a movie down of Led
Bias and you know, use my song as a soundtrack.
And this is the purpose of me, you know, go
on this far with it. You can listen to the
(21:20):
song in its entirety at the end of this episode, Yeah,
this is dedicated so the greatest that never was. Other
(21:48):
musicians have also memorialized Bias. Some thirty years after his
death of Bias, rap artists whose musical name is MC
long Shot released a song simply called led Bias. It
lasts just under four minutes, and it's a part of
a three song album called Instant for Eternity. The other
two songs on the album are about domestic abuse and
(22:11):
romantic breakup. It was written and produced by Chad he Slip.
He was born in Chicago South Side. He released his
first single in two thousand and two. You've heard clips
of the song throughout this podcast series. Now we played
for you in its entirety. Yeah, it's just dedicated so
(22:42):
the greatest that never was. Yeah, Yeah, minutes, so sad.
When a younger st scontro it stood he had it
(23:05):
all strong, quick and he was sold. They called him
Frosty because he was cool when he falls jump shot
perfect and so pure. It befall justin for greatness of
loss that you're known the ball up her memories remember me.
I hope they do the same as for Lenna. The
best steppers that never became, And you could try to blame,
but the fact that he died and was nobody's fault
but his own, because he tried something and they cried them.
(23:28):
But before that he was, says the Shore. He was
the boy. You wouldn't doubt that he was gonna make
it as the number two picked by the Boston Something too.
Would have been so sick batting live with Jordan for
the Scoroon in the East. They did it once in college.
Lenny Fights was the beast from the street to Lando
to the A C. C Unanimous all world. He was
prepared to be but they had another player for the
(23:49):
brother Man they say, was to catch me out coming
out of Maryland. He's a proof you can't get too high.
At the funeral, his mama ain't cry and the people
sit up on the round to the boy of a
fly Man, it's so sad when the young Grace sty
second stroll in the game, he made him a name.
This is the story, you're the best, never became, I
said a button ram the boy ever fly man. It's
(24:11):
so sad when the young Grace styes second stroll in
the game, he made him a name. That's the story,
you're the best and never became that's the lesson to
learn is playing by you get burned. And when it
comes to step here, everybody get a turn. Such a
blessing and the curse when living by step the earth.
He gave the world to wake up, calling in fight
a bunch of churchs with the war on drugs and
like the war run browns with gold chains and beats.
(24:32):
They thought they keep us on the ground and behind balls.
We all shall find God and leave it to the limit.
Because Lenny to find odds. Despite the fact that you
never saw twenty three, he was the best never saw
since twenty three. Then this aw the open wounds. His
baby brother saw the coomb, and that started the war
wrung guns. Y'all would as soon, but no, they knew
was all the same. If you shot and you're black,
(24:53):
you're just the part of the game. When if you
shoot and you're black, you were part of the blame.
But then in man, y'all get paid. I'm is trying
to pay respects. So one of the greatest ever never
to see. It's like fun food for the better. He's
starting proops. You can't beat too because in the ending
you just might choke. And the people said the brown
the boy would fly Man. It's so sad when the
(25:14):
young Grace die second should in the game. He made
him a name. This is the story of the best,
never the game. I said a butt, the Ram, the
boy ever flying man. It's so sad when the young
Grace styes second stroll in the game. He made him
a name. This is the story of the best and
never the game. I said, this story of the best Never.
(25:39):
I said this story, No that best and never the game.
I said the Ram, the boy would fly Man. It's
so sad when the young Grace die second show in
the game. He made a name, This story of the best. Never.
It's called Home Court. It's a play about an inner
city family that striving to beat the odds, which I
(26:01):
should notice face not too loosely on the tragedy of
of of Lamed Bias. The play spans eight years of
his life, you know, till the time that he makes
it to the trolls and by the time that he
makes it and he goes through drug abuse. That's Brian Gumbo,
a former host of The Today Show on NBC. He's
talking during the broadcast with Eugene Ki, an actor who
(26:23):
plays the character based on lam Bias and a play
called Home Court. Here's Eugene Kei talking again, this time
in an interview more than thirty years later. We were
trying to portray the character that's having a lot of
pressure being put on it, you know, as as being
(26:44):
this perfect person. This is what my character into the
play is another example connecting the Bias story to American culture.
The format of expression was the theater. Home Court was
created by the Creative Arts Team, then a part of
the Educational Theater Company in New York University. The team
(27:07):
uses theater and interactive drama to address social and academic issues.
Jim Maroney, a co founder of the Creative Arts Team,
was its playwright in residence. He started developing the play
in the summer of nineteen eighty six, shortly after Bias died.
His Maroney talking after the play was performed in nine.
(27:30):
The Phenomenal Crack, which eclipse to New York City around
June of last year, along the death of Len Bias,
became an inspiration to developer play. There wasn't a lecture,
but it was the best of drama with a message,
his Maroney during the interview in when Blynn died. That
was extraordinary events in Court my attention. The Creative Arts
(27:54):
Team still exists today. Since its inception in nineteen seventy four,
it has tried to force the creativity and critically engaged
with the world. A focus his youth faced the challenges
in their lives. His maroney again in the majority of
our contracts dealt with substance abuse prevention from the city
(28:16):
and at risk youth in conflict resolution. This seems to
be a very good um model for what we could
do in the schools. Because every middle school student, high
school student knew about land bias and the play. It
(28:38):
was a natural, the subject matter was a natural for
that to happen, and so it just took off like
a rocket for our purposes. We couldn't find a better
subject matter that would hit it that age group. During
his four year run, Home Court appeared in school districts
throughout the United States, included New York City public schools.
(28:59):
The also had runs at festivals and in theaters in Seattle, Dallas, Houston,
and even in Scotland. We would have racked up at
least shows, maybe even more, forty shows per season. That
Today's show feature created quite a buzz about the play
and extended the cultural reach of the biased story. When
(29:22):
it was shown on Today's Show, we were inundated by requests.
That's when the league called UH to be a part
of their rookie transition program. That's Zach Miner, an executive
coach focused on life skills. When did Today's show featured
Home Court, Mina was working with the Creative Arts team.
(29:43):
The lead he was referring to is the National Basketball Association.
Minor helped adapt the show to have more of an
impact on NBA players. I know that unfortunately, than league
had was developing a bad reputation of you know, the celebrities, X,
drugs and rock and roll. You know, when we did
(30:04):
that show, it had such an impact that they felt
that that was a very important part of the story
to go along with how do you become successful? How
do you fight some of the challenges that you may
have grown up with in order to achieve success in
basketball or in any other sport. Home Court was part
(30:27):
of the NBA's rookie orientation program for a few years.
Minor worked as a facilitator during the show for the
NBA rookies. He talked to the audience, acted as a
catalyst for discussion. What drama actually does is allow them
to talk objectively about what they see and what's going on.
Of course, as they speak objectively and they're also um
(30:49):
coming up with their own feelings and emotions about the
situations and sometimes revealing some of what they are going through.
We presented the show, we then did breakout groups and
had q and as with the players at that time,
and of course the league actually used that show as
(31:10):
a ash to create talking points for UM for the situation.
