When we remember Len Bias, we do so in the wrong way. We think about what should have been instead of what was. When you run a Google search on his name, all the links that come up lead you to stories that focus on tragedy rather than triumph. Bias passed away 20 years ago yesterday, and its time for that to change. When people move past the initial pain and grief that is brought on simply by mentioning Bias’s name, there is a moment when that person remembers Bias the basketball player. And when we think of Bias the basketball player, we can’t help but smile. That’s the way it should be.
Now, I know that I am not the right person to write this piece. Someone who was close to him in college, someone who could describe his