December 27, 2021 • 30 mins
After returning from Boston, Len Bias was ready to celebrate his selection by Boston in the NBA draft. In this episode, The Final Hours, we relive the last hours or so of his life. You’ll hear from teammates, family members, and others.
About the narrator: Dave Ungrady is the author of the book, Born Ready: the Mixed Legacy of Len Bias. He is the president of GoGrady Media and the Executive Producer of this podcast.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
This podcast is based in large part of the book
Born Ready, The Mixed Legacy of Lambis. Some quotes are
narrated by Davon Grady, a podcast producer and the author
of the book, from interviews done for the book. Recordings
of her these comments were not available. Yeah, I'm coming
out of every lane. Rupie can't get too. He was
(00:20):
supposed to come to Coldfield House and we had banners
and everything, and we waited and we waited, and you know, nothing,
nothing ever happened. Right. We told me, come cup, lady
fell out. Of course, I'm kind of delirious. I'm not
figuring out what you're talking about. So I go, look,
he's deliver trawled out before there was a seven maybe
(00:43):
seven twenty seven, twenties five, and then someone chased me
down across them all and called me to come back.
It's the news that something happened. Really right, the phone
(01:04):
rang and it was someone saying that Lennon was sick.
He's at the hospital. I said what, and so I
told my husband He said what. Yeah, I kept asking
what that? So I finally said it. I said it
was a drug, and David started calling, I mean screamed.
(01:27):
At that point, I. I said, it's his heart beating,
and she said no. So I said, well he's gone.
It's I'll never forget. And I heard the news story
and I couldn't believe it said I pulled over the
(01:47):
side of the road. I cried like I cried like
a two year old. Made him a name. This story
up next, Lembi my mixed legacy his final hours. When
len Bias came home from Boston the evening before he died,
(02:10):
his mother, Lenise, was not at home. He greeted the
rest of his jubilant family with hugs. He handed out
rebox shoes from a big box. Lenn tried to wait
for his mother to return home before he went out
to visit friends in College Park, but he grew impatient
and departed ironic on policas. But I never got to
see him before he died. I didn't, you know, I
(02:34):
was out. And when I had gotten back, then when
I had come back home, they said he had just slapped.
And I always teased him about his long life, said
that long leg rascal could have waited for me. And
then you know, we went on and you know, they said,
only say he's going to be back tomorrow. And you know,
we're gonna do this that the other others had hoped
or had expected Bias to visit them soon after his return.
(02:57):
Tom McMillan was an All American for Mary And in
the nineteen seventies. On June eighteen, McMillan scheduled and events
supporting his first general election campaign for Congress. We had
scheduled a fundraiser and washed it was kind of a
unique fundraising was a basketball then. So we had some
of the congressman's from my congressman friends coming who were
(03:19):
like to play basketball, and parents would bring their kids
and they would we would play a little basketball and
we charged you know, two d fifty dollars or whatever.
Lenny was one of our guests. Uh, And we had
a you know a number of the Bullets there where
when he was going to come right from the airport,
(03:41):
and uh, he never showed. Vicky Bullet had just completed
her freshman year on the women's basketball team. She was
also part of a group on campus that had set
up a welcome home celebration for Bias. He was supposed
to come to Coldfield House. You know, we're going to
Jerry moll and we had banners and everything. Every He
was on the main court, just waiting, and maybe two hundred,
(04:03):
maybe two hundred students at the time were there because
it was just it was just the summer school session,
so not too many people were on campus. But I
know our whole basketball team was there and we waited
and we waited, and you know, nothing, nothing ever happened.
Brian Waller grew up playing basketball with Bias at the
Columbia Park Recreation Center, also known as the Wreck. Johnny
(04:25):
Walker was a coach and mentor of Bias at the center.
They joined some of the other regulars at the Wreck
for the weekly pickup game on adult night on June eighteen.
Waller had talked with Bias the day before the draft.
Bias hadn't said he would stop by that night, but
Waller and Walker and the others still held out hope
that he would surprise them. Brian Waller told me, we
(04:48):
were just hanging out, talking and waiting for him to
walk through the door. Every time the door opened, we
looked to see who was going to walk through, thinking
and hoping it was him, but Bias had other plans.
He returned to his dormitory suite at Washington Hall after
ten thirty PM. Bias left the suite about an hour
later with a lady friend who would stopped by the visit.
(05:10):
Terry Long, Len's teammate, was there too. His testimony later
during a trial related to Len's death, hinted at where
Bias was going. Said Long he had to quote go
drain his lizard. End quote. We knew what he meant.
He said he hadn't been with a girl in three days.
Biased stopped by a local liquor store and returned to
(05:31):
the suite at around two thirty a m. Along with
Brian Tribble, a friend. Bias knocked on Long's bedroom door
and said, wake the funk up, We're going to celebrate.
Bias then woke up another teammate, David Gregg, and told
Gregg and Long to get some beer from a nearby refrigerator.
Long and Greg saw a man of cocaine on a
(05:53):
mirror on the desk when they returned to Long's room.
After Greg asked Bias and Tribble where the cocaine came from,
Long said the following During court testimony, quote Trouble said
something about getting it from the bottom of a stash,
and they planned to get a kilo the next day.
End of course, Long, Greg, Bias, and Triple started snorting
(06:17):
the cocaine through cut straws until about three am. That's
when Jeff Baxter knocked on Long store. Long told Trouble
to put the cocaine away because the players new Baxter
did not use drugs. It took some time open the door,
and then I talked to followed them as a group.