Once they saw that drama had the effect that it has,
we then created other, uh not necessarily shows, but the
stage presentations that would reflect some of the situations that
(31:33):
young athletes would go through upon entering the league. You know,
whether it was with the agents, um, how to manage
the agent responsibility, how to managed family? Friends and family
became a big part of that program, um, you know,
talking about that, and that's I think a part of
(31:55):
that was where uh len Biss's mom came in, because
it was very important that these young men understood that
family could be a challenge as well. Family could be
a support, as Lynn Bias's mom was, and family could
be a challenge as we've seen in other situations what
(32:17):
the students are on. The play was not a complete
representation of Bias, but there are some similarities between Bias
and Damian, the character based on Bias. Eugene Ki played
the role of Damien. We had it in the script
that his brother was, you know, kind of the problem kid,
and and Damian, which was the Lynn Bias character, was
(32:38):
the one who had the talent and was so successful,
and the younger brother was the one who was always
the one that was in trouble. So he was the
one that was in the drugs and everything. What's up
and nothing you can help you with it? So yeah,
come on later, I got caught shot. What it all
(33:03):
happened so fast? I was in the store of mine
in my own business with Crystal legend. He cleaned himself far.
Apparently by that time, Damian the Limbia's character was on
the move with with high school and college day the
(33:24):
lover from the Hospital visions here near Mr. Washington. Based
on your scholastic achievement and your proficiency at Center for
Junior High School, you heard say a two year stars
(33:44):
just a George wrong. Now he's got the NBA knocking
on his door and his brother comes back out of
rehab and notice said there's changes in his brother that
he didn't recognize before. But then he recognized that he's
(34:04):
doing drugs because of course he could recognize the signs.
And not only that he's doing crack at this point,
he's also drinking and everything. But um trying to tell
his brother, Look, I've been there, this is not the
road to go down. And my character Damien based on
advices turning him my own business. I got this. I
(34:28):
can take care of it. Yeah, you're you're the junkie.
You're the one that failed the family. I'm the one
that's going to be successful. Don't you try to tell
it to my let brother. You would tell you all right,
and what I do. And unfortunately he passes away over overdose.
(34:51):
He had the whole world his way to the very time,
and and when we were doing it in a lot
of different neighborhoods, they're not afraid to, uh voice your
opinions even while you're doing the show. So when when
(35:13):
they see me take out a crack pipe and I'm
blowing it up, you know, and smoking it everything, and
you can just hear some of the gaps in the
audience that's oh my god, he's doing right now? What what?
How did that hapen? You know that kind of thing.
Some students offered their thoughts about the player's message that
comments come from local news reports. It's a drama called
(35:36):
Home Court, and it's playing the pop school auditoriums all
around the city. As Mr g found out from the beginning,
the play touches on some raw nerves. The audience at
the ninth graders hang on every word. If you knew
what drugs could do to you, why did you start
her first place? I guess I'm sorry. I told you
(35:58):
when you experiment with John said you to come in
sted to it tell you anything about drugs. It tells
me that not to take it, because then you think
you're all rape. But then I'll take you too farm
eventually then. Reginald Betts was only six years old when
(36:18):
Len Bias died, but he grew up in the same
Prince George's County community as Bias. He eventually began hearing
stories from his father and others about Bias that he
might have rivaled Michael Jordan's had he lived. Bets was
more familiar with the tragic story Reggie Lewis, who, like Bias,
was the first round picked by the Celtics in nine seven,
(36:41):
one year after the Celtics Big Bias. You know, it's
hard to recognize the tragedy of Reggie Lewis and then
recognized the tragedy of Lynn Bias. Lewis died of a
heart condition when Bets was thirteen years old. Soon after,
he began to hear more about Bias and recognized Lin
Bias his tragedy connected to the drug trade, connected to
(37:05):
um what was going on with prison and in conceration
in the early nineties. It was impossible for me to
really think about that as a thirteen y old, you know,
I was I was trying to figure out how to
be a seventh grade, how to be an eighth grader.
A bad decision by Bets when he was sixteen led
him to learning even more about Bias. He was an
honor roll student and class treasurer at Suitland High in
(37:27):
District Heights, Maryland. Bets joined some friends for a night
out a group car jack the man who had fallen
asleep in his car outside the mall in North Virginia.
It was the first time Betts broke the law much
less held a gun. He served eight years of a
nine year prison sentence for a conviction of arm carjacking sixteen.
And I'm in prison and in in some real way,
(37:50):
you know, my life feels like it's it's cut short
in some profoundly tragic way. And I think you begin
to understand. I began to understand the thing differently about
lambias is death. But also because I began to think
differently about the war on drugs, I begin to think
differently about um mass incarceration as a thing, you know,
(38:11):
And so that just forced me to consider him as
a figure um on top of change in sports. I
didn't really know who he was until I went to prison,
And so then by time I get to prison, he
just becomes not a footnote, because it's not fair to
say he's a footnote, but he becomes an explanation for something,
(38:32):
and he becomes an explanation for why. It's just like
the fucking due tragedy of drugs, right, it's the fact
that they actually do ruin our community, and the fact that,
like um, you think that the punishment that comes out
of the response to bias is death. It is as
(38:53):
disastrous as as the deaf. So you know, if you say,
you know, like, how did he come up the poem? Me, honestly,
he comes up in a poem because he's just always there.
Bets left prison with a General Education Development Degree, or
g e D. He went on to earn an undergraduate
(39:13):
degree in creative writing from the University of Maryland. Bets
was the student speaker at his commencement. He later taught
poetry at the university. Bets earned a law degree at
Yale and later past requirements to practice law in Connecticut.
He has given lections on topics ranging from master incarceration
to contemporary poetry, and the intersection of literature and advocacy.
(39:39):
Bets has earned several prestigious fellowships, including the Google High
He served as President Obama's counsel for Juvenile Justice and
delinquency Prevention. Bets wrote a memoir that focused on his
time in prison and Virginia. He also won a National
Magazine Award for the story, publishing the New York Time magazine.
Bets has written books on poetry, one called The Bastards
(40:02):
of the Reagan Era. It won him a New England
Poetry Award, and that book is a palm Knight of
Living base heads. Here's back to reading parts of the
bom Spike had us on edge near ready to toss
a trash can through the city. Lynn Bias was dead
and we was lamping stone coat, lamping pockets fat because
(40:23):
we were entrepreneurs back then. It was always winter, always
cold in the street. My mind, Rabbit would want for equity,
for dukey gold change Jordan's more. The hustle corded us
and we were down. It'll take you to ruin. Moms
would say, as if disaster wasn't that damn place, those
(40:45):
afternoons and all that siren's blair, A mandatory minimum of
years with home becomes God's nightmare, our curse. And so
the way you see Bias come up in that poem
is the way um Bias would have came up in
my life. It's it's just a marker for the tragedy.
(41:10):
M just like somebody recounting how they came up and
how they got involved with drugs and bias. It's that marker,
and a complicated marker too, because people so dope knowing
about the tragedy to Bias, and he's so dope to
other folks knowing about the tragedy to Bias, and that's
what I was trying to The whole poem is trying
to get at that that that that conflict that goes
(41:32):
on in somebody's mind where they're forced to be in
the spot prison. So the way Lynn Bias operated in
my head was was almost like a fucking ghost. You know.
If you say, you know, like, how did he come
up in the poem? I mean, honestly, he comes up
in a poem because he's just always there, and that
(41:52):
poem is written from the perspective of the dude that's
selling drugs. But when you put Lynne at the center
of it, I mean the real tragedy is that, like
now forever, to put Lynne at the center of any conversation,
it's also to put cocaine at the center of it.
