Pull up a chair, boys and girls. It's time to talk. And when I was playing out here,
I was a Gerorgetown fan, and so I did not grow up as a Terp fan until I saw Len Bias
about one of the greatest to ever dominate the hard,
long pass up court. Len Bias is at the scene for you. 1981 I'm a senior at Montgomery
Blair High School now, high schoolers. We're all about our own world,
but we all heard about the local kid. Of course, I knew who he was. We went to northwest.
I mean, he was the local guy. Everyone knew who he was. His interest in basketball
did not come to light until he reached middle school. And then you had seventh, eighth
and ninth grade. And by the time he reached the eighth
grade, he had an interest in that sport. The skinny, lanky, raw kid most knew him as Len, those who really knew him. Len was special. Len Bias was a former classmate of mine
at the University of Maryland. Maryland has his dynamic, high
flying forward, named Len Bias. Maybe one of the best players ever to play
at the University of Maryland said, That's the guy, you know,
he was unbelievable. Unfortunately for me, I had a coach
against him for four years in the ACC. Well, heck of a player. Len Bias was not a great player. He was a transcendent player. He's
one of the best players I've ever seen. I was a student here. When Leonard was a god on campus and growing up a Terp fan, he's he was the guy then
and remains my all time favorite term. He was the best damn player. He was the best. The 1980s weren't the era of LeBron James and one in dones
and high school athletes that were so highly recruited and so well known
that there was buzz about them. Nobody knew much about Len Bias. Sportswriters knew coaches knew
I made one recruiting visit to Lenny's high school
and it was a workout. The coach was there and there were a lot
of other coaches there, including lefty Jaisal and former Maryland
in his 16th season. Carl Levin. Great deal! And afterwards, a coach told me,
he said, Bobby, appreciate you coming. I know you got a really good program. Bobby Crimmins cannot be too unhappy
with what he's seeing so far, Mike, but it looks like
Lenny is going to stay local. Well, I have to thank him for that. You knew that he was coming,
which was cool, but when he turned out to be was so much more than what
this preceding hype was, if you will. When Len Bias was a freshman,
he was sort of an afterthought. Maryland already had a pretty good team. Adrian Grant and other local product. Something that happened
was the star of that guard number 20 46, a junior for Marco Adrian. Unless you drizzle
was even the bigger star of the team, we probably bore
no one to the country, they any way. That's that's why we rise to the occasion and we find the one left
who thought that if we got one bias, he was going to be all right
for two or three more years at least. And he was correct.
But the campus was not buzzing. Well, like I tell you what
I'd highly recruited. So in fact, I didn't start him the first ten or twelve games
of his freshman year, and I think we got beat by Penn State
or something, and I started to start. The thing that was so cool,
if you go back and you look, you remember it and I do is he went from being this guy
that maybe was going to be something. And then you fast
forward to sophomore year and he's becoming
something more than that. The fact that he got markedly better each year and there were these landmark
games, you know, when in Maryland. For APEC Championship with the 7462 win. Let's just watch the Earth celebrate. He just had a way of punctuating things. six, eight, £195, senior Helen Mirren, No. 34 Len Bias, your pronounces
ACC tournament champion back to back ACC Player of the Year honors
consensus all-American How good was he? Well, Coach K you know that due to Duke,
he's on record as saying. There have been two opposing players
who really stood out. Michael Jordan Len Bias
The scouting report on Len was double team triple team
and hope that he missed. He could shoot over you. He could jump over you. You've got to remember I'm
the same 17 year old kid who's idolizing the guy less
than, you know, a year before that. And now here I am
playing my first pickup game with him. And so I'm kind of it all. I remember one particular play. Matter of fact, it was the first game
that we won when we got out, and again it was nip and tuck back and forth. This elbows alary from long range. Little strong tip. Danny Ferry with two cracks at it,