(06:37):
It's kind of just like seating the breeze at that
point talking everybody was kind of like lady happy. I
did not I didn't see the funny. I didn't see
other than liquor and beer. Didn't see the drugs and
(07:00):
rot anywhere. After my conversation with Bacs went to bed. Bias, Trible, Long,
and Greg snorted cocaine until some time after six am.
Bias then rested on Longs bed for about five minutes.
He then struggled to go to the bathroom because he
was wibbly. Bias then suffered a seizure. Long placed a
(07:21):
pair of scissors and Bias his mouth to prevent him
from biting his tongue, while Gregg helped Bias his feet.
Soon after, Greg woke up Baxter who told me to
come come and he fell out. Of course, I'm kind
of delirious and not figuring out what he's talking about,
so I go, look, he's deliver room lazy and deliver
(07:42):
room ye scrawled out on the floor. Dave was kind
of like in the background, so he really wasn't tonight, Dave.
Because I'm looking at him kneel damn, I'm still looking
afraid to touch him, afraid the lean let's do as
hard any of that. It's just like right near a
(08:06):
breathing at that point where I wasn't breathing his eye,
he was unconscious. Start my whole time when he was unconscious,
I was thinking that the necklace, the gold chain he
had on his neck was the cause. So I reached
and was trying to move the neck and as I
(08:27):
was actually trying to trying to do that, prepara manages
came there. That's the weirdest thing. Well, why would I
think that at that point? Who knows? Um? But I
was thinking that that's what the cause was. So weird man,
because you know, you think a guy he was perfectly salted.
(08:52):
It's always um um uh big guns, you know, just
perfect office didn't need to get any big at all,
happy to be laid out on the floor. A short
time earlier, at six thirty two am, Triple had made
(09:13):
a nine one one emergency call. Yeah, I haven't room
doesn't never known through Roshington Hall said no, she was
going by and she just went to the rolls and
he needs existed. What are you talking about? What are
(09:33):
you talking about? What I'm talking about? Someone needs him well,
doesn't matter when his name is, what's the problem is
not pre right? What's the address in Rushington Hall or
these canbas Washington Hall? Y? What's your name was? Brian?
(09:58):
Brian Watt? Yes? What's your plan number? Brian n buys
as real. I don't know what's the room number? You
never know? Three eleven at three. It's just Washington Hall.
What they have just Washington Hall, and so I don't
(10:19):
know if you don't add just for its Washington cool,
hungry herms and just straight up there on the light
hand sense. Please as soon as your can, because you
know you like Washington Hall, apartment number eleven at three.
We're giving your mouth fill up. You can hear it. Man,
soon as you have to give us back to that
(10:45):
an please so good. I gave Washington Hall and Department
m Room number eleven at three right for it's one
thousand one three. He doesn't know the uncher, all right,
whatever he wants that, all right, we're having an ambulance out.
(11:08):
Thank you. After the ambulance took Bias to the hospital,
Long cleaned the empty beer bottles and cut straws from
his room. He emptied them into a dumpster behind the dormitory.
The following vivid recollections by Baxter capture the chaos of
the next few hours. So what I did was I
(11:30):
immediately was the terramat he took off. I couldn't find
the keys to my car. I'm coming on fine, and
saved my life. I don't know where they were. Sometimes
reading we dropped my cards, about dropping his card, so
I always do where his keys were. So I grabbed
his keys, I jumped his cart, and I ran every life.
(11:55):
But this is unknown. What I didn't realize that I
write a license. Actually I got near the house, but
over me about eight I don't even know how. I
don't know how I actually got there, he says, just
ready to likes my mind was you know, a whole
different band and I get there, everything's going teammates there,
(12:18):
Keith isn't one corner just fry. I mean, we're just
we're losing. Derek Lewis, a sophomore on the Maryland team,
was walking to class that morning when he found out
something had happened to Bias. It was a seven maybe
seven twenty seven five and then someone chased me down
(12:41):
across the shats me down across the some all and
calling me to come back, like I believe him. I've
been studying all night for this test to pass his test.
It's new is that something happened to any because so
and I went back and my man and what happened
(13:05):
to his lead playing basketball? Was I thinking? They said,
says in the hospital that wasn't in a hurry to
get there and spain. An earlier, Lannis Bias had received
a phone call that woke her up. We're laying there
in bed on a June nineteenth, and um a call
(13:27):
comes and um, I kept. 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 opened your eyes. The sun was so bright,
and uh, it was early in the morning, about six
thirty the phone rang and it was someone saying that
(13:51):
Lynn was sick. He's at the hospital. I said what,
and so I told my husband. He said what, and
we got up and we went to the hospital. So
I think I remember driving by myself, and when I
get there, see other people walking around looking crazy over
over what I thought was his brain able or an
(14:11):
a c l T or something that his career is
best bread and these people walking around and I didn't
I didn't know. It's like that day said, well, he's uh,
he's that he's not breathing, He's not That does not
mean he's he's laying down. He with he would move
when they brought him into here at the hospital, Baxter
was trying to understand what had happened to Bias. I
(14:34):
can't forget what's going on, and I'm hearing, but I'm
just like he was. My mind set I've never seen
really used, so my mind set. So I grabbed David
Gray six ten six times six ten and I grabbed
him by his jacket that I pulled him to another
(14:57):
part of the household at the time, So I asked
him what happened. I do remember it is Jeff talking
to Terry. David say, you need to tell him, you
need to tell him what's wrong. Tell what happened, because
Jeff did. He said, you can tell him what happened.