And that's how powerful the drug was, is that once
you introduce it into a story, it's a costar, and
(42:17):
Lynn's life makes it forever a kind of coastar. Culturally,
speaking of what could this guy have been, you know,
who would he have become in the league, How might career,
arts and paths have been different? Had Lynn Bias stated
run that's justin Tinsley, an ESPN commentator and a senior
(42:39):
culture and sports reporter for The Undefeated. Just like Dwayne Betts,
Justin Tinsley was very young when Len Bias died. He
was only four months old. Tinsley first heard about Bias
in the mid ninety nineties from his uncle, who lived
in the Washington, d c. Area. His uncle was a
led by his fan. May have been like nine, nine
(43:02):
or ten, and we were talking about basketball and I
really wish Michael Jordan would come back, and you know,
I missed watching him play basketball. He was like, Yeah,
I wish Lynn Bias would have been around to to
play Mike, you know, with the Celtics and see how
that would have played out. Sound like a John Henry
type type guy for my generations. He took John Henry
(43:24):
to the tunnel, him in the lee to drive the rock.
John Henry, So John Henry was a folk hero in
black culture. According to his legend, he was a steel driver.
(43:48):
Henry helped hammer through rock to build railways through the
mountains of West Virginia in the eighteen hundreds. He symbolizes
the hard work of many African Americans who helped build
and maintain the rail at a time when black people
in America was slowly earning more rights and liberties. Tinsley
sees a parallel between John Henry and Bias, and so
(44:09):
he's a he's a tall tale, but he's also even
more so a cautionary tale for my generation. John Henry
loved good bands, them Mountain and his hammer was striking fire.
He hammer too hard that he grew his heart, had
(44:33):
his hand. Calling the legend, Henry died from a broken heart,
a victim of exhaustion. In real life, Bias died of
a heart attack after abusing an excessive amount of pure cocaine.
Tinsley has been working on a book about the nineteen
nineties rap artists Biggie Smalls. Like Bias, Smalls died too early.
(44:56):
He was gunned down to twenty five. In the book,
Tensely connects Biggie's life with the War on drugs and
mandatory minimum sentences, among other issues of that time. Tensly
sees parallels between the story of both Biggie and Bias.
Talks about being neck deep in the drug game and
(45:17):
understanding they're like if I walk around this corner, if
I sell it to the wrong person, like that could
be the end of me, whether whether I'm killed or
whether I go to jail for a long time. So
when we talk about these mandatory minimums and we talk
about this life or death experience in the streets selling
drugs and being caught with even a small amount of
a paraphernalia on at that point in the late eighties
(45:39):
and early nineties to lead to a long trip up state.
And so when we talk about that, you can piece
it back to Lynn Biases. It may not be Biggie saying, oh,
you're making a rhyme about Lynn Bias, but you know,
when you know, when he talks about the streets is
a short stop either slinging crack rock where you gotta
when the jump shot. You know, you can piece that
(45:59):
that to somebody like a Lym Bias because that death
changed everything. When we talk about Lym Bias culturally, we
talked talked about how his death in so many ways
and overreaction about the federal government, and that overreaction directly
impacted our community. And you know, people who look like
(46:20):
that so and in my generation especially now, there there's
this this this emphasis, and there's this thirst, and there's
this intersection of sports, and and and wider culture and
in history and why why these things all matter? Like
when we talk about we talked about Kareem Abdul Jabbar,
(46:40):
We're not just talking about the fact he's the most
decorated basketball player of all time, where he has more
points than anybody who's ever played in the NBA. You know,
we talked about Kareem about by we measure him obviously
by his skills on the corporate we also measure him
by his impact on society at large lym Bias is
the same. He never scored a basket in the NBA,
(47:02):
but his impact on again, on society at large is
asked when you when you mentioned somebody like Lynn Bias.
His name to people in my generation is always like, yeah,
he could have been something we were robbed of seeing
a potentially all time great talent, unlike Dwayne Betts and
(47:26):
just intensely, Michael win Ribb was old enough to understand
the impact of the death of Len Bias when it happened.
He was thirteen years old when Lend Bias died. While
living in State College, Pennsylvania, Wine rib was a huge
fan of college basketball. He was well aware of who
Bias was Wine Ribber, journalists, author of four books, and
(47:48):
a screenwriter. His focus is sports, American culture in the
twentieth century history. He's written for The Wringer, The Athletic,
grant Land, and Bleacher Report. Two thousand and eight, wrote
an essay about biased legacy for ESPN the magazine title
The Day Innocent Died. The story presented a sweeping look
(48:09):
at the death of bias and its impact on society.
It also helped Convince podcast MEDUSA Dave and Grady to
look even deeper into the lent bias legacy of result
on Grady's book Born Ready The Mixed Legacy of Lent Bias.
This podcast series is based on the book. Wind Ribb
believed the biased story as few rivals in history. Once
(48:34):
I dove into it and started to look back at it,
there were these connections political connections, cultural connections, social connections
that I had no idea about when I was a kid.
But once you start digging deeper into them, you realize
that this may have been the most impactful moment in
(48:57):
modern sports history, just because of the impact it had
politics on culture, on a generation of of African Americans
win the issues that still plagues race relations in this
country today have a direct tie to the death of
Led Bias. Yeah. I think it's become more and more
relevant over the course of time as we've realized what
(49:19):
are we were years into the drug war and it's
obviously been a colossal failure. I think I think everybody
on both sides of the political I would probably admit
that at this point, UM and Bias I think stands out.
His story just stands out as as an exemplar of
(49:39):
that failure and how all of the policies that were
attempted to UM further the war on drugs nearly all
of them have failed. And this this what happened in
the wake of his death, UM is kind of the
prototypical example of that. And UM when you sort of
(50:01):
realized the impact that it's had on a generation, particularly
of African Americans, who have been imprisoned because of the
laws that were passed in his name, UM, it's just
it really kind of puts into perspective everything that we've
been talking about in America for the last year, before
(50:25):
even for the last fifty years. Greetings everyone, This is
Davon Grady, the executive producer of this podcast series. This
(50:47):
episode concludes the narrative portion of the series. We have
presented an unprecedented review of the rich and complex legacy
of len Bias, some six minutes of total content. I
thank all of those who have joined us so far
in this unique journey, but there is more up. Next
(51:09):
is what I like to call a functional epilogue, a
mini series of episodes that focuses on decision making. In
its essence, the len Bias legacy was shaped largely by
the fact that lend made a poor decision to abuse drugs,
and as we all know, it killed him. The epilogue
(51:30):
will help you learn how to make the right decision.
There are tools you can use, and the decision episodes
will tell you about them in the context of real
life stories. In the epilogue, we will discuss decisions made
by five people. They all faced challenges as a result
of these decisions. They include one of the top high
(51:53):
school basketball coaches in the country, Glenn Farrella, also Travis Garrison,
a former mayor and basketball star, and Olympic sprint champion
Justin Gatlin. We also talked with students Zach Reid and
Ben Katoko. Our discussion is ably anchored by Chris spetslo
(52:14):
an expert on decision making. Chris is the executive director
of the Decision Education Foundation, a partner in the thirty
four plus point campaign and this podcast series. The decision
Focused episodes will give you some practical takeaways from this
series and we urge you to tune in soon. For
(52:36):
more information, go to Go Grady Media dot com. That's
Go Grady Media dot com. This podcast series is based
on the book Born Ready The Mixed Legacy of Lambis,
published by Go Grady Media. The series is produced by
Go Grady Media and partnership with Octagon Entertainment. This segment
(52:58):
was produced by Dave and Grady and Don Marcus. It
was written by Dave and Grady and edited by Don Marcus.
Narration by John sal with additional narration by Jamal Williams.