won't go no whistle. A lot of times. Tony Madsen broke out of the way,
and I'm feeling good about it because I got my guy,
Lee Bias, on my team, so it's game point and somebody on our team
takes a jump shot . And I remember Len Bias flying in. I'm on it before I'm getting ready
to go for the ball and before I can jump, I see Lin flying in over top of everybody, gets the rebound, hits
the floor right in front of me. And without bending his knees in a split
second, went right back up and reversed. Dunked it on three guys,
three guys who contested it. And when he dunked, it,
reversed. Dunked it. I'll just literally stood there. And I was no way I looked up,
I was under the basket, I just jumped up and I think only because I've seen it
so often over the years and everybody has talked about it,
it's to play against North Carolina. It's the steal and then the reverse jam that was just an unbelievable
player had seen nothing like that before. Bias from outside and he got it. Len Bias with 29. Oh my jam. What a play by. Oh, we and they would be a three now
against Carolina goes and steals the inbound pass and,
you know, reverse don't support Wal-Mart's head, like
that's the thing that comes to your mind. But the one I'll remember forever. When he was a senior,
he went to U-Haul and Charlottesville and all employees blocked his shot
and vice like, fell down, like, slid on his butt and politics went over and barked
in his face and waved his finger out. We shouldn't have done that
because Senior Day was against the old
and pollinates the 6:11 jr against the 68 senior Len Bias,
Maryland, with a big lead in the series. And in the last game, Virginia won
convincingly the tip control by Jeff Baxter. And the crowd will be in it
every time the Len bias touches the ball. Bias has planted that seed and watered it. Let it grow. And here's a sequence. The shot got his own rebound by bias. And here's a little loose ball picked up
by Kennedy leans into one finally, Mr. Holidays hasn't. And he's back with
a sequence right now and. Well, everyone else is playing defense. Bias is standing in Polynesia's face,
waving his finger in his ear, screaming at him
because he just got this block. The sequence continues. Another shot gets blocked
and it ends up with Jeff Baxter throwing an alley oop to Speedie Jones. Terry Holland time out. That was. And Terry Holland says, let's talk about a good, fast break. We saw landmines intimidate and the entire time out. one half of cold chance land
in the other half of cold chance bias. And I can hear it in my head right now. And that's that's the point. Everyone Carolina place. Sure, singular play by us remembering how pissed off he is at polynyas
wanting to get even getting even. And then it leading to this alley
oop dunk and timeout and led by as len bias
led by us. That's play. The two biggest players in the area
were Patrick Ewing, a Georgetown event bias at Maryland,
and Len Bias, really, his senior year had a breakout year,
the performance that he had at Duke. I mean, my senior year at 41 many buyers. He dropped one. Bruin
on top of it, draws a foul. It wasn't an awful lot to build on that. one thing that you can't do
is play behind the money pile now and go to the baseline
bias and he hit it. Failing away on an angle bias is displayed simply a virtuoso performance
for the Maryland Terrapins, who still won the game,
but he was absolutely unstoppable. Little bias was one of the most graceful
athletes I ever saw for the basketball to this day when it comes to. He just went up straight up and he just shot it
at the top of the jump. And I know that sounds like a simple thing
by a baseline guy, but it isn't. And even if it's simple, it's magnificent. Len Bias had a magnificent jump shot. Yeah, when he did a jump shot and Michael Jordan was trying to block it
and Michael Jordan got about to his elbow. That's such a big ball game. two of the finest athletes
and pull the sport out, you just like a man
ready to go. Here you go. Just turn it up a notch
and buy a square ball. As I just mentioned,
it is going to be a physical game. You want a story in Orlando
with Tracy McGrady. And as I'm walking out, I'm 66 and McGrady
is kind of eyeballing me. He's like, Thank you. You play ball was like, I was a good high school player
like intramural All-Star Typekit. So I went to Maryland.