He said, what happened? I kept asking what happen? So
(15:19):
I finally said it. I said it was a drugs
and David started to call I mean, he asked, He screamed, screamed,
whalen whaling. At that point, I knew drugs with fault.
But he never told you that. You just knew what
from me? Yea for he never he never he never
(15:40):
Rememberly said, never remember the saide. He screamed, how they
never Reberly said at all? At that point, I know
it was drugs, and I was just I actually dropped
to the floor myself and crying, just crying, just trying
(16:00):
trying to figured his whole thing out. You're listening to
Lend Bias the Mixed Legacy on the Eighth Side Network.
Bob Wagner was the high school coach for both Bias
and Greg. He got a call from Greg at the hospital.
David had asked me sometimes that he couldn't toss and
(16:21):
so as I come in the hospital, we're coming around
the David's having a hard way. He's you know, let
hes gonna die. He's gonna die something long years done.
Doctor came down the hall when I was with David, says,
anybody know what he might have ingested because they're trying
to get his heart started. And um, we got there
and um, I saw the players outside crying and torn
(16:43):
up and media all over the place, and I was saying, well,
what's going on? And when we got in, they said
that Lenn had gotten sick, something that happened to him.
And I asked the um the nurse, she said, we
(17:05):
have him on life support. I said, well, is he
breathing on his own? She said no. I said is
his heart beating? And she said no. And it was
one other thing I said. I said, well he's gone
and she said no, he's He's not gone. The doctor
isn't here yet. And I, in my spirit I felt
(17:28):
what I actually went through, what I had been thinking
all of that time, what was in my spirit it
wouldn't happen. So it was almost a sense of m
not a relief, but a release. He's already dead. Um.
And and then you know, eventually I was in the room,
(17:49):
Johnny Walker, myself and the parents and Mr Bias picks
him up and just can't believe it, he said, And
I'm still thinking of a c L. Yeah, you know,
we I just started to find out he said that
he was just unconscious. So I said, that can't be
a mean that maybe an harder type of turpin and uh,
(18:09):
you know. Then his mom came out. I was sitting
in the room there spon connections. She said, he's going
I do remember it's biased. How many kind of hugging
the consultant. I do know, I do know. She was
calm as hell. Yeah, I'm very. That surprised me down
(18:33):
because of her presolda. But it's surprised me because it
may have been that happen at that point. I don't
know how you can can be as calm as she
was her again now because of her personality, she was
very She hadn't very strong wether she was actually uh
uh you know two major family. She controlled our family
(18:54):
without a doubt. We're about a guy she was. She
was the blue gave the official um declaration and if
you will that he's gone. And then everything fell, the pieces, everything,
everything went crazy and uh um we went in and
we looked at him and Um lying there, and my
(19:19):
husband Uh torn up, just torn to pieces. And God
had given me a strength to stand there, to look
and to rub his head and to um get home.
And then when we were done, we got home, everybody
was tort from the floor. I mean people were coming
(19:40):
from everywhere crying. People could not believe it. I mean
when I got home, people our little house was loaded
with people in there, just um everywhere. People couldn't believe it.
I can remember seeing um Adrian's branches Dad on the
front porch when we got there. He was like, what
(20:01):
is it true? Is it true? Is it true? And
then trying to get my children together, j and Michelle
and people in the house. It was chaotic. News about
the death of Bias stunned the vast reaches of the
Maryland basketball community that included those who knew him well
and others who knew just of his great talents and potential.
(20:24):
ESPN broadcaster Scott Van Pelt grew up not far from
the Maryland campus. He played pickup games with Bias while
both were students at Maryland. Van Pelt found out Bias
died when he stopped by to get a soda at
a seven eleven. He talked to podcast producer Don Marcus
in Van Pelt told me, I saw my best friend's
(20:47):
younger brother and he's just looking at me. It's amazing
how clearly you remember it. I remember being at the
seven eleven. He said to me, Man, you hear about Bias.
And I'm like, yeah, man, second pick of the Celtics.
He's just looking at me, and he said, Bias is
dead man. And I'm like, I mean my exact words.
(21:09):
I said, what the fuck are you talking about? He goes, yeah,
he died last night. It's n six, no cell phones,
pay phone. I run outside throwing quarters and I remember
I tried to call Keith Gatler and nobody answered, and
I went and sat in my car in a seven
eleven parking lot, and I remember listening to the news
(21:32):
and it was like, you know, breaking news, Leonard Bias.
And I mean, it's a hundred years later and I'm
sitting here right now and it doesn't feel as stunning,
but it feels as sad. Derek Whittenberg played for NC
State against lenn He grew up near Bias. Whittenberg was
forced off the road when he heard that Bias had died.
(21:53):
I'll never forget it. And I heard the news and
I couldn't believe it. I pulled over the side of
the road. A crowd like a crowd like a two euros.
Brian Waller played club and high school basketball with Bias.
He was driving to a job interview when you heard
a news report on the radio, Waller told me. I
(22:14):
caught the end of a radio report that said two
days after their dream dead from an apparent overdose. I
hit another station and heard the whole story. I immediately
pulled over to the side of the road because I'm
shaking and I'm like shocked. I get myself together, drove
to a shopping center called his parents house. You could
(22:36):
tell by his sister Michelle answering the phone it was true.
Waller never made it to the job interview. Matt Roboto
first saw Bias play when he was about five years old.
