But here we are, and what's done is done. There's no way he can die.". ", The Len Bias Morality Play began with a single bizarre phone call, placed from a dormitory on a college campus to a 911 dispatcher whose Baltimorese hammered flat the word "phone" and who, from his tone of voice, apparently assumed this whole thing was a put-on, a prank by a bunch of rowdy university kids with nothing better to do. He is considered by some sportswriters to be the greatest player not to . "Len would've wanted me to," said Jay, who would turn 16 the next day . She confirmed his tip. James Stanley Bias 3d, known as Jay, was fatally wounded in an apparent ambush by two gunmen, a Prince George's County police spokesman, Lieut. This is a digitized version of an article from The Timess print archive, before the start of online publication in 1996. Are you adding a grave photo that will fulfill this request? He later filed an unsuccessful lawsuit against both Bias' agents and Reebok (he has since retired from his job as an equipment repairman). Continuing with this request will add an alert to the cemetery page and any new volunteers will have the opportunity to fulfill your request. Len's brother, Jay, laced up a new pair of black-and-white sneakers, preparing to play in a summer-league game. All photos uploaded successfully, click on the Done button to see the photos in the gallery. she told them. I do know the public narrative was deceptively simple: Len Bias had just experienced the most euphoric moment of his life, and he had an unquestionably bright future, and he had chosen to experiment with illicit substances for the first time -- perhaps, some errant rumors went, it was crack cocaine -- and in a freak occurrence of bad karma, his heart had stopped. It didn't make sense on a lot of levels at the time. "Part of him wanted to play and be the second Lenny, but the pressure people kept putting on him took its toll. Try again. Len Bias' death devastated his parents, his sister, Michelle, then 18, and his youngest brother, Eric, then 12. 2009. Portions of the timeline of that night remain obscure and unsubstantiated. You may not upload any more photos to this memorial, This photo was not uploaded because this memorial already has 20 photos, This photo was not uploaded because you have already uploaded 5 photos to this memorial, This photo was not uploaded because this memorial already has 30 photos, This photo was not uploaded because you have already uploaded 15 photos to this memorial. Try again later. His sister, Michelle, is 22. For some fans of hockey fights, it goes beyond obsession and into madness. She has heard of the controversy over mandatory minimum sentences and the role of her son's death in the process, and she has heard of the continued corruption of college sports and of the Hall of Fame career of Lefty Driesell -- she still attends Maryland games with her grandchildren on occasion -- but these push-and-pulls over legislation and administration are not her greatest concerns. "Bud" Marshall happened to be running for re-election, and what better opening was there than for Marshall to find the persons/places/things that had killed Leonard Bias? The 1985 Cy Young Award winner revealed . This was eight years B.O.J. The suspects opened fire from another car, Polk said. Brian is and was a very intelligent person. You can always change this later in your Account settings. And in the wake of the tragedy, his mom says his death, and the death of his younger brother, Jay, two years later, have helped others to live. As evidence, I return to myself, at age 13, and all the other children of my generation, products of the skewed value system of the '80s, for whom the most potent advertisement for the "Just Say No" campaign might have been the notion that a single splotch of cocaine -- and this is how I imagined it as a child, that Bias had simply touched several stray crystals of processed coca leaves to his nostrils, and shortly thereafter departed this mortal coil -- could kill us without prejudice, if our bodies were so genetically inclined. There were three other men in the room. Both defendants were acquitted of charges they attempted to kill two men who were with Bias when he was shot, and Eiland was acquited of first-degree murder. He kept telling us to tell his family how much he loved them." At Vanderbilt (Vanderbilt! On December 5, 1990, he was shot to death at age 20 following a dispute in the parking lot of Prince George's Plaza, a Hyattsville shopping mall located just a few miles . ), and the market was not yet saturated, the cable news channels were in their infancy, and the broadcasts themselves had not been subsumed by the modern troika of scandal, cynicism and splashy graphics. James Bias. That draft would be remembered not just for the death of Len Bias but for its sheer multitude of colossal busts and burnouts, young men who entered the world entirely unprepared for what was coming, for the ever-increasing demands of celebrity. I do not know whether he would have been better/as good as/in the same stratosphere as Michael Jordan if he had lived to play in the National Basketball Association. His family wasn't doing bad. This is America, after all, and it does not take long for tragedy to bleed into political stratagems. After completing his noon broadcast, Statter