Technical production was provided by Octagon Entertainment. Production assistance was
produced by Kevin McNalty, Tina Quagliarda, Lauren Rosch, Georgia Braun,
Casey Fair, Jamal Williams, Kelsey Mannix, and Enzo al Varina.
(53:22):
Social media assistance Special thanks to the University of Maryland
and American University for providing incidents the Decision Education Foundation
as a content and promotional partner of this podcast series.
For more information, go to go graded media dot com.
This has been a production of go Graded Media and
the Eighth Side Network. Oh yes, he was small and superstar.
(54:16):
I he was the brettest one fall. He was a
fool of Tandridge, one of the strongest guys. You well
be seen, want you to play all night to be
(54:37):
Now I can only see his memory. I remember when
he made his FASTI heart of him was ter and
the show so many bad jacky it's all but there
(55:00):
was Fader dead, this master dough, he and his team
to factory the beauty that well history pleas manatree come
(55:23):
that way like Kevin, he publish what a pain main Pa.
It didn't even that. She'll always be the put am
less member. We can even say he got us all
(55:47):
of her less history. He'll always be a father as
I'm acurd before Lenny, he was so strong and fancical.
Do let the cofeel House's insible bettering we might never
(56:53):
do want a pair, and even she always be about
as well life. Now we can even say he started lists. Hello,
(57:19):
ways they thought the boy because I'm a sad before
then it by. He was so strong and san, so
letting the pals the long hell away. And I'm a
(57:45):
store by he was, and saying, we'll let the pool
tat by, so sto take out the b
Yeah, because Gwenlyn Brooks was one of the most distinguished
poets UM in the country at the time. And to
have that person who represents the pinnacle of UM, you know,
(00:21):
of a literary position, have a meeting with UM arguably
the best college basketball player in the United States at
the time. They never I mean, that's remarkable, isn't it.
There were these connections political connections, cultural connections, social connections
(00:47):
that I had no idea about when I was a kid.
But once you started digging deeper into them, do you
realize that this may have been the most impactful moment
any modern sports history where he was prepared to be
but one of the more painful what ifs and pop
(01:07):
culture history. It's called Home Court. It's a play about
an inner city family that's striving to beat the odds,
which I should notice face not too loosely on the
tragedy of of of lambias, just wanted to do more.
And I think it's not just me. I think it's
(01:31):
just like lambias post nineteen eighty six overwhelms. The narrative
of lambias pre ninety, pre overdose and overwhelms is so
much so that with the War for me him as
a basketball player has to constantly try to compete with
effect of the culture in all of those other ways.
(01:53):
In this episode of Limbias and Mixed Legacy cultural catalysts,
the impact of biases legacy on American culture. When it
must have been in the middle of May, no more
than a week or so before the end of term,
when I experienced a len Bias surprise. I know it
was nineteen eighty six because I come to the University
(02:15):
of Maryland to fall before in order to help start
up a Master of Fine Arts program and creative writing.
Of course, I knew about the fine reputation of the
English department. What I was most familiar with from its
national reputation was Maryland's basketball team and its colorful coach,
(02:37):
left A. Grizzelle. Once on the Maryland campus, I followed
Giselle's team with special interest. I say Drizzelle's team, when
what I mean is the team of Len Bias, the
All America forward who was by acclamation, the best basketball
(02:58):
player in the country, a player like the great ones,
who could dominate the other team all by himself in
any number of ways. Those are the words of Stanley Plumbly.
One of the country's prize writers. Plumbly arrived in the
University of Maryland in and started writing program for graduate students.
(03:20):
He was Maryland's Poet Laureate from two thousand and nine
to two thousand eighteen. As a youth, his two obsessions
were reading in basketball, I remember thinking that he played
like a professional. His skill and size, speed and quickness,
grace and aggressiveness set him apart. Yet for all his talent,
(03:43):
he was also a quiet player, no show, voting, no display,
all business. He was what might be called a working
class player, more worth and Plumbly, but that was not
his voice. Plumbly passed away in two thousand nineteen. His
words were read by Michael Collyer, a colleague of Plumbly
(04:04):
at Maryland Call You. His creative thoughts were often intertwined
with those of plumb Lely. For good reason, Collie has
thoughted working at Maryland a year before Plumbly, he helped
Plumberly build the creative writing program for much more than
three decades at Maryland, the officers were adjacent to each other,
and Call You was also Maryland's Poet Laureate from two
(04:26):
thousand and one to two thousand and four. They talked
often about lam Bias his callers. In his own words,
you know, Lynn Bias was on everybody's mind. You know,
Stanley was a basketball player. He played basketball, I think
in college. When he would come over to my house,
we often shot baskets in the driveway because I had
(04:47):
a hoop from my son's plumbly soft tusks extended to
his writings. The words upon Me, read by Callier, first
appeared in a forward in the book Born Ready, The
Mixed Legacy of Lynn Bias, and it is one example
of how the legacy of Lenbias is reflected in American
culture even to day. In this podcast series about the
(05:08):
vast and mixed legacy of Lenbias, we have explained how
his death has impacted society in profoundly different ways. Maryland Athletics,
his friends and family, mandatory minimum prison sentences, the Celtics,
the n b A, his teammates, his family. In this episode,
we examine lens legacy through a cultural lens. We focus
(05:30):
on the impact of his legacy on race and social justice,
how it influenced music and how it connected to literature,
how it was presented in the theater, and how it
has even recently been reference in popular television series. In life,
Lenbias was a transformative basketball player. In death, He's a
(05:51):
cautionary tale, an iconic symbol of poor decision making. Lenbias
is also a cultural catalyst in this episode. In story
and legacy are juxtaposed with those many important figures in
American cultural history, Emmett Tell's Terrible Tale and racial injustice,
the tragic young death of rapper Biggie Smalls, the Black
(06:13):
folklore fable of John Henry. His legacy is reflected in
the writings of contemporary black culture, included by Reginald Dwayne Betts,
and just intensely. The impact of his death is even
woven in the storyline of TV series Snowfall, about the
drug culture of the eighties. The debut of the show's
fifth season in February of two began with the recreation
(06:38):
of Bias collapsing in his Maryland dorm room on the
morning of June nineteenth, nine six. There are references to
Bias and his death in later episodes. For Stanley Plumbly,
Bias represents both a heroic and tragic figure in his
forward in the book Born Ready, The Mixed Legacy of
lamb Bias. Plumbly re account the day he met Bias
(07:01):
while working at Maryland. It was part of an event
hosted by his department, Call You picks up the story
from there, I was asked by the Dean's Office Arts
and Humanities to introduce Gwendolyn Brooks, the National Poet Laureate
who in became the first black poet to win the
Pulitzer Prize. I remember asking her to read one or
(07:26):
two particular favorites of mine, one of which is her
signature poem we Real Cool, We Real Cool. We left school,
learned Light, Wait straight waiting seven then jim we jesz
(07:49):
June Wait that Call Your continues as narration of the
forward written by Plumbly. The structure of the event called
for the Dean to introduce me, followed by my introduction
of Brooks. For a moment, Brooks and I were standing
there together when suddenly, from the opposite side of the stage,
(08:10):
there arrives a very tall young man bearing a large
bouquet of red roses. It was led Bias, whose presence
came at the request of Joyce, and Joyce, a professor
of Afro American literature at Maryland. Bias took Joyce's class
(08:32):
in the nineteen eighty three False Semester, and, as Joyce
explained it, graciously earned a de grade despite the fact
he missed classes frequently and flunked the two assignments he completed.
It was not her policy to flunk athletes. Joyce developed
(08:52):
a friendship with Bias and considered him sweet and thoughtful.