He remembers vividly an incident from a game against NC
State in Coldfield House. I had somehow gotten pretty close
(22:56):
to the floor. Um ball was there. You know, ball
went out of ounce. I grabbed it, and you know,
the referee was there. Len Bias was close by. The
referee came to get it, and I just kind of
looked at Len and he saw, I mean, we made
eye contact. He smiled, and you know, I tossed him
the ball. Roboto cannot forget how he reacted to the
death of Bias. At seven, my mom's home. I'm home.
(23:20):
I remember I'm playing upstairs and I just hear her screen.
She was the filled on a huge show. Got interrupted.
So I come downstairs and she immediately tells me to
go back upstairs, go away, like she's like, you know,
she's processing this. I don't go all the way back upstairs.
I sit at the I sit at the bridge of
the steps, you know, in the other room, and just
(23:41):
kind of like sitting there, what did it feel like?
I just woke up, like there's no way I did
anything already. And I didn't hit my sister, I didn't
pick on my brother. I didn't like you know that
what Like there's I'm going through my mind what I
possibly did? Um. And then she comes over, sits at
the bridge of the steps of me. Um gives me
the news and I just sprint it out of the house, crying,
(24:04):
went up like went up to my tree out and
we had I had a little tree for I sat
up there for a little bit. Um, Yeah, like what
are you what are you gonna like it's you can't
I don't know. I don't know what was going through
my mind, Like how like what I was trying to process. Um,
probably denial. I didn't believe it, but my mother wouldn't
(24:24):
lie to me. You know when all my swings that
swaying swang swang, because that was always like therapeutic for me. Yeah,
that was it. You know. I don't even remember how
my parents tried to explain things to me. Reaction to
the death of Bias spanned for the Globe. Michael Jordan's
and Larry Bird sent flowers. President Reagan sent a letter
(24:46):
that read, in part, lens now in our Lord's safe keeping,
and we pray that this knowledge will be a source
of consolation. We received cards from p Saident Reagan and
Nancy the Bushes, Tip O'Neill, everybody on the hill. We
(25:07):
received personal cards from people all over the world, from
the highest point in government everywhere, from around the world.
Long time Maryland sportscaster Johnny Holiday had performed in live
theater that prompted Lenise Bias to ask him to sing
at Len's funeral service at the University of Maryland Chapel.
(25:29):
More than one thousand people attended, and I said, I don't,
I don't. I don't think I could do that. It
would be too emotional, too difficult to do. After I
thought about it for a while, I said, you know,
this is this this is quite an honor to be
asked to do something like this and as emotional as
it was going to be. And it was Uh, yeah,
(25:53):
I'll try, was my response. I'll try to get through it.
And I said, what song do you I'm gonna sing
the Lord's Prayer. Who not an easy song. It's not
the same as a Broadway musical. And as I sang
the song to this very day, I remember thinking about everything,
but what I'm looking at is a casket being rolled
(26:16):
down the aisle with the family, Uh, just in such
an emotional state following behind the catch. And I got
through the song, and as I looked down, Mrs Bias
is walking behind the casket and she goes holiday makes
the sound of Lanie Bias blowing a kiss, and that's
(26:38):
when it all went to pieces, and I, you know,
I broke down um I got through the song, but
I did, I did, Okay. The Bias family invited the
Reverend Jesse Jackson, a civil rights activist, to be part
of the day, in large part for his work against
drug abuse. He spoke at a memorial service for Bias
(26:58):
and cold Field House that was attended by some eleven
thousand people. Jackson compared the drug problems of the nineteen
eighties to the Ku Klux Klan, a prominent racist group
in the early twentieth century. Yet the k k k
at the shadow of death and the rope, I've never
killed as many of our young people as the pusher
(27:21):
of dope. The camel burned quick clan. Oh, how bright
was the glow. As we celebrate that life, these of
us stand and give land by it the tremendous round
of applause. Let's do it for Lemna. Earlier at Len's
(27:47):
grave site, Jackson said, today we celebrate his life and legacy.
Tomorrow we begin to face the political and legal implications
of what has happened. And there would be you man
was against me out coming out of Merland. You can't
(28:08):
get to uh at the funeral is my maincor and
the people say the next online Bias a mixed legacy
where one of the greatest college basketball players in the
country has made massive headlines two years before. That's not
a cloud that get to pay quickly because the national
(28:28):
conversation around kids and drugs really webbed up after Bias
with death. It was a job and a family kind
of atmosphere working at the university at that point. But
then after Lenny died, of course you got this tragedy.
(28:49):
Like you said, the dominant spell. You were being criticized.
The whole university seemed to be against us, and they
were thinking that we were bringing the university as a
whole down. So the initial phase was this isn't happening,
and then as the reality started to set in, you're
(29:12):
at all the finger pointing where did this go wrong? Lefty?
Should you have known this? You know those are your boys.
It was like a house of cards that were crumbling
and there was no way to stop it. This podcast
(29:35):
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 was produced by Davon Grady and Don Marcus.
It was written by Davon Grady and edited by Don Marcus.
The narrator was Davon Grady, with additional narration by Jamal Williams.