I was a little too good. So I was there. When you let her biases,
you know about biases. Yeah, but I didn't see it, as I'm saying, or strand walks out of a side booth. And McGrady says the screams like,
Oh, what do you know about Len by the story loses its juice
if I don't quote him directly. But Horace Grant
looks at McGrady and goes, Poof, that was the baddest guy I ever saw. And McGrady goes, So you play with Jordan
and Horace, Grant said. Like I said, that
was the baddest I ever saw. And I look at McGrady
and go on into his own trap. They're going to try to trap Maryland on. And the thing that
they risk letting by us. He's going to pull the limb
down here in a minute when he starts for the bucket,
the wise players clear out the Boston Celtics. Select Len Bias at
the University of Maryland. Glenn was sitting by. His mother. She is here with him. You were with him that night
up in New York at Madison Square Garden. No, I was Oh, you didn't go up there? No, he was with his dad
and his dad went with them. I was home with the children. Len Bias had a great career in Maryland. Many people think
he may be the best athlete in the draft, and I'll tell you, this is a great kid. As a matter of fact,
you know, Larry Bird said that if we draft bias, he's
going to come up to the rookie camp. That's right. He is very,
very high on bias as Casey was. And Jimmy and and the owners, you know,
Alan Cohn and Don Gasol, they're all high on him
and he's the guy we wanted and we got him. The temperature in the room always changes
at this point in the story. Yeah, I'm an MBA now. I got drafted, so now my dreams come true. To do rather rather. That's a lot of the time
I was an intern at Channel nine. Help the news department cover. When is it when it felt like
we've just seen this beginning? It was awful. It was tragic,
but by going forward and you're working now with basketball,
and now that will also was. The lesson? In a community sense,
this was some of his promise. Seemed guaranteed
he wanted to watch it. More to follow. Yes, exactly where we were
and what we were doing when we found out he was,
he was not with us any longer working for the Russians for more information from us. The next morning, when I had gotten to
work and I had got a real early, one of the editors had said to me,
Did you hear about your guy, Len Bias? I said, No, what happened?
He said, Well, you better look. And when I saw what happened,
I was in absolute shock. We got a call in the newsroom
and some guy says to me. Hey, Johnny. I work at William Memorial Hospital. They just brought Len Bias
and they think he had a heart attack. A local success story took a tragic
turn this morning. Len Bias, the Maryland university
basketball star, on his way to becoming a world champion. Boston Celtics died of an apparent heart
attack today in Leland Memorial Hospital in Prince George's County. Actually, my mom woke me up and told me
I was sleeping a little bit late and you know, I made
a couple of phone calls and found out it was true and and I was. I think all of us were when I was in school here in Maryland,
like my girlfriend throughout my whole time
here in Pennsylvania , and I had been up in Pennsylvania to see her and I was managing. Very important, someone and I came back
from visiting my girlfriend, stopped at a 7-Eleven
in only Maryland on my way to the pool, and I see my best friend's younger brother and my best friend's name, Caprice
Albiston, his brother's name Lee. I see Lee and Lee's got. Lee sees me, says, Man,
you hear about bias. And I said, Yeah, I'm going this Celtics. That's unbelievable. And I never forget the look on his face. He just looks biased. And I was like, What are you talking
about? Like, You're like, what? I'm standing in line with the Big Gulp,
you know, and 7-Eleven. I'm like, I'm you're the shock of what
I heard in it, not making any sense. And but at the same time, there's no reason he'd say this to me
if it's not true and you're you. Still, I start like pacing. There's again,
there's no phone. There's no I didn't know. So I go out to a payphone because that's right. I pull up. I put a quarter in a pay phone. I try to call Keith Gatlin and I can't get him because obviously he's
not sitting by his phone. And I immediately get in my car
and I turn on WTOP radio and I and I sat there on a on a summer day
listening to them say that what I just
heard was true and it was. It just obviously for so many reasons,
it's sad it's not what basketball lost. It's what we all lost for
just such a great person and a great leader
and a great human being. When he went to New York, I never saw him again until he was on the table at Leland Hospital dead. It's a bitter cup and I tell anyone if you can think what it
feels like to lose a child, it's 100 times worse than you think. Still stands out on my mind
today is walking down the hallway at the old coal fuel house and seeing Dick
Doll, the athletic director. I've been here ten years and I've never
seen a day is dark and sad. Is this one? We love Lenny buyers
for what he did for Maryland, but we loved him more because
he was a good person and our friend. Everybody that ever watched him play admired him,
and everybody that ever met him loved him. And seeing the president of the university
walking toward me with absolutely no expression on their faces. They too felt like everybody else did. We're we're in a bad dream
this this just can't be happening. It's one of the saddest,
um, most shocking, um, you know, depressing times. As a reporter, you always wanted to cover
big stories, but you don't want to cover big stories like that. Tobias died of cocaine intoxication, which interrupted
the normal electrical activity of his brain, which
controlled his heartbeat. It's not hyperbole to say that
it changed the direction of everything. It was a weird time in the eighties
because not long after that, Don Rogers, the football player,
died of the same thing. And and that led to action by Congress, the Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1986, which was
a bipartisan piece of legislation. As a matter of fact,
our current president voted for it. It was something that was even referred to as lentiviruses law by some, and it established mandatory minimum sentencing,
which is really what caused, particularly in the federal system,
mass incarceration. The American people want their government
to get tough and to go on the offensive. And that's exactly what we intend. It's about the lessons learned in the mid
to late 1980s with drugs in America. This is not a basketball problem, per se. This was not a sports problem.