received a call from a source, who told him cocaine had been found in Bias' system. The night after his brother's death, Jay Bias, who would turn 16 the next day, went out to play a basketball game as a tribute to a brother who had always warned him away from drugs. There are no volunteers for this cemetery. Michelle Bias (Sister) Eric Bias (Brother) James Bias III (Brother) Affiliation. "You're bringing up all this crap that happened, but there's nothing to it. This account already exists, but the email address still needs to be confirmed. -- Private funeral services were held today for Len Bias, the Maryland basketball star whose death spawned a police and grand jury investigation into reports he used cocaine . He fell into tantrums. Tyler accused Bias of flirting with his wife, a clerk in the store, investigators said. It's not about athletes.". There was a chill on the airwaves, and we all began to feel as if we had somehow been conned. We know Bias' moods had been growing more sullen as his senior year passed, and he had essentially stopped attending class, acquiring, according to The Washington Post, "the style of one about to become rich and famous. 2 pick by the NBA champion Boston Celtics on June 17, 1986. Verify and try again. Download: 320 kbps - Wayshare Her son, who had been drafted with the No. Your Scrapbook is currently empty. So Tribble kept repeating the name, and uttering panicky phrases like, "This is Len Bias. Two days later, on June 19, Bias died of a cocaine overdose in a Maryland . And I'm saying, 'Holy cow.' He took out two personal loans and used most of the money to lease a cobalt blue Nissan 300ZX with a T-top. Foley also discounted Eilands argument that he did not know what Tyler was going to do. This flower has been reported and will not be visible while under review. As the legend grew and Maryland students hung life-sized posters in their rooms (Caption: I'm Bias), Bias developed an affinity for the high life that drove the cultural narrative of the era, a high life he imagined he'd be living soon enough. Other Works | Publicity Listings | Official Sites. Doc Gooden's drug troubles with the Mets got so bad that he once asked his dealer for "the stuff" that killed former college basketball star Len Bias. Len Bias attacked the rim like no other player of his size has ever done in college basketball. His coach at Northwestern, Robert W. Wagner, said of his skills in 1986 . UPPER MARLBORO, Md. Make sure that the file is a photo. Self. If you have questions, please contact [emailprotected]. Early on the night of his death, he made a trip to a local liquor store to buy a couple of six packs of Haffenreffer Private Stock malt liquor, and then returned shortly afterward to buy an $18 bottle of Hennessy. ", As Lonise Bias told me recently, "When you're talking about the life of a child being lost, regardless of how it took place, it's going to fall on the university. We would prefer to view the death of Len Bias not as an indictment of an entire system rife with hypocrisy, but merely a poor decision by a young man who should have known better. June 15, 201602:31. 86-999 James Stanley Bias III, 20, also . Her concerns, and the mission she has been charged with, are more concrete, more personal. He had two brothers, Eric and James III, and a sister, Michelle. ). It also meant both Democrats and Republicans were swept up in hyperbole and emotional appeals, in trying to out-tough each other, in a debate swept clean of nuance. It made no sense, but what did make sense anymore? The racial disparity, the targeting of black neighborhoods, the overcrowding of prisons with low-level drug offenders rather than major traffickers, and the outright absurdity of what happened to Derrick Curry and thousands like him, has prompted the introduction of seven bills between the House and Senate -- sponsored by conservatives, such as Orrin Hatch of Utah, and liberals, such as Charles Rangel of New York -- to amend the laws passed in 1986. -- James Bias, the younger brother of the late University of Maryland basketball star Len Bias, was shot and killed Tuesday after an argument at a jewelry store in suburban . The victim was Len Bias' younger brother. Sterling, a lawyer for the House Judiciary Committee, came into work the next day and was overwhelmed by the response. As the news congealed, as police discovered several grams of cocaine under the seat of Bias' leased sports car, as the autopsy was issued, as it became clear cocaine was the cause of Bias' demise, as denial turned to anger, we began to widen the scope of our outrage. U gotta c this: The Hit King and A-Rod are texting! All across the country, we began to question everything we thought we understood about drugs and athletes and our perceptions of modern celebrity. Biography. Bad Company 06. Dr. It is actually one of the reasons I stand so firmly by my blue sisters and brothers. Sorry! And we can fret all we want over the legacy of Len Bias, or the lack thereof, over whether, as one newspaper columnist wrote in the aftermath, ignorance should be a reason for heroism, or whether, as Lonise Bias says, "He went down to give life." Maryland would win the game in overtime. O'Neill was thinking about the midterm elections in November 1986; he was thinking about regaining political momentum from a popular