Joyce arranged the reading by Brooks and asked Bias if
he would present Brooks with a bouquet of flowers. She
thought bias Is gesture would help show a link between
the excellence of black basketball players and black poets and
(09:16):
showcase the artistry of both. She had hoped that biases
participation could translate to increased respect for poetry to the
level students respect basketball players. The Maryland basketball banquet was
being held at the same time at the Stamp Student
(09:38):
Union about a half mile away, but that did not
stop Bias from surprising Brooks and everyone else attending the event.
He shakes my hand and then embraces the diminutive Brooks
and places the great flowers into her open arm. The
(10:01):
audience goes slightly wild. I can see the tears in
Brooks's eyes, and everyone can see the smile on Len
Biases face. At the reception, we all talked, but who
knows what about likely? We talked about the future, notably
(10:25):
the future of the basketball star. It is not often
a prominent athlete connects with the icon of poetry for
such a rare event. That fact was not lost on
car you. He reflected on significance of Bias meeting Brooks.
There's Gwen Alan Brooks was one of the most distinguished
poets UM in the country at the time, and she
(10:48):
was finishing her stint as poetry consultant to the Library
of Congress, a position that's now known as the US
Poet Laureate. And to have that person who represents the
pinnacle of UM, you know, of a literary position have
(11:10):
a meeting with UM arguably the best UH college basketball
player in the United States at the time. I mean,
that's remarkable, isn't it. That doesn't First of all, athletes
and poets don't get together like that in a public way.
They really don't. UM. And it meant to me the
(11:33):
coming together of two cultures, you know, the literary humanities
culture and the student athlete culture. UH. And that doesn't
happen in that way in a public way very often,
And it seemed clear to me that UM len Bias
recognized the importance of the moment, and so I also
(11:57):
I also thought that that was UM some thing very
honorable and what you might not expect out of UM.
A student athlete. Many years later, Call You was compelled
to write a poem about Brooks meeting Bias in the
form of something called a golden shovel, a poetic style
that pays homage to Brooks by incorporating a line from
(12:19):
one of her poems. I chose two lines from the
Gwendoline Brooks poem titled the Last Quatrain of the Ballad
of Emmett till And we all know who Emmett till
Uh is, a fourteen year old African American young man
(12:45):
who was lynched in Money, Mississippi. In these are the
lines that I chose for my my golden shovel. She
kisses her killed boy and she is sorry. Call You
(13:06):
narrates the poem he wrote about Brooks and Bias. It's
called Len Bias of Bouquet of Flowers and Ms Brooks.
He arrives in the middle of her reading she has
to stop and taking the flowers he's brought, kisses the
(13:26):
beautiful young man whose yellow socks are her dowdy sweaters. Antithesis.
What's said between them is killed by applause, but not
his smile, which is the smile of a boy standing
(13:50):
in the silence he's created, and not her magnified stare,
which says she understands why he's arrived late, he is
already leaving, and that he is sorry. It's the only
(14:12):
poem I've ever written about uh an experience I had
at the University of Maryland. I've never written about anything
that happened at the University of Maryland. And yet when
I was given this assignment, this moment immediately came back
to me in a really powerful way. And it was
(14:33):
a kind of coincidence that I came across these lines
in the last quadrain from the ballot of of Emmett Till.
But they seem to fit perfectly. Call you see is
a connection between bias until that includes a maternal extension.
And I think too, there's a kind of congruence not perfect,
(14:55):
between Emmett Till and Len Bias. There are definitely connections
that you can make between their their deaths and and
mat Til was a complete victim of a moment, uh
and in a moment defined by American culture, UM, American
(15:17):
racist culture. UM. And you know we're not we're not
over that and len Bias, I think you can say
not in the not in the same way. But he
is a kind of of I don't like the word victim,
but but I but I see Biases as a kind
(15:39):
of his death as a kind of tragedy that was
also a way of reading it into a national tragedy,
into narratives American narratives that follow national tragedies after his death.
There are so many things that were racialized about it
(16:01):
for me, a kind of terrifying um poignancy to it.
You know. The other thing too that connects them is
the role that that mother's played, their mother's played in
their desks UM, because Lenn Biases mother was and has
been very forceful. And of course Emmett Tills mother did
(16:25):
that almost unbelievable thing of allowing um m it to
be in an open casket and um and also allowing
um the photographer to come in and and and and
(16:46):
take a series of of pictures of him in the
autopsy room. But um as a way of not allowing
his death to go you know, a notice that it
would that that that it could help people. And and
(17:07):
what had helped was, you know, directly someone like Rosa
Parks make a decision to stay on, to stay in
in in the seat at the front of the bus
rather go to the back. There's a direct connection there. Um.
So he his death was not in vain, to use
a cliche. Uh. And the mother was behind that very
(17:29):
eloquently and movingly. One of the things that allowed other
people to learn from deaths, let's say not was the mothers.
The mothers. It's kind of interesting, huh. Ronald Delhi was
inspired to write a song about Bias after he heard
(17:49):
the news about his death. He was living in Washington,
d c. Area and was a big fan of Lambias,
often Merland fan for quite three years. I used to
live right across from the campus, a little town called Lakeland.
I used to go to the games back, uh, you know,
when I graduated from high school. Um, back into the
(18:13):
nineteen sixties, three sixty four, somewhere in there, you know.
But h only went to one of the then biases games.
You know how popular he was. I just wanted to
see him play because I heard a lot about him,
you know how how good he was. And uh, I
told my son, let's go up and see. You know
how great that is. Daily played in the band called
the Chain Band in the nineteen sixties and seventies. He
(18:36):
also tried songwriting. It took the death of Bias to
convince Daily to write a song about him and for
Daly to finally record a song that he had written.
At the time, he was working for the electric company
that he partially owned. Yes, so I was driving down
the road and I was on delivery and I heard
the news on the radio about his death, and uh,
(19:00):
I just said, this is really really sad. I said,
I want to write a song about this guy. You
know what I said, because he's so great. I just
I just started, you know, singing. I said, Lynby he
was in Maryland Scooperstar. And it took me about twodays
to really write the song. He was. He was the
(19:28):
prettiest one of my father. He was this guy, you
well s I played it more his father. For Father's Day,
I dedicated to to him. Yeah, for Father's Day. Delhi
(19:51):
was living at the time in a town called Bladensburg,
about five miles from where by his family lived. He
sent the producers of this podcast there is a copy
of a picture of imposing with Lenise Bias and others
in the Buya's house. At that time. They didn't really
know of me, and uh, I wanted to meet the family.
(20:13):
That was the first time I met the family, you know,
with my kids, my my son's and they were sitting
in Lym bias Is chairing all. It was really beautiful,
you know. Nittle Bias told me I was like part
of the family tree because of you know, how close
that I was, you know, writing this song and how
fast I've done it, you know, in two days, and
(20:34):
you know, she got a copy of the song. I
(21:00):
wanted to proceed you to go to the Bias family.
I didn't want to do that just for myself. I
just wanted to do it for the Bias family, which
I would like to see a movie down of Led
Bias and you know, use my song as a soundtrack.
And this is the purpose of me, you know, go
on this far with it. You can listen to the
(21:20):
song in its entirety at the end of this episode, Yeah,
this is dedicated so the greatest that never was. Other
(21:48):
musicians have also memorialized Bias. Some thirty years after his
death of Bias, rap artists whose musical name is MC
long Shot released a song simply called led Bias. It
lasts just under four minutes, and it's a part of
a three song album called Instant for Eternity. The other
two songs on the album are about domestic abuse and
(22:11):
romantic breakup. It was written and produced by Chad he Slip.
