June 22, 2023 • 11 mins
As June 19th marks the anniversary of Len Bias's tragic death, we hear from Len's teammates and his mother Lonise Bias on their immediate reaction to hearing Len was in the hospital and that he had passed away.
More on the full story of the death of Len Bias and timeline of events surrounding the tragedy can be found in Episode 4 "His Final Hours" of this podcast series.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Raised six.
Speaker 2 (00:01):
Okay, Welcome to Len bias A Mixed Legacy. The Interviews
June nineteenth, March thirty seven years from the death of
former University of Maryland basketball star Len Bias. He died
of a heart failure following a cocaine overdose. Born Ready
A Mixed Legacy is a sixteen episode podcast series that
(00:22):
captures the rich and compelling legacy of Bias, who many
consider to have been comparable to the superb talents of
Michael Jordan. In this episode of the Interviews, we relive
the immediate reaction of his death by some of those
very close to Bias. They include his mother, Lenise Bias,
as well as his teammates Jeff Baxter and Derrick Lewis.
(00:43):
To start, here's Linise Bias.
Speaker 3 (00:46):
It's ivon if you won't believe us. But I never
got to see him before he died. I didn't know
I was out, and when I had gotten back, and
when I had come back home, they said he had
just laughed. And I's always teasing about long like. I
said that long like.
Speaker 4 (01:01):
Rappel could have waited for me.
Speaker 3 (01:03):
And then you know, we went on and you know,
they said all he said, he's going to be back tomorrow,
and you know, we're gonna do this, that, and the other.
Speaker 5 (01:10):
We're laying there in bed on June nineteenth and a
call comes and I can 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.
(01:33):
And uh. It was early in the morning, about six thirty.
The phone rang and it was someone saying that 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. We got
there and I saw the players outside crying and torn up,
(01:57):
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 the nurse. She said, we have
(02:19):
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 asked. I said, well, he's gone and
she said no, he's not gone. The doctor isn't here yet.
And in my spirit. I felt what I actually went through,
(02:45):
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 not a relief, but a release.
And he gave the official declaration, if you will, that
he's gone. And then everything fell, the pieces, everything, everything
(03:06):
went crazy. And we went in and we looked at
him and lying there and my husband, Uh torn up,
just torn to pieces. And God had given me a
strength to stand there to look and to rub his
(03:28):
head and to get home. And then when we were done,
we got home, everybody was tore up from the floor.
I mean people were coming 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 everywhere.
(03:48):
People couldn't believe it. I can remember seeing Adrian's branch,
his dad on the front porch when we got there.
He was like, what is it true? Is true? Is
it true? And then trying to get my children together,
Jay and Michelle and people in the house. It was chaotic.
Speaker 2 (04:08):
Here's Jeff Baxter. He begins recalling being woken up early
on June nineteenth by teammate David greg after Bias suffered
a seizure.
Speaker 4 (04:17):
He told me that some come come. Then he fell out.
Of course, I'm kind of delirious, not figuring out what
he's talking about.
Speaker 1 (04:24):
So I go, look, he's in the living room, Laius
lazy living room. Was unconscious, Yeah, crawled out of the floor.
David was kind of like in the background. So he
really wasn't right there because I'm looking at him and
kneel down, and I'm still looking at her, afraid to
(04:46):
touch him, afraid to lean listen to his heart, any
of that.
Speaker 4 (04:49):
Just like right there was he was he breathing at
that point, I wasn't breathing as he was unconscious.
Speaker 1 (04:58):
My whole time when he was unconscious, I was thinking
that the necklace, the gold chain he had on his neck,
was the cause of it. So I reached and was
trying to move the necklace. And as I was actually
kind of trying to do that, the paramedics came. There's
(05:20):
the weirdest.
Speaker 4 (05:20):
Thing, you know, Why would I think that at that point?
Speaker 1 (05:23):
Who knows, but I was thinking of that that that's
what the cause was. So weird, Noah, Man, because you know,
you think guy he was perfectly salty so always big guns,
(05:46):
you know, just perfectly salty didn't need to get me
bigger at all. And it was strong, and how could
he be laying out on the floor dead. So what
I did I immediately once the paramedics, I couldn't find
(06:07):
the keys to my car to save my life. I
don't know where they were. Sometimes literally dropped my car.
I dropped his car, so I always do where his
keys were. That's it, hey, Finally, so I grabbed this keys.
I jumped in his car and I ran every light.
