Len Bias: A Mixed Legacy | Bias's Last Few Months (Pt 1)

How did Len Bias spend the few months from the end of his college career in April that year until he died? He took risks…he had fun…he spent lots of money…and he made a bad choice to abuse cocaine to an extent that it killed him. 

As newly drafted players prepare for the NBA, we revisit some of the contenxt from Episode 3 in the series. 

Len Bias: A Mixed Legacy was recently selected by Feedspot as one of the Top 35 Maryland Sports Podcasts on the web.

https://blog.feedspot.com/maryland_sports_podcasts/

 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:06):
At this time of the year, many top NBA prospects,
their school's competitive seasons behind them, are preparing for the
league's draft in late June. Many will play in postseason
all star tournaments, and they fine tune their skills to
achieve optimal positions in the draft. Some forty years ago,

(00:27):
Len Bias was in that situation. But Bias, the All
American forward from the University of Maryland, never fulfilled that dream.
He has been justifiably compared to Michael Jordan, but we
never saw his career unfold. Two days after the NBA
Draft in late June in nineteen eighty six, Bias died

(00:50):
of complications fueled by a cocaine overdose. It was one
of the more significant sports stories of the last fifty years.
How did Bias spend the few months from the end
of his college career in April that year until he died.
He took risks, he had fun, he spent lots of money,

(01:14):
and he made a bad choice to abuse cocaine to
an extent that it killed him. This is Dave Ungrady,
author of the book Born Ready, The Mixed Legacy of
Len Bias, and the executive producer of the sixteen episode
podcast series Born Ready A Mixed Legacy. We present here

(01:35):
a portion of episode three from the series that is
focused on the last few months of Bias's life. This
part of his story offers a cautionary tale to those
players eagerly anticipating their NBA fates to not lose focus
of their dreams and goals as Bias did. As the

(01:55):
death of Bias has confirmed, your life and your legacy
are determined by the choices you make. This episode is
narrated by Kevin Shean and I red quotes attributed to
others as they appeared in the book.

Speaker 2 (02:13):
The final months of Len Bias's life were filled with
lots of free time. It was fun, adventurous, a bit careless,
and by the end, fatally reckless. The fun part started
with the Barnstorming Tour, a two weeks hoops road show
through the Carolinas. Mike Sumner, the founder of the ACC
Barnstorming Tour, compared the games to a Harlem Globetrotter's event.

(02:35):
Play is loose in bending the rules as common and
Len fit right in.

Speaker 3 (02:40):
And Lenny took the game seriously when it needed to
be taken seriously. But if we were playing the Rono
Grapids Police Department or the PTA from someplace. He had
fun with it, you know, he did foul on and
he go grab a kid to shoot his foul shots.
That's how well he connected with people.

Speaker 4 (02:59):
And then I can.

Speaker 3 (03:00):
Remember one time we were out there playing and uh,
the A sec was up, probably about forty points, and
he just sat down in the stands and started yelling
and screaming at the other players do certain things. And
he just sort of got it. He understood that that
that these games weren't about people watching basketball. They were
an event. These people never have a chance to see

(03:21):
these athletes. And Lynn would not leave the gym until
everybody got an autograph. And so the autograph session would
go sometime with Lynn an hour to an hour and
a half and everybody else was was was in the
locker room, and there was Lynn after signed autographs. And
I asked them one night about it, and he said, well,
when I was a little boy, I tried to get

(03:41):
an autograph at at a at a basketball game and
I couldn't get it. And I said to myself that
would ever go happen to me if I ever got
to be famous. So that was kind of a neat story.

Speaker 2 (03:52):
John Sally played in some of the barnstorming games with Bias.

Speaker 5 (03:56):
We both loved Doctor J.

Speaker 3 (03:58):
And they said Doctor J would leave, so he signed
the last autographer did the last interview.