He was born in Chicago South Side. He released his
first single in two thousand and two. You've heard clips
of the song throughout this podcast series. Now we played
for you in its entirety. Yeah, it's just dedicated so
(22:42):
the greatest that never was. Yeah, Yeah, minutes, so sad.
When a younger st scontro it stood he had it
(23:05):
all strong, quick and he was sold. They called him
Frosty because he was cool when he falls jump shot
perfect and so pure. It befall justin for greatness of
loss that you're known the ball up her memories remember me.
I hope they do the same as for Lenna. The
best steppers that never became, And you could try to blame,
but the fact that he died and was nobody's fault
but his own, because he tried something and they cried them.
(23:28):
But before that he was, says the Shore. He was
the boy. You wouldn't doubt that he was gonna make
it as the number two picked by the Boston Something too.
Would have been so sick batting live with Jordan for
the Scoroon in the East. They did it once in college.
Lenny Fights was the beast from the street to Lando
to the A C. C Unanimous all world. He was
prepared to be but they had another player for the
(23:49):
brother Man they say, was to catch me out coming
out of Maryland. He's a proof you can't get too high.
At the funeral, his mama ain't cry and the people
sit up on the round to the boy of a
fly Man, it's so sad when the young Grace sty
second stroll in the game, he made him a name.
This is the story, you're the best, never became, I
said a button ram the boy ever fly man. It's
(24:11):
so sad when the young Grace styes second stroll in
the game, he made him a name. That's the story,
you're the best and never became that's the lesson to
learn is playing by you get burned. And when it
comes to step here, everybody get a turn. Such a
blessing and the curse when living by step the earth.
He gave the world to wake up, calling in fight
a bunch of churchs with the war on drugs and
like the war run browns with gold chains and beats.
(24:32):
They thought they keep us on the ground and behind balls.
We all shall find God and leave it to the limit.
Because Lenny to find odds. Despite the fact that you
never saw twenty three, he was the best never saw
since twenty three. Then this aw the open wounds. His
baby brother saw the coomb, and that started the war
wrung guns. Y'all would as soon, but no, they knew
was all the same. If you shot and you're black,
(24:53):
you're just the part of the game. When if you
shoot and you're black, you were part of the blame.
But then in man, y'all get paid. I'm is trying
to pay respects. So one of the greatest ever never
to see. It's like fun food for the better. He's
starting proops. You can't beat too because in the ending
you just might choke. And the people said the brown
the boy would fly Man. It's so sad when the
(25:14):
young Grace die second should in the game. He made
him a name. This is the story of the best,
never the game. I said a butt, the Ram, the
boy ever flying man. It's so sad when the young
Grace styes second stroll in the game. He made him
a name. This is the story of the best and
never the game. I said, this story of the best Never.
(25:39):
I said this story, No that best and never the game.
I said the Ram, the boy would fly Man. It's
so sad when the young Grace die second show in
the game. He made a name, This story of the best. Never.
It's called Home Court. It's a play about an inner
city family that striving to beat the odds, which I
(26:01):
should notice face not too loosely on the tragedy of
of of Lamed Bias. The play spans eight years of
his life, you know, till the time that he makes
it to the trolls and by the time that he
makes it and he goes through drug abuse. That's Brian Gumbo,
a former host of The Today Show on NBC. He's
talking during the broadcast with Eugene Ki, an actor who
(26:23):
plays the character based on lam Bias and a play
called Home Court. Here's Eugene Kei talking again, this time
in an interview more than thirty years later. We were
trying to portray the character that's having a lot of
pressure being put on it, you know, as as being
(26:44):
this perfect person. This is what my character into the
play is another example connecting the Bias story to American culture.
The format of expression was the theater. Home Court was
created by the Creative Arts Team, then a part of
the Educational Theater Company in New York University. The team
(27:07):
uses theater and interactive drama to address social and academic issues.
Jim Maroney, a co founder of the Creative Arts Team,
was its playwright in residence. He started developing the play
in the summer of nineteen eighty six, shortly after Bias died.
His Maroney talking after the play was performed in nine.
(27:30):
The Phenomenal Crack, which eclipse to New York City around
June of last year, along the death of Len Bias,
became an inspiration to developer play. There wasn't a lecture,
but it was the best of drama with a message,
his Maroney during the interview in when Blynn died. That
was extraordinary events in Court my attention. The Creative Arts
(27:54):
Team still exists today. Since its inception in nineteen seventy four,
it has tried to force the creativity and critically engaged
with the world. A focus his youth faced the challenges
in their lives. His maroney again in the majority of
our contracts dealt with substance abuse prevention from the city
(28:16):
and at risk youth in conflict resolution. This seems to
be a very good um model for what we could
do in the schools. Because every middle school student, high
school student knew about land bias and the play. It
(28:38):
was a natural, the subject matter was a natural for
that to happen, and so it just took off like
a rocket for our purposes. We couldn't find a better
subject matter that would hit it that age group. During
his four year run, Home Court appeared in school districts
throughout the United States, included New York City public schools.
(28:59):
The also had runs at festivals and in theaters in Seattle, Dallas, Houston,
and even in Scotland. We would have racked up at
least shows, maybe even more, forty shows per season. That
Today's show feature created quite a buzz about the play
and extended the cultural reach of the biased story. When
(29:22):
it was shown on Today's Show, we were inundated by requests.
That's when the league called UH to be a part
of their rookie transition program. That's Zach Miner, an executive
coach focused on life skills. When did Today's show featured
Home Court, Mina was working with the Creative Arts team.
(29:43):
The lead he was referring to is the National Basketball Association.
Minor helped adapt the show to have more of an
impact on NBA players. I know that unfortunately, than league
had was developing a bad reputation of you know, the celebrities, X,
drugs and rock and roll. You know, when we did
(30:04):
that show, it had such an impact that they felt
that that was a very important part of the story
to go along with how do you become successful? How
do you fight some of the challenges that you may
have grown up with in order to achieve success in
basketball or in any other sport. Home Court was part
(30:27):
of the NBA's rookie orientation program for a few years.
Minor worked as a facilitator during the show for the
NBA rookies. He talked to the audience, acted as a
catalyst for discussion. What drama actually does is allow them
to talk objectively about what they see and what's going on.
Of course, as they speak objectively and they're also um
(30:49):
coming up with their own feelings and emotions about the
situations and sometimes revealing some of what they are going through.
We presented the show, we then did breakout groups and
had q and as with the players at that time,
and of course the league actually used that show as
(31:10):
a ash to create talking points for UM for the situation.
Once they saw that drama had the effect that it has,
we then created other, uh not necessarily shows, but the
stage presentations that would reflect some of the situations that
(31:33):
young athletes would go through upon entering the league. You know,
whether it was with the agents, um, how to manage
the agent responsibility, how to managed family? Friends and family
became a big part of that program, um, you know,
talking about that, and that's I think a part of
(31:55):
that was where uh len Biss's mom came in, because
it was very important that these young men understood that
family could be a challenge as well. Family could be
a support, as Lynn Bias's mom was, and family could
be a challenge as we've seen in other situations what
(32:17):
the students are on. The play was not a complete
representation of Bias, but there are some similarities between Bias
and Damian, the character based on Bias. Eugene Ki played
the role of Damien. We had it in the script
that his brother was, you know, kind of the problem kid,
and and Damian, which was the Lynn Bias character, was
(32:38):
the one who had the talent and was so successful,
and the younger brother was the one who was always
the one that was in trouble. So he was the
one that was in the drugs and everything. What's up
and nothing you can help you with it? So yeah,
come on later, I got caught shot. What it all
(33:03):
happened so fast? I was in the store of mine
in my own business with Crystal legend. He cleaned himself far.