But this is unknown me. This is what I didn't realize.
(06:30):
I ran a life to talk. Actually I got near
the hospital maybe about eight. I don't even know how.
I don't know how I actually got there in the
sense of just reading in life. My mind was in
a whole different man. I get there. Everything's going on.
Teammates there, Keith is in one corner.
Speaker 4 (06:51):
Just fry. I mean, we're just we're losing. I can't
forget what's going on. Rugs.
Speaker 1 (07:02):
But I'm just saying he was my mindset. I've never
seen when he used the drugs, so my mind set
was run drugs. So I grabbed David Gregg six ten,
six nine sixteen, and I'm grabbed him by his jacket
and I pulled him to another part of the houspital
at the time, so I asked him he fell out?
Speaker 4 (07:26):
He found he fell out? He said why. I kept
asking what that?
Speaker 1 (07:30):
So I finally said it it was a drugs and
David started falling.
Speaker 4 (07:35):
I mean he asked him. He screamed, screamed what whaling
to squealing And at that point I knew drugs fall
but he never told you that.
Speaker 1 (07:48):
You just knew what from Yeah, he never he never
he never really excited, never really excited. He screamed out,
but he never verbally sat at all. At that point,
I knew it was drugged. And I was just actually
dropped to the floor myself, crying, just trying, just crying, trying.
Speaker 4 (08:11):
To figure this whole thing out.
Speaker 1 (08:13):
I do remember this biased though, coming out, kind of
hugging and consolant, and she's just as calm.
Speaker 4 (08:23):
It's David Greg just.
Speaker 1 (08:25):
Us just just hugging and it's going to be all right, rubbing.
Speaker 4 (08:31):
Everybody or a few are trying to get well.
Speaker 1 (08:33):
I remember maybe a fear. I don't know if it's everybody.
I do know, I do know she was calm as hell. Yeah,
I'm very.
Speaker 4 (08:44):
Knowing how you got to know her pretty well?
Speaker 1 (08:46):
What I did, I got to know her pretty well.
That surprised me, not because of her persona, but it's
surprised me because of the event that happened at that point.
I don't know how you can can be as calm
as she was. Again, not because of her personality. He
was like very yeah, a very strong woman. He was actually,
(09:09):
uh you know true Matrox out of the family. She
controlled that family without a doubt, without a doubt, she
was She was the glue.
Speaker 2 (09:17):
Here's Derek Lewis, a sophomore on the Maryland team. He
was walking to class that morning when he found out
something had happened to Lenn Bias.
Speaker 6 (09:26):
It was seven maybe seven twenty seven twenty five, and
then someone chased me down.
Speaker 4 (09:33):
Across the chased me down across the small.
Speaker 6 (09:40):
And call me to come back. I was like, man,
I was like, I believe you though I'm was studying
all night for this test. I'm going to go past
his test and said, now it say something happened to Linny,
So you know, I went back and like, man, what's
what happened to hear his leg playing basketball, is what
I'm thinking. They said, no, he say he's in the hospital.
(10:01):
That wasn't in any hurry to get there, like you know,
you know how sprain ankle or something. Oh, I'm gonna
rust for that. So I think I remember driving by myself,
and when I get there, see there's people walking around
looking crazy over over what I thought was a sprain
or or an a c L.
Speaker 4 (10:20):
Tay or something like that.
Speaker 6 (10:21):
Man his career, it's best bread and these people walking
around and I didn't. I didn't know him. So like
that day they said, well he's uh, he's not he's
not breathing, so he's not that. It's not meaning he's
the he's laying down.
Speaker 4 (10:34):
He would he wouldn't move when they brought him.
Speaker 6 (10:36):
In here, Jeff talking to Terry or David and saying,
you need to tell him. You need to tell him
what's wrong, tell what happened. Because Jeff didn't.
Speaker 4 (10:45):
He said, you need to tell them what happened.
Speaker 6 (10:48):
You know, I'm still thinking of a c L for me,
And uh, yes, I just started to find out. They
said he was just unconscious, so I said, that can't
be a need. I thought maybe had a harder type
of trouble, you know. Then his mom came out and
I was sitting in the room there and sparking.
Speaker 4 (11:05):
She said, he's.
Speaker 2 (11:06):
Going len Bias A Mixed Legacy. The interviews was produced
by Davon Grady and Don Marcus. Clips of Lenise Bias
were provided by Howard University. Len Bias A Mixed Legacy
is distributed by the Eighth Side Network.