This was a societal problem. This was a cultural problem. It was a national problem. See this cute little vial here. It's crack rock cocaine,
the most addictive form you think it's the glamor drug
of the eighties? Well, that's the point of this
funny little reminder. It can kill you. And if you've got to die for something, this sure is elated. I don't know how you quantify it. And even now, I think about his family and what they went through and
then what they went through afterwards. He was the best brother
that I think ever in the whole world. The best brother, anything he wanted. I mean, anything that you needed. He jumped right on it. Always on top. I always think about his mom and everything that she went through
because she ended up losing another son. He was a gunshot victim. So here you have two sons, one lost to drugs, the other one
shot to death, and just her strength and what she's done with her life
in the wake of these two tragedies. You want to talk
perseverance and endurance? I'll never forget when Dr. by a Stop is all in our tracks. She was talking about her son, Lennie. And then she paused.
And looked up at the ceiling. I thought I did something wrong. When she said the following,
you know, Chick. I can't express you the feeling of burying
one son, Austin, in other sons, great. They should have had longer lives,
but because of the hardships of life and the crises and suddenly
they come in life. We took lemons and made lemonade
with the help of God. It was sour. With stinky was nasty. We didn't like any of it,
but God gave us the strength to endure. I really don't know if I'm up to this, but I get of a woman for up reason. I've known you were
in the back in sixth grade. He's like a surgeon, so I think you can
appreciate the difficulty of the way I feel right now. He was just a super individual. It went beyond the basketball program and it quit and it went quickly
beyond the basketball program. There was turmoil in terms of academics. You know, he didn't finish
a lot of classes his senior year because he was trying out
for all these teams drug policies. There was really very little drug testing,
not only in Maryland but across the country. The dominoes began to fall. And first it was, I believe it was Dick
Dale who resigned during the summer. The athletic director, who was very popular, had done a great job
sort of marketing the Terps and and and he became the first scapegoat of the buy of is that? And then and then lefty,
you know, someone had to pay, I guess. And he did with his job and then things the direction of that program
and everything else change. Sometimes I get questions about the book
that Walt and I wrote. Lessons from Lenny and people say, Well,
why did you write that book? There were two goals
that Walt and I had in mind. one was to, first of all, help
people understand that there were a lot of positives that came from
Len Bias, his life and his death. And the one thing that we thought was lost in his death was his legacy. I remember Lenny's smile. That big ass smile when he was out there
and that deep voice might blocked a part
when I first did interviews with him when he came out
of Northwestern High School, he was not a good interviewer. Very, very quiet,
very tough to get anything out of him. And then as he got more comfortable,
his sophomore and junior year, he became one of the best
interviews on the team. But it was not about him.
He always made a point. I would bring up something here. You had 35 against
Carolina in the ding dong. That's the first loss
they ever had in North Carolina. You want to talk
about the past from Keith? Yeah, I got it and light it in. And North Carolina
has been up front by Maryland. He didn't want to talk about himself
and Smith shaking left his hand. So Maryland upsets
North Carolina in overtime, the first loss here on the Student Activity Center,
named after Dean Smith the final 7772. We'll be back in a minute.