second-term president. Brother Jay Bias, weeping, is at top center. They are, quite literally, resting side by side. The reaction to Bias's death fell into the Cobra Effect. He made a bad decision to try cocaine for the first time.". Leonard Kevin Bias (November 18, 1963 - June 19, 1986) was a first-team All-American college basketball forward at the University of Maryland. Len Bias died from cocaine intoxication. The brother of Len Bias, the former Maryland star who died of cocaine intoxication in 1986 two days after the Boston Celtics had selected him in the first round of the National Basketball . Brian Tribble would be acquitted for lack of sufficient evidence that he was the drug provider that night. Len Bias died just two days after his selection in the first round by the Boston Celtics. But I couldn't find anybody to confirm it. When Len Bias dropped dead two days after the '86 NBA Draft, he forever altered our perception of casual drug use. Go ahead and figure it out. Are you sure that you want to remove this flower? ", So, what has changed? An email has been sent to the person who requested the photo informing them that you have fulfilled their request, There is an open photo request for this memorial. Bias, who was 20 years old, was pronounced dead of two gunshot wounds to the back at Leland Memorial Hospital in Riverdale, Md., the same hospital where Len Bias was pronounced dead of a cocaine-related heart attack in June 1986. 86-999 has engendered. James Stanley "Jay" Bias III (1970-1990) was a college basketball player for Allegany Community College in Maryland. Maryland entered the game 10-1 and ranked fifth in the country . That Cleveland Browns safety Don Rogers fatally overdosed on cocaine eight days later only served to reinforce the anti-drug rhetoric that was building to a fever pitch on Capitol Hill. He was selected by the Boston Celtics as the second overall pick in the 1986 NBA draft on June 17, and died two days later from cardiac arrhythmia induced by a cocaine overdose. We maintained a certain amount of faith in public institutions, and in the notion of laissez-faire democracy that dictated the Reagan philosophy. Bias was one of four children born to James Bias, Jr. and Dr. Lonise Bias. Without Bias Self - Len Bias' Brother. O'Neill thought Democrats should take the lead on getting tough on drugs, and that meant stricter sentences for drug offenders. Len Bias' Brother. Len Bias is an American college basketball player from the University of Maryland and the second overall pick in the 1986 NBA draft. "I know how Brian felt about Lenny as a friend, and he shouldn't have put him in that situation.". At TCU: possible cash payments from boosters to football players. For her, there was only this future. We mined the ESPN+ subscription service's library of documentaries, pr By Jerry Bembry @Jerrybembry. We can argue these issues all we like, but I believe that, because the answers to such questions can never be determined, the questions have become irrelevant, obscured by the mythology that Autopsy No. Jay Bias averaged 25 points and 12 rebounds his senior season, and was generally regarded among the top recruits in the nation. Len and Jay Bias, brothers who died less than five years apart, are literally now resting side by side. As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. Statements or actions by the prosecutor that suggest bias or hostility towards you or your co-defendant Evidence that the prosecutor has a financial or other interest in the outcome of the case If you believe that the prosecutor in your case has a conflict of interest or is biased against you, you should discuss your concerns with your local . ", This is the essence of Driesell: He is famously brash and combative and stubborn. Tracklist: 01. College Basketball Player. About Len Bias. He had a sister, Michelle, and two brothers, Eric and James III, known as "Jay". Where are the flaws in such a story? Statter and his colleagues received death threats for broadcasting details of the previous night, details that suddenly seemed frighteningly intimate. "Put him in with good people, and he'd be the best there, too.". ", Twenty minutes after he says these things and hangs up, Driesell calls back and indirectly apologizes for his tone of voice. According to reports, the sales clerk had accused Jay of flirting with his wife, and Jay left and got into his car, and the suspect drove up behind him in the parking lot and shot him in the back. Amid the fury and panic and ignorance, amid what Sterling calls a "legislative frenzy," Congress acted in a bipartisan fashion, passing the Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1986. "But I am full of passion BECAUSE I BELIEVE IN YOU. Your new password must contain one or more uppercase and lowercase letters, and one or more numbers or special characters. Please enter your email address and we will send you an email with a reset password code. "Jay was leaning over on the driver,""He was telling us to tell his family how much he loved them. 1. In our haste to address what had been framed as America's most pressing problem, in our haste to atone for the sins of Leonard Bias, we took it too far. Is a digitized version of an article from the University of Maryland and mission! 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