Speaker 1 (11:23):
Just for greatness of laws, let you know them, all
of her memories, remember me.
Speaker 4 (11:27):
I hope they do the same.
Raised six.
Speaker 2 (00:01):
Okay, Welcome to Len bias A Mixed Legacy. The Interviews
June nineteenth, March thirty seven years from the death of
former University of Maryland basketball star Len Bias. He died
of a heart failure following a cocaine overdose. Born Ready
A Mixed Legacy is a sixteen episode podcast series that
(00:22):
captures the rich and compelling legacy of Bias, who many
consider to have been comparable to the superb talents of
Michael Jordan. In this episode of the Interviews, we relive
the immediate reaction of his death by some of those
very close to Bias. They include his mother, Lenise Bias,
as well as his teammates Jeff Baxter and Derrick Lewis.
(00:43):
To start, here's Linise Bias.
Speaker 3 (00:46):
It's ivon if you won't believe us. But I never
got to see him before he died. I didn't know
I was out, and when I had gotten back, and
when I had come back home, they said he had
just laughed. And I's always teasing about long like. I
said that long like.
Speaker 4 (01:01):
Rappel could have waited for me.
Speaker 3 (01:03):
And then you know, we went on and you know,
they said all he said, he's going to be back tomorrow,
and you know, we're gonna do this, that, and the other.
Speaker 5 (01:10):
We're laying there in bed on June nineteenth and a
call comes and I can 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.
(01:33):
And uh. It was early in the morning, about six thirty.
The phone rang and it was someone saying that 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. We got
there and I saw the players outside crying and torn up,
(01:57):
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 the nurse. She said, we have
(02:19):
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 asked. I said, well, he's gone and
she said no, he's not gone. The doctor isn't here yet.
And in my spirit. I felt what I actually went through,
(02:45):
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 not a relief, but a release.
And he gave the official declaration, if you will, that
he's gone. And then everything fell, the pieces, everything, everything
(03:06):
went crazy. And we went in and we looked at
him and lying there and my husband, Uh torn up,
just torn to pieces. And God had given me a
strength to stand there to look and to rub his
(03:28):
head and to get home. And then when we were done,
we got home, everybody was tore up from the floor.
I mean people were coming 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 everywhere.
(03:48):
People couldn't believe it. I can remember seeing Adrian's branch,
his dad on the front porch when we got there.
He was like, what is it true? Is true? Is
it true? And then trying to get my children together,
Jay and Michelle and people in the house. It was chaotic.
Speaker 2 (04:08):
Here's Jeff Baxter. He begins recalling being woken up early
on June nineteenth by teammate David greg after Bias suffered
a seizure.
Speaker 4 (04:17):
He told me that some come come. Then he fell out.
Of course, I'm kind of delirious, not figuring out what
he's talking about.
Speaker 1 (04:24):
So I go, look, he's in the living room, Laius
lazy living room. Was unconscious, Yeah, crawled out of the floor.
David was kind of like in the background. So he
really wasn't right there because I'm looking at him and
kneel down, and I'm still looking at her, afraid to
(04:46):
touch him, afraid to lean listen to his heart, any
of that.
Speaker 4 (04:49):
Just like right there was he was he breathing at
that point, I wasn't breathing as he was unconscious.
Speaker 1 (04:58):
My whole time when he was unconscious, I was thinking
that the necklace, the gold chain he had on his neck,
was the cause of it. So I reached and was
trying to move the necklace. And as I was actually
kind of trying to do that, the paramedics came. There's
(05:20):
the weirdest.
Speaker 4 (05:20):
Thing, you know, Why would I think that at that point?
Speaker 1 (05:23):
Who knows, but I was thinking of that that that's
what the cause was. So weird, Noah, Man, because you know,
you think guy he was perfectly salty so always big guns,
(05:46):
you know, just perfectly salty didn't need to get me
bigger at all. And it was strong, and how could
he be laying out on the floor dead. So what
I did I immediately once the paramedics, I couldn't find
(06:07):
the keys to my car to save my life. I
don't know where they were. Sometimes literally dropped my car.
I dropped his car, so I always do where his
keys were. That's it, hey, Finally, so I grabbed this keys.
I jumped in his car and I ran every light.
But this is unknown me. This is what I didn't realize.
(06:30):
I ran a life to talk. Actually I got near
the hospital maybe about eight. I don't even know how.