The Maryland basketball that work and I will look at how he was all team and not about him. So we wanted to play confident practice
hard, got open shots that we wanted when we were practice. So we just drilled on things like a team
like clockwork and. Gatlin told me a great story. They're playing at NC State
and they were like yellow jerseys. I want to say it was. But he's sweating so much
during this game, and it's in Reynolds
Coliseum, old NC State building and the paint that's in
the jersey and his sweat. It's like there's the color of the jersey
is coming down his gigantic biceps and lefty looks it Leonard and says,
Look at Leonard. Leonard is a warrior. Give the ball to Leonard. I don't know. I might have, because I used
to brag on him all the time because he any time we had our brand suicide
and so much spread. He came in first and he was in great shape. And, you know, one thing. With that work ethic,
you had God given ability. I learned that it's not just enough
to be a good basketball player. If you want to be great, you have to
put in the work that great players do. And I watched them bias
do that for that one year that I had to play with him
and I passed it on to what we who in turn pass it on to down the road,
who in turn pass it on to him, but to a Joe Smith, to a Juan
Dixon, to Chris Wilcox, to a Baxter. When we used to come out here
and play on these black tops before the game would start,
a number of us would yell out who we were going
to pretend to be that day, and most often times
I would get a chance to be led by that. That meant something to me. And so I wanted the kids
in this neighborhood, in my community. I wanted them to come out here. And play the game
and pretend like they were me, you know, like I did Len Bias,
and so I felt like the only way that I could be led by this man was to
follow in his footsteps and come to the. Try the alley oop,
Tobias, and he really got up to hit it. And West, the freshman fouled him,
so a chance for the three point play biased so many things. Well, you saw that time, how high he got
up, pass the pass. We're very high above the rim.
There's not enough accolades. My price, I talked about price, price. The Sally got it back at the baseline. He moves so well without the ball, and he says coach Lenny Bice was one of
the greatest players ever played the game. Tell you what, I like him. He is a tremendous player on the offensive
and always around the basket. They were standing out on campus
life sized posters of Len Bias. Everyone had one in their room. I mean, that's how big of a player he was. We had a life poster of a class in 1986, when Lin finished his career. Maryland spring,
he came down and he gave us his jersey. And over the next few years,
people would come in and just stand in front of it almost like a rubber len bias. Parents would bring their children
and important to the church. So it was a significant part
of our Maryland history. And then in the early nineties,
one morning I came to work and the opening manager
said, You're not going to be very happy. And I said, why? That was a given
by his church and we still. No way it was voted for the wall. Yeah, but they popped the glass,
got the trophy and got it out of here. That stayed that way for about two years
and we really kind of decided it was gone. And then one day from Maryland
lacrosse players, they they said that they had a dinner
party at Annapolis over the weekend and there were some guys party talking about having in their possession
a piece of great Maryland history. We said what we'll find out everything you can and let us know
and we'll see what happens. We brought was on display
in December of that year, I was opening mail on a brown envelope
paper in the mail and I just opened it and it was a little bit
after my golf game. All it's back. No, no. A return address, just live surgery. So we proudly hung it again, this time
bolted to the wall, but behind plexiglass. So it really can't be taken. And for the most part, you would think
that GM destroyed the story. But about a year or so later,
the young lady that I pretty well came in was telling me that she knew the guys
that took the jersey and said they took it and they each took turns
hanging in their house or on their walls. But the one that had
it had tremendous bad luck. So finally decided
it was the curse of the biased jersey. So they sent it back,
and now we happily have a. It's been a blessing for us. It was every game he did
something that we had never seen before. I don't believe it. And he gained after you amazed us when you saw led by us
and you tried to square that somebody once said and wrote,
all men are created equal and are created equal
when you saw Len Bias. Not all men are created equal. He was created better than me. The new film now in his little kid
in a superheroes body. I mean, I don't know, it's
not one thing, it's everything. It's what you look like. It's how he played, it's how he played,
made you as a Maryland fan, feel. It's how crushing it was. Did it end, you know, like what
will I remember about Leonard bias, I'll remember everything and I'll remember
all of it as long as I live. So when people ask, who was Len Bias, that's easy, local kid. Turn legend who left us with
what could have been, but as his mother told us time
and time again, he did mourn his passing then. Well. You know, frosty. Much love. We miss you. And Terp Nation. Damn proud. And your induction into the Collegiate
Basketball Hall of Fame.