Technical production was provided by Octagon Entertainment. Production assistance was
(29:59):
produced by Kevin mc malti, Tino Quagliata, Lauren Rosch, Georgia Braun,
Casey Fair, Jamal Williams, Kelsey Mannix and enzo Alvarnwood. Matt
Dewerstus providing the social media assistance special thanks to the
University of Maryland and American University from providing inserts. The
Decision Education Foundation is a content and promotional partner of
(30:21):
this podcast series. For more information, go to dog grady
Media dot com. This has been a production of Go
Grady Media in the Eighth Side Network
This podcast is based in large part of the book
Born Ready, The Mixed Legacy of Lambis. Some quotes are
narrated by Davon Grady, a podcast producer and the author
of the book, from interviews done for the book. Recordings
of her these comments were not available. Yeah, I'm coming
out of every lane. Rupie can't get too. He was
(00:20):
supposed to come to Coldfield House and we had banners
and everything, and we waited and we waited, and you know, nothing,
nothing ever happened. Right. We told me, come cup, lady
fell out. Of course, I'm kind of delirious. I'm not
figuring out what you're talking about. So I go, look,
he's deliver trawled out before there was a seven maybe
(00:43):
seven twenty seven, twenties five, and then someone chased me
down across them all and called me to come back.
It's the news that something happened. Really right, the phone
(01:04):
rang and it was someone saying that Lennon was sick.
He's at the hospital. I said what, and so I
told my husband He said what. Yeah, I kept asking
what that? So I finally said it. I said it
was a drug, and David started calling, I mean screamed.
(01:27):
At that point, I. I said, it's his heart beating,
and she said no. So I said, well he's gone.
It's I'll never forget. And I heard the news story
and I couldn't believe it said I pulled over the
(01:47):
side of the road. I cried like I cried like
a two year old. Made him a name. This story
up next, Lembi my mixed legacy his final hours. When
len Bias came home from Boston the evening before he died,
(02:10):
his mother, Lenise, was not at home. He greeted the
rest of his jubilant family with hugs. He handed out
rebox shoes from a big box. Lenn tried to wait
for his mother to return home before he went out
to visit friends in College Park, but he grew impatient
and departed ironic on policas. But I never got to
see him before he died. I didn't, you know, I
(02:34):
was out. And when I had gotten back, then when
I had come back home, they said he had just slapped.
And I always teased him about his long life, said
that long leg rascal could have waited for me. And
then you know, we went on and you know, they said,
only say he's going to be back tomorrow. And you know,
we're gonna do this that the other others had hoped
or had expected Bias to visit them soon after his return.
(02:57):
Tom McMillan was an All American for Mary And in
the nineteen seventies. On June eighteen, McMillan scheduled and events
supporting his first general election campaign for Congress. We had
scheduled a fundraiser and washed it was kind of a
unique fundraising was a basketball then. So we had some
of the congressman's from my congressman friends coming who were
(03:19):
like to play basketball, and parents would bring their kids
and they would we would play a little basketball and
we charged you know, two d fifty dollars or whatever.
Lenny was one of our guests. Uh, And we had
a you know a number of the Bullets there where
when he was going to come right from the airport,
(03:41):
and uh, he never showed. Vicky Bullet had just completed
her freshman year on the women's basketball team. She was
also part of a group on campus that had set
up a welcome home celebration for Bias. He was supposed
to come to Coldfield House. You know, we're going to
Jerry moll and we had banners and everything. Every He
was on the main court, just waiting, and maybe two hundred,
(04:03):
maybe two hundred students at the time were there because
it was just it was just the summer school session,
so not too many people were on campus. But I
know our whole basketball team was there and we waited
and we waited, and you know, nothing, nothing ever happened.
Brian Waller grew up playing basketball with Bias at the
Columbia Park Recreation Center, also known as the Wreck. Johnny
(04:25):
Walker was a coach and mentor of Bias at the center.
They joined some of the other regulars at the Wreck
for the weekly pickup game on adult night on June eighteen.
Waller had talked with Bias the day before the draft.
Bias hadn't said he would stop by that night, but
Waller and Walker and the others still held out hope
that he would surprise them. Brian Waller told me, we
(04:48):
were just hanging out, talking and waiting for him to
walk through the door. Every time the door opened, we
looked to see who was going to walk through, thinking
and hoping it was him, but Bias had other plans.
He returned to his dormitory suite at Washington Hall after
ten thirty PM. Bias left the suite about an hour
later with a lady friend who would stopped by the visit.
(05:10):
Terry Long, Len's teammate, was there too. His testimony later
during a trial related to Len's death, hinted at where
Bias was going. Said Long he had to quote go
drain his lizard. End quote. We knew what he meant.
He said he hadn't been with a girl in three days.
Biased stopped by a local liquor store and returned to
(05:31):
the suite at around two thirty a m. Along with
Brian Tribble, a friend. Bias knocked on Long's bedroom door
and said, wake the funk up, We're going to celebrate.
Bias then woke up another teammate, David Gregg, and told
Gregg and Long to get some beer from a nearby refrigerator.
Long and Greg saw a man of cocaine on a
(05:53):
mirror on the desk when they returned to Long's room.
After Greg asked Bias and Tribble where the cocaine came from,
Long said the following During court testimony, quote Trouble said
something about getting it from the bottom of a stash,
and they planned to get a kilo the next day.
End of course, Long, Greg, Bias, and Triple started snorting
(06:17):
the cocaine through cut straws until about three am. That's
when Jeff Baxter knocked on Long store. Long told Trouble
to put the cocaine away because the players new Baxter
did not use drugs. It took some time open the door,
and then I talked to followed them as a group.