Apparently by that time, Damian the Limbia's character was on
the move with with high school and college day the
(33:24):
lover from the Hospital visions here near Mr. Washington. Based
on your scholastic achievement and your proficiency at Center for
Junior High School, you heard say a two year stars
(33:44):
just a George wrong. Now he's got the NBA knocking
on his door and his brother comes back out of
rehab and notice said there's changes in his brother that
he didn't recognize before. But then he recognized that he's
(34:04):
doing drugs because of course he could recognize the signs.
And not only that he's doing crack at this point,
he's also drinking and everything. But um trying to tell
his brother, Look, I've been there, this is not the
road to go down. And my character Damien based on
advices turning him my own business. I got this. I
(34:28):
can take care of it. Yeah, you're you're the junkie.
You're the one that failed the family. I'm the one
that's going to be successful. Don't you try to tell
it to my let brother. You would tell you all right,
and what I do. And unfortunately he passes away over overdose.
(34:51):
He had the whole world his way to the very time,
and and when we were doing it in a lot
of different neighborhoods, they're not afraid to, uh voice your
opinions even while you're doing the show. So when when
(35:13):
they see me take out a crack pipe and I'm
blowing it up, you know, and smoking it everything, and
you can just hear some of the gaps in the
audience that's oh my god, he's doing right now? What what?
How did that hapen? You know that kind of thing.
Some students offered their thoughts about the player's message that
comments come from local news reports. It's a drama called
(35:36):
Home Court, and it's playing the pop school auditoriums all
around the city. As Mr g found out from the beginning,
the play touches on some raw nerves. The audience at
the ninth graders hang on every word. If you knew
what drugs could do to you, why did you start
her first place? I guess I'm sorry. I told you
(35:58):
when you experiment with John said you to come in
sted to it tell you anything about drugs. It tells
me that not to take it, because then you think
you're all rape. But then I'll take you too farm
eventually then. Reginald Betts was only six years old when
(36:18):
Len Bias died, but he grew up in the same
Prince George's County community as Bias. He eventually began hearing
stories from his father and others about Bias that he
might have rivaled Michael Jordan's had he lived. Bets was
more familiar with the tragic story Reggie Lewis, who, like Bias,
was the first round picked by the Celtics in nine seven,
(36:41):
one year after the Celtics Big Bias. You know, it's
hard to recognize the tragedy of Reggie Lewis and then
recognized the tragedy of Lynn Bias. Lewis died of a
heart condition when Bets was thirteen years old. Soon after,
he began to hear more about Bias and recognized Lin
Bias his tragedy connected to the drug trade, connected to
(37:05):
um what was going on with prison and in conceration
in the early nineties. It was impossible for me to
really think about that as a thirteen y old, you know,
I was I was trying to figure out how to
be a seventh grade, how to be an eighth grader.
A bad decision by Bets when he was sixteen led
him to learning even more about Bias. He was an
honor roll student and class treasurer at Suitland High in
(37:27):
District Heights, Maryland. Bets joined some friends for a night
out a group car jack the man who had fallen
asleep in his car outside the mall in North Virginia.
It was the first time Betts broke the law much
less held a gun. He served eight years of a
nine year prison sentence for a conviction of arm carjacking sixteen.
And I'm in prison and in in some real way,
(37:50):
you know, my life feels like it's it's cut short
in some profoundly tragic way. And I think you begin
to understand. I began to understand the thing differently about
lambias is death. But also because I began to think
differently about the war on drugs, I begin to think
differently about um mass incarceration as a thing, you know,
(38:11):
And so that just forced me to consider him as
a figure um on top of change in sports. I
didn't really know who he was until I went to prison,
And so then by time I get to prison, he
just becomes not a footnote, because it's not fair to
say he's a footnote, but he becomes an explanation for something,
(38:32):
and he becomes an explanation for why. It's just like
the fucking due tragedy of drugs, right, it's the fact
that they actually do ruin our community, and the fact that,
like um, you think that the punishment that comes out
of the response to bias is death. It is as
(38:53):
disastrous as as the deaf. So you know, if you say,
you know, like, how did he come up the poem? Me, honestly,
he comes up in a poem because he's just always there.
Bets left prison with a General Education Development Degree, or
g e D. He went on to earn an undergraduate
(39:13):
degree in creative writing from the University of Maryland. Bets
was the student speaker at his commencement. He later taught
poetry at the university. Bets earned a law degree at
Yale and later past requirements to practice law in Connecticut.
He has given lections on topics ranging from master incarceration
to contemporary poetry, and the intersection of literature and advocacy.
(39:39):
Bets has earned several prestigious fellowships, including the Google High
He served as President Obama's counsel for Juvenile Justice and
delinquency Prevention. Bets wrote a memoir that focused on his
time in prison and Virginia. He also won a National
Magazine Award for the story, publishing the New York Time magazine.
Bets has written books on poetry, one called The Bastards
(40:02):
of the Reagan Era. It won him a New England
Poetry Award, and that book is a palm Knight of
Living base heads. Here's back to reading parts of the
bom Spike had us on edge near ready to toss
a trash can through the city. Lynn Bias was dead
and we was lamping stone coat, lamping pockets fat because
(40:23):
we were entrepreneurs back then. It was always winter, always
cold in the street. My mind, Rabbit would want for equity,
for dukey gold change Jordan's more. The hustle corded us
and we were down. It'll take you to ruin. Moms
would say, as if disaster wasn't that damn place, those
(40:45):
afternoons and all that siren's blair, A mandatory minimum of
years with home becomes God's nightmare, our curse. And so
the way you see Bias come up in that poem
is the way um Bias would have came up in
my life. It's it's just a marker for the tragedy.
(41:10):
M just like somebody recounting how they came up and
how they got involved with drugs and bias. It's that marker,
and a complicated marker too, because people so dope knowing
about the tragedy to Bias, and he's so dope to
other folks knowing about the tragedy to Bias, and that's
what I was trying to The whole poem is trying
to get at that that that that conflict that goes
(41:32):
on in somebody's mind where they're forced to be in
the spot prison. So the way Lynn Bias operated in
my head was was almost like a fucking ghost. You know.
If you say, you know, like, how did he come
up in the poem? I mean, honestly, he comes up
in a poem because he's just always there, and that
(41:52):
poem is written from the perspective of the dude that's
selling drugs. But when you put Lynne at the center
of it, I mean the real tragedy is that, like
now forever, to put Lynne at the center of any conversation,
it's also to put cocaine at the center of it.
And that's how powerful the drug was, is that once
you introduce it into a story, it's a costar, and
(42:17):
Lynn's life makes it forever a kind of coastar. Culturally,
speaking of what could this guy have been, you know,
who would he have become in the league, How might career,
arts and paths have been different? Had Lynn Bias stated
run that's justin Tinsley, an ESPN commentator and a senior
(42:39):
culture and sports reporter for The Undefeated. Just like Dwayne Betts,
Justin Tinsley was very young when Len Bias died. He
was only four months old. Tinsley first heard about Bias
in the mid ninety nineties from his uncle, who lived
in the Washington, d c. Area. His uncle was a
led by his fan. May have been like nine, nine
(43:02):
or ten, and we were talking about basketball and I
really wish Michael Jordan would come back, and you know,
I missed watching him play basketball. He was like, Yeah,
I wish Lynn Bias would have been around to to
play Mike, you know, with the Celtics and see how
that would have played out. Sound like a John Henry
type type guy for my generations. He took John Henry
(43:24):
to the tunnel, him in the lee to drive the rock.