I don't know how I actually got there in the
sense of just reading in life. My mind was in
a whole different man. I get there. Everything's going on.
Teammates there, Keith is in one corner.
Speaker 4 (06:51):
Just fry. I mean, we're just we're losing. I can't
forget what's going on. Rugs.
Speaker 1 (07:02):
But I'm just saying he was my mindset. I've never
seen when he used the drugs, so my mind set
was run drugs. So I grabbed David Gregg six ten,
six nine sixteen, and I'm grabbed him by his jacket
and I pulled him to another part of the houspital
at the time, so I asked him he fell out?
Speaker 4 (07:26):
He found he fell out? He said why. I kept
asking what that?
Speaker 1 (07:30):
So I finally said it it was a drugs and
David started falling.
Speaker 4 (07:35):
I mean he asked him. He screamed, screamed what whaling
to squealing And at that point I knew drugs fall
but he never told you that.
Speaker 1 (07:48):
You just knew what from Yeah, he never he never
he never really excited, never really excited. He screamed out,
but he never verbally sat at all. At that point,
I knew it was drugged. And I was just actually
dropped to the floor myself, crying, just trying, just crying, trying.
Speaker 4 (08:11):
To figure this whole thing out.
Speaker 1 (08:13):
I do remember this biased though, coming out, kind of
hugging and consolant, and she's just as calm.
Speaker 4 (08:23):
It's David Greg just.
Speaker 1 (08:25):
Us just just hugging and it's going to be all right, rubbing.
Speaker 4 (08:31):
Everybody or a few are trying to get well.
Speaker 1 (08:33):
I remember maybe a fear. I don't know if it's everybody.
I do know, I do know she was calm as hell. Yeah,
I'm very.
Speaker 4 (08:44):
Knowing how you got to know her pretty well?
Speaker 1 (08:46):
What I did, I got to know her pretty well.
That surprised me, not because of her persona, but it's
surprised me because of the event that happened at that point.
I don't know how you can can be as calm
as she was. Again, not because of her personality. He
was like very yeah, a very strong woman. He was actually,
(09:09):
uh you know true Matrox out of the family. She
controlled that family without a doubt, without a doubt, she
was She was the glue.
Speaker 2 (09:17):
Here's Derek Lewis, a sophomore on the Maryland team. He
was walking to class that morning when he found out
something had happened to Lenn Bias.
Speaker 6 (09:26):
It was seven maybe seven twenty seven twenty five, and
then someone chased me down.
Speaker 4 (09:33):
Across the chased me down across the small.
Speaker 6 (09:40):
And call me to come back. I was like, man,
I was like, I believe you though I'm was studying
all night for this test. I'm going to go past
his test and said, now it say something happened to Linny,
So you know, I went back and like, man, what's
what happened to hear his leg playing basketball, is what
I'm thinking. They said, no, he say he's in the hospital.
(10:01):
That wasn't in any hurry to get there, like you know,
you know how sprain ankle or something. Oh, I'm gonna
rust for that. So I think I remember driving by myself,
and when I get there, see there's people walking around
looking crazy over over what I thought was a sprain
or or an a c L.
Speaker 4 (10:20):
Tay or something like that.
Speaker 6 (10:21):
Man his career, it's best bread and these people walking
around and I didn't. I didn't know him. So like
that day they said, well he's uh, he's not he's
not breathing, so he's not that. It's not meaning he's
the he's laying down.
Speaker 4 (10:34):
He would he wouldn't move when they brought him.
Speaker 6 (10:36):
In here, Jeff talking to Terry or David and saying,
you need to tell him. You need to tell him
what's wrong, tell what happened. Because Jeff didn't.
Speaker 4 (10:45):
He said, you need to tell them what happened.
Speaker 6 (10:48):
You know, I'm still thinking of a c L for me,
And uh, yes, I just started to find out. They
said he was just unconscious, so I said, that can't
be a need. I thought maybe had a harder type
of trouble, you know. Then his mom came out and
I was sitting in the room there and sparking.
Speaker 4 (11:05):
She said, he's.
Speaker 2 (11:06):
Going len Bias A Mixed Legacy. The interviews was produced
by Davon Grady and Don Marcus. Clips of Lenise Bias
were provided by Howard University. Len Bias A Mixed Legacy
is distributed by the Eighth Side Network.
Speaker 1 (11:23):
Just for greatness of laws, let you know them, all
of her memories, remember me.
Speaker 4 (11:27):
I hope they do the same.
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