(06:37):
It's kind of just like seating the breeze at that
point talking everybody was kind of like lady happy. I
did not I didn't see the funny. I didn't see
other than liquor and beer. Didn't see the drugs and
(07:00):
rot anywhere. After my conversation with Bacs went to bed. Bias, Trible, Long,
and Greg snorted cocaine until some time after six am.
Bias then rested on Longs bed for about five minutes.
He then struggled to go to the bathroom because he
was wibbly. Bias then suffered a seizure. Long placed a
(07:21):
pair of scissors and Bias his mouth to prevent him
from biting his tongue, while Gregg helped Bias his feet.
Soon after, Greg woke up Baxter who told me to
come come and he fell out. Of course, I'm kind
of delirious and not figuring out what he's talking about,
so I go, look, he's deliver room lazy and deliver
(07:42):
room ye scrawled out on the floor. Dave was kind
of like in the background, so he really wasn't tonight, Dave.
Because I'm looking at him kneel damn, I'm still looking
afraid to touch him, afraid the lean let's do as
hard any of that. It's just like right near a
(08:06):
breathing at that point where I wasn't breathing his eye,
he was unconscious. Start my whole time when he was unconscious,
I was thinking that the necklace, the gold chain he
had on his neck was the cause. So I reached
and was trying to move the neck and as I
(08:27):
was actually trying to trying to do that, prepara manages
came there. That's the weirdest thing. Well, why would I
think that at that point? Who knows? Um? But I
was thinking that that's what the cause was. So weird man,
because you know, you think a guy he was perfectly salted.
(08:52):
It's always um um uh big guns, you know, just
perfect office didn't need to get any big at all,
happy to be laid out on the floor. A short
time earlier, at six thirty two am, Triple had made
(09:13):
a nine one one emergency call. Yeah, I haven't room
doesn't never known through Roshington Hall said no, she was
going by and she just went to the rolls and
he needs existed. What are you talking about? What are
(09:33):
you talking about? What I'm talking about? Someone needs him well,
doesn't matter when his name is, what's the problem is
not pre right? What's the address in Rushington Hall or
these canbas Washington Hall? Y? What's your name was? Brian?
(09:58):
Brian Watt? Yes? What's your plan number? Brian n buys
as real. I don't know what's the room number? You
never know? Three eleven at three. It's just Washington Hall.
What they have just Washington Hall, and so I don't
(10:19):
know if you don't add just for its Washington cool,
hungry herms and just straight up there on the light
hand sense. Please as soon as your can, because you
know you like Washington Hall, apartment number eleven at three.
We're giving your mouth fill up. You can hear it. Man,
soon as you have to give us back to that
(10:45):
an please so good. I gave Washington Hall and Department
m Room number eleven at three right for it's one
thousand one three. He doesn't know the uncher, all right,
whatever he wants that, all right, we're having an ambulance out.
(11:08):
Thank you. After the ambulance took Bias to the hospital,
Long cleaned the empty beer bottles and cut straws from
his room. He emptied them into a dumpster behind the dormitory.
The following vivid recollections by Baxter capture the chaos of
the next few hours. So what I did was I
(11:30):
immediately was the terramat he took off. I couldn't find
the keys to my car. I'm coming on fine, and
saved my life. I don't know where they were. Sometimes
reading we dropped my cards, about dropping his card, so
I always do where his keys were. So I grabbed
his keys, I jumped his cart, and I ran every life.
(11:55):
But this is unknown. What I didn't realize that I
write a license. Actually I got near the house, but
over me about eight I don't even know how. I
don't know how I actually got there, he says, just
ready to likes my mind was you know, a whole
different band and I get there, everything's going teammates there,
(12:18):
Keith isn't one corner just fry. I mean, we're just
we're losing. Derek Lewis, a sophomore on the Maryland team,
was walking to class that morning when he found out
something had happened to Bias. It was a seven maybe
seven twenty seven five and then someone chased me down
(12:41):
across the shats me down across the some all and
calling me to come back, like I believe him. I've
been studying all night for this test to pass his test.
It's new is that something happened to any because so
and I went back and my man and what happened
(13:05):
to his lead playing basketball? Was I thinking? They said,
says in the hospital that wasn't in a hurry to
get there and spain. An earlier, Lannis Bias had received
a phone call that woke her up. We're laying there
in bed on a June nineteenth, and um a call
(13:27):
comes and um, I kept. 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 opened your eyes. The sun was so bright,
and uh, it was early in the morning, about six
thirty the phone rang and it was someone saying that
(13:51):
Lynn was sick. He's at the hospital. I said what,
and so I told my husband. He said what, and
we got up and we went to the hospital. So
I think I remember driving by myself, and when I
get there, see other people walking around looking crazy over
over what I thought was his brain able or an
(14:11):
a c l T or something that his career is
best bread and these people walking around and I didn't
I didn't know. It's like that day said, well, he's uh,
he's that he's not breathing, He's not That does not
mean he's he's laying down. He with he would move
when they brought him into here at the hospital, Baxter
was trying to understand what had happened to Bias. I
(14:34):
can't forget what's going on, and I'm hearing, but I'm
just like he was. My mind set I've never seen
really used, so my mind set. So I grabbed David
Gray six ten six times six ten and I grabbed
him by his jacket that I pulled him to another
(14:57):
part of the household at the time, So I asked
him what happened. I do remember it is Jeff talking
to Terry. David say, you need to tell him, you
need to tell him what's wrong. Tell what happened, because
Jeff did. He said, you can tell him what happened.