John Henry, So John Henry was a folk hero in
black culture. According to his legend, he was a steel driver.
(43:48):
Henry helped hammer through rock to build railways through the
mountains of West Virginia in the eighteen hundreds. He symbolizes
the hard work of many African Americans who helped build
and maintain the rail at a time when black people
in America was slowly earning more rights and liberties. Tinsley
sees a parallel between John Henry and Bias, and so
(44:09):
he's a he's a tall tale, but he's also even
more so a cautionary tale for my generation. John Henry
loved good bands, them Mountain and his hammer was striking fire.
He hammer too hard that he grew his heart, had
(44:33):
his hand. Calling the legend, Henry died from a broken heart,
a victim of exhaustion. In real life, Bias died of
a heart attack after abusing an excessive amount of pure cocaine.
Tinsley has been working on a book about the nineteen
nineties rap artists Biggie Smalls. Like Bias, Smalls died too early.
(44:56):
He was gunned down to twenty five. In the book,
Tensely connects Biggie's life with the War on drugs and
mandatory minimum sentences, among other issues of that time. Tensly
sees parallels between the story of both Biggie and Bias.
Talks about being neck deep in the drug game and
(45:17):
understanding they're like if I walk around this corner, if
I sell it to the wrong person, like that could
be the end of me, whether whether I'm killed or
whether I go to jail for a long time. So
when we talk about these mandatory minimums and we talk
about this life or death experience in the streets selling
drugs and being caught with even a small amount of
a paraphernalia on at that point in the late eighties
(45:39):
and early nineties to lead to a long trip up state.
And so when we talk about that, you can piece
it back to Lynn Biases. It may not be Biggie saying, oh,
you're making a rhyme about Lynn Bias, but you know,
when you know, when he talks about the streets is
a short stop either slinging crack rock where you gotta
when the jump shot. You know, you can piece that
(45:59):
that to somebody like a Lym Bias because that death
changed everything. When we talk about Lym Bias culturally, we
talked talked about how his death in so many ways
and overreaction about the federal government, and that overreaction directly
impacted our community. And you know, people who look like
(46:20):
that so and in my generation especially now, there there's
this this this emphasis, and there's this thirst, and there's
this intersection of sports, and and and wider culture and
in history and why why these things all matter? Like
when we talk about we talked about Kareem Abdul Jabbar,
(46:40):
We're not just talking about the fact he's the most
decorated basketball player of all time, where he has more
points than anybody who's ever played in the NBA. You know,
we talked about Kareem about by we measure him obviously
by his skills on the corporate we also measure him
by his impact on society at large lym Bias is
the same. He never scored a basket in the NBA,
(47:02):
but his impact on again, on society at large is
asked when you when you mentioned somebody like Lynn Bias.
His name to people in my generation is always like, yeah,
he could have been something we were robbed of seeing
a potentially all time great talent, unlike Dwayne Betts and
(47:26):
just intensely, Michael win Ribb was old enough to understand
the impact of the death of Len Bias when it happened.
He was thirteen years old when Lend Bias died. While
living in State College, Pennsylvania, Wine rib was a huge
fan of college basketball. He was well aware of who
Bias was Wine Ribber, journalists, author of four books, and
(47:48):
a screenwriter. His focus is sports, American culture in the
twentieth century history. He's written for The Wringer, The Athletic,
grant Land, and Bleacher Report. Two thousand and eight, wrote
an essay about biased legacy for ESPN the magazine title
The Day Innocent Died. The story presented a sweeping look
(48:09):
at the death of bias and its impact on society.
It also helped Convince podcast MEDUSA Dave and Grady to
look even deeper into the lent bias legacy of result
on Grady's book Born Ready The Mixed Legacy of Lent Bias.
This podcast series is based on the book. Wind Ribb
believed the biased story as few rivals in history. Once
(48:34):
I dove into it and started to look back at it,
there were these connections political connections, cultural connections, social connections
that I had no idea about when I was a kid.
But once you start digging deeper into them, you realize
that this may have been the most impactful moment in
(48:57):
modern sports history, just because of the impact it had
politics on culture, on a generation of of African Americans
win the issues that still plagues race relations in this
country today have a direct tie to the death of
Led Bias. Yeah. I think it's become more and more
relevant over the course of time as we've realized what
(49:19):
are we were years into the drug war and it's
obviously been a colossal failure. I think I think everybody
on both sides of the political I would probably admit
that at this point, UM and Bias I think stands out.
His story just stands out as as an exemplar of
(49:39):
that failure and how all of the policies that were
attempted to UM further the war on drugs nearly all
of them have failed. And this this what happened in
the wake of his death, UM is kind of the
prototypical example of that. And UM when you sort of
(50:01):
realized the impact that it's had on a generation, particularly
of African Americans, who have been imprisoned because of the
laws that were passed in his name, UM, it's just
it really kind of puts into perspective everything that we've
been talking about in America for the last year, before
(50:25):
even for the last fifty years. Greetings everyone, This is
Davon Grady, the executive producer of this podcast series. This
(50:47):
episode concludes the narrative portion of the series. We have
presented an unprecedented review of the rich and complex legacy
of len Bias, some six minutes of total content. I
thank all of those who have joined us so far
in this unique journey, but there is more up. Next
(51:09):
is what I like to call a functional epilogue, a
mini series of episodes that focuses on decision making. In
its essence, the len Bias legacy was shaped largely by
the fact that lend made a poor decision to abuse drugs,
and as we all know, it killed him. The epilogue
(51:30):
will help you learn how to make the right decision.
There are tools you can use, and the decision episodes
will tell you about them in the context of real
life stories. In the epilogue, we will discuss decisions made
by five people. They all faced challenges as a result
of these decisions. They include one of the top high
(51:53):
school basketball coaches in the country, Glenn Farrella, also Travis Garrison,
a former mayor and basketball star, and Olympic sprint champion
Justin Gatlin. We also talked with students Zach Reid and
Ben Katoko. Our discussion is ably anchored by Chris spetslo
(52:14):
an expert on decision making. Chris is the executive director
of the Decision Education Foundation, a partner in the thirty
four plus point campaign and this podcast series. The decision
Focused episodes will give you some practical takeaways from this
series and we urge you to tune in soon. For
(52:36):
more information, go to Go Grady Media dot com. That's
Go Grady Media dot com. This podcast series is based
on the book Born Ready The Mixed Legacy of Lambis,
published by Go Grady Media. The series is produced by
Go Grady Media and partnership with Octagon Entertainment. This segment
(52:58):
was produced by Dave and Grady and Don Marcus. It
was written by Dave and Grady and edited by Don Marcus.
Narration by John sal with additional narration by Jamal Williams.
Technical production was provided by Octagon Entertainment. Production assistance was
produced by Kevin McNalty, Tina Quagliarda, Lauren Rosch, Georgia Braun,
Casey Fair, Jamal Williams, Kelsey Mannix, and Enzo al Varina.
(53:22):
Social media assistance Special thanks to the University of Maryland
and American University for providing incidents the Decision Education Foundation
as a content and promotional partner of this podcast series.
For more information, go to go graded media dot com.
This has been a production of go Graded Media and
the Eighth Side Network. Oh yes, he was small and superstar.
(54:16):
I he was the brettest one fall. He was a
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