Speaker 2 (04:03):
While in North Carolina, Bias also found time to use
cocaine with former NC State star Chris Washburn. That's according
to Washburn. Washburn claims Bias introduced him to cocaine.

Speaker 4 (04:16):
About about twelve one o'clock in the morning. I get
knocked my door. His name was ce log and his
actual name was Charles Logan. When I opened the door,
U lamp hopped around the corner and I was you know,
I was surprised. You know, LeAnn in town. I had
a seven fifty class that morning, and uh, let's just
say I never made it to that class.

Speaker 1 (04:38):
You told me for the book that that's that he
introduced you to cocaine that night.

Speaker 4 (04:42):
He told me. That's correct, that's correct, that's correct. Right. Yeah,
they went off to the bathroom and then and use
my phone and stuff, and I went back to sleep,
but I had to get up for my seven fifty class.
They were still in the bathrooms there. There hasn't been
in a four or five hours for someone actually to
try something over it of a status you know that

(05:05):
I put him on. You know, I didn't want them
to think I'm not cool, you know what I'm saying.
So you offered me something I tried, you.

Speaker 5 (05:12):
Know, so you surprised that thene was doing that.

Speaker 4 (05:15):
I was. I was surprised yet because I'd never done it.
When I tried that, you know, it made a big
change in my life. And like I said, I never
went back to class. I ended up leaving the state
when they left that morning. I never left and went
to class after that, you know, I kind of stayed

(05:36):
in the room. And then because once that higher war
off and if it's such a new drug, I saw
myself riding around Raleigh, you know, wanting to find it,
but scared to ask me before it because everybody knew
who I was. I was that day won heart it
I was. I actually went to the NBA. I was

(05:57):
already damaged to it.

Speaker 2 (05:59):
No one is a live to confirm Washburn's story. Logan
passed away before Washburn told podcast producer Dave Ngrady the
story in twenty ten when he was working on his
book about bias Bias drove to Carolina with his mentor,
Johnny Walker, who spent about a week with Bias on
the tour. Walker helped manage what he called the len

(06:20):
Bias Everything Must Go vending stand set up at some
of the games.

Speaker 5 (06:25):
Johnny Walker told me we had the life sized poster
of him. He got game shorts, jerseys, other people's jerseys,
practice gear. We sold so much stuff. He got paid
so much money. He said, whatever it is, just keep it.

Speaker 2 (06:41):
Walker recalled he and Bias were part of a caravan
of players on the tour, speeding from one site to
the next, driving at about one hundred miles per hour.
He says they were stopped by police but did not
receive a ticket. After an NC State player talked to
the trooper.

Speaker 1 (06:57):
Walker told me, Lent said, That's what I'm talking about. Police,
Let us go.

Speaker 6 (07:03):
This podcast series is based on the book Born Ready
The Mixed Legacy of Lembia's, published by Go Grady Media.
The series is produced by Go Grading Media in partnership
with Octagon Entertainment. This segment was produced by Dave Young
Grady and Don Marcus. It was written by daveon Grady
and edited by Don Marcus. The narrator was Kevin Sheehan,
with addition of narration by Jamal Williams. Technical production was

(07:25):
provided by Octagon Entertainment. Production assistance was provided by Kevin McNulty,
Tino Quagliata, Lauren Rosch, Georgia Brown, Casey Fair, Jamal Williams,
Kelsey Mannix and Enzo al Varenda. Matt Dealhers is providing
the social media assistants. Special thanks to the University of
Maryland and American University for providing insurgs. The Decision Education

(07:47):
Foundation is a content and promotional partner of this podcast series.
And more information go to Doggradymedia dot com. This has
been a production of Go Graded Media and The Eighth
Side Network said that the story show that Pusson never became.

Speaker 3 (08:07):
I said the Boy and the Prims and the Boys.

Speaker 6 (08:09):
Fly Man Isola said, when a young Grison.

Speaker 2 (08:12):
Died second show with the game, he made the

Speaker 6 (08:14):
Name the story of the best of never