He said, what happened? I kept asking what happen? So
(15:19):
I finally said it. I said it was a drugs
and David started to call I mean, he asked, He screamed, screamed,
whalen whaling. At that point, I knew drugs with fault.
But he never told you that. You just knew what
from me? Yea for he never he never he never
(15:40):
Rememberly said, never remember the saide. He screamed, how they
never Reberly said at all? At that point, I know
it was drugs, and I was just I actually dropped
to the floor myself and crying, just crying, just trying
(16:00):
trying to figured his whole thing out. You're listening to
Lend Bias the Mixed Legacy on the Eighth Side Network.
Bob Wagner was the high school coach for both Bias
and Greg. He got a call from Greg at the hospital.
David had asked me sometimes that he couldn't toss and
(16:21):
so as I come in the hospital, we're coming around
the David's having a hard way. He's you know, let
hes gonna die. He's gonna die something long years done.
Doctor came down the hall when I was with David, says,
anybody know what he might have ingested because they're trying
to get his heart started. And um, we got there
and um, I saw the players outside crying and torn
(16:43):
up and media all over the place, and I was saying, well,
what's going on? And when we got in, they said
that Lenn had gotten sick, something that happened to him.
And I asked the um the nurse, she said, we
(17:05):
have him on life support. I said, well, is he
breathing on his own? She said no. I said is
his heart beating? And she said no. And it was
one other thing I said. I said, well he's gone
and she said no, he's He's not gone. The doctor
isn't here yet. And I, in my spirit I felt
(17:28):
what I actually went through, what I had been thinking
all of that time, what was in my spirit it
wouldn't happen. So it was almost a sense of m
not a relief, but a release. He's already dead. Um.
And and then you know, eventually I was in the room,
(17:49):
Johnny Walker, myself and the parents and Mr Bias picks
him up and just can't believe it, he said, And
I'm still thinking of a c L. Yeah, you know,
we I just started to find out he said that
he was just unconscious. So I said, that can't be
a mean that maybe an harder type of turpin and uh,
(18:09):
you know. Then his mom came out. I was sitting
in the room there spon connections. She said, he's going
I do remember it's biased. How many kind of hugging
the consultant. I do know, I do know. She was
calm as hell. Yeah, I'm very. That surprised me down
(18:33):
because of her presolda. But it's surprised me because it
may have been that happen at that point. I don't
know how you can can be as calm as she
was her again now because of her personality, she was
very She hadn't very strong wether she was actually uh
uh you know two major family. She controlled our family
(18:54):
without a doubt. We're about a guy she was. She
was the blue gave the official um declaration and if
you will that he's gone. And then everything fell, the pieces, everything,
everything went crazy and uh um we went in and
we looked at him and Um lying there, and my
(19:19):
husband Uh torn up, just torn to pieces. And God
had given me a strength to stand there, to look
and to rub his head and to um get home.
And then when we were done, we got home, everybody
was tort from the floor. I mean people were coming
(19:40):
from everywhere crying. People could not believe it. I mean
when I got home, people our little house was loaded
with people in there, just um everywhere. People couldn't believe it.
I can remember seeing um Adrian's branches Dad on the
front porch when we got there. He was like, what
(20:01):
is it true? Is it true? Is it true? And
then trying to get my children together, j and Michelle
and people in the house. It was chaotic. News about
the death of Bias stunned the vast reaches of the
Maryland basketball community that included those who knew him well
and others who knew just of his great talents and potential.
(20:24):
ESPN broadcaster Scott Van Pelt grew up not far from
the Maryland campus. He played pickup games with Bias while
both were students at Maryland. Van Pelt found out Bias
died when he stopped by to get a soda at
a seven eleven. He talked to podcast producer Don Marcus
in Van Pelt told me, I saw my best friend's
(20:47):
younger brother and he's just looking at me. It's amazing
how clearly you remember it. I remember being at the
seven eleven. He said to me, Man, you hear about Bias.
And I'm like, yeah, man, second pick of the Celtics.
He's just looking at me, and he said, Bias is
dead man. And I'm like, I mean my exact words.
(21:09):
I said, what the fuck are you talking about? He goes, yeah,
he died last night. It's n six, no cell phones,
pay phone. I run outside throwing quarters and I remember
I tried to call Keith Gatler and nobody answered, and
I went and sat in my car in a seven
eleven parking lot, and I remember listening to the news
(21:32):
and it was like, you know, breaking news, Leonard Bias.
And I mean, it's a hundred years later and I'm
sitting here right now and it doesn't feel as stunning,
but it feels as sad. Derek Whittenberg played for NC
State against lenn He grew up near Bias. Whittenberg was
forced off the road when he heard that Bias had died.
(21:53):
I'll never forget it. And I heard the news and
I couldn't believe it. I pulled over the side of
the road. A crowd like a crowd like a two euros.
Brian Waller played club and high school basketball with Bias.
He was driving to a job interview when you heard
a news report on the radio, Waller told me. I
(22:14):
caught the end of a radio report that said two
days after their dream dead from an apparent overdose. I
hit another station and heard the whole story. I immediately
pulled over to the side of the road because I'm
shaking and I'm like shocked. I get myself together, drove
to a shopping center called his parents house. You could
(22:36):
tell by his sister Michelle answering the phone it was true.
Waller never made it to the job interview. Matt Roboto
first saw Bias play when he was about five years old.
He remembers vividly an incident from a game against NC
State in Coldfield House. I had somehow gotten pretty close
(22:56):
to the floor. Um ball was there. You know, ball
went out of ounce. I grabbed it, and you know,
the referee was there. Len Bias was close by. The
referee came to get it, and I just kind of
looked at Len and he saw, I mean, we made
eye contact. He smiled, and you know, I tossed him
the ball. Roboto cannot forget how he reacted to the
death of Bias. At seven, my mom's home. I'm home.
(23:20):
I remember I'm playing upstairs and I just hear her screen.
She was the filled on a huge show. Got interrupted.
So I come downstairs and she immediately tells me to
go back upstairs, go away, like she's like, you know,
she's processing this. I don't go all the way back upstairs.
I sit at the I sit at the bridge of
the steps, you know, in the other room, and just
(23:41):
kind of like sitting there, what did it feel like?
I just woke up, like there's no way I did
anything already. And I didn't hit my sister, I didn't
pick on my brother. I didn't like you know that
what Like there's I'm going through my mind what I
possibly did? Um. And then she comes over, sits at
the bridge of the steps of me. Um gives me
the news and I just sprint it out of the house, crying,
(24:04):
went up like went up to my tree out and
we had I had a little tree for I sat
up there for a little bit. Um, Yeah, like what
are you what are you gonna like it's you can't
I don't know. I don't know what was going through
my mind, Like how like what I was trying to process. Um,
probably denial. I didn't believe it, but my mother wouldn't
(24:24):
lie to me. You know when all my swings that
swaying swang swang, because that was always like therapeutic for me. Yeah,
that was it. You know. I don't even remember how
my parents tried to explain things to me. Reaction to
the death of Bias spanned for the Globe. Michael Jordan's
and Larry Bird sent flowers. President Reagan sent a letter
(24:46):
that read, in part, lens now in our Lord's safe keeping,
and we pray that this knowledge will be a source
of consolation. We received cards from p Saident Reagan and
Nancy the Bushes, Tip O'Neill, everybody on the hill. We
(25:07):
received personal cards from people all over the world, from
the highest point in government everywhere, from around the world.
Long time Maryland sportscaster Johnny Holiday had performed in live
theater that prompted Lenise Bias to ask him to sing
at Len's funeral service at the University of Maryland Chapel.
(25:29):
More than one thousand people attended, and I said, I don't,
I don't. I don't think I could do that. It
would be too emotional, too difficult to do. After I
thought about it for a while, I said, you know,
this is this this is quite an honor to be
asked to do something like this and as emotional as
it was going to be. And it was Uh, yeah,
(25:53):
I'll try, was my response. I'll try to get through it.
And I said, what song do you I'm gonna sing
the Lord's Prayer. Who not an easy song. It's not
the same as a Broadway musical. And as I sang
the song to this very day, I remember thinking about everything,
but what I'm looking at is a casket being rolled
(26:16):
down the aisle with the family, Uh, just in such
an emotional state following behind the catch. And I got
through the song, and as I looked down, Mrs Bias
is walking behind the casket and she goes holiday makes
the sound of Lanie Bias blowing a kiss, and that's
(26:38):
when it all went to pieces, and I, you know,
I broke down um I got through the song, but
I did, I did, Okay. The Bias family invited the
Reverend Jesse Jackson, a civil rights activist, to be part
of the day, in large part for his work against
drug abuse. He spoke at a memorial service for Bias
(26:58):
and cold Field House that was attended by some eleven
thousand people. Jackson compared the drug problems of the nineteen
eighties to the Ku Klux Klan, a prominent racist group
in the early twentieth century. Yet the k k k
at the shadow of death and the rope, I've never
killed as many of our young people as the pusher
(27:21):
of dope. The camel burned quick clan. Oh, how bright
was the glow. As we celebrate that life, these of
us stand and give land by it the tremendous round
of applause. Let's do it for Lemna. Earlier at Len's
(27:47):
grave site, Jackson said, today we celebrate his life and legacy.
Tomorrow we begin to face the political and legal implications
of what has happened. And there would be you man
was against me out coming out of Merland. You can't
(28:08):
get to uh at the funeral is my maincor and
the people say the next online Bias a mixed legacy
where one of the greatest college basketball players in the
country has made massive headlines two years before. That's not
a cloud that get to pay quickly because the national
(28:28):
conversation around kids and drugs really webbed up after Bias
with death. It was a job and a family kind
of atmosphere working at the university at that point. But
then after Lenny died, of course you got this tragedy.
(28:49):
Like you said, the dominant spell. You were being criticized.
The whole university seemed to be against us, and they
were thinking that we were bringing the university as a
whole down. So the initial phase was this isn't happening,
and then as the reality started to set in, you're
(29:12):
at all the finger pointing where did this go wrong? Lefty?
Should you have known this? You know those are your boys.
It was like a house of cards that were crumbling
and there was no way to stop it. This podcast
(29:35):
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 was produced by Davon Grady and Don Marcus.
It was written by Davon Grady and edited by Don Marcus.
The narrator was Davon Grady, with additional narration by Jamal Williams.
Technical production was provided by Octagon Entertainment. Production assistance was
(29:59):
produced by Kevin mc malti, Tino Quagliata, Lauren Rosch, Georgia Braun,
Casey Fair, Jamal Williams, Kelsey Mannix and enzo Alvarnwood. Matt
Dewerstus providing the social media assistance special thanks to the
University of Maryland and American University from providing inserts. The
Decision Education Foundation is a content and promotional partner of
(30:21):
this podcast series. For more information, go to dog grady
Media dot com. This has been a production of Go
Grady Media in the Eighth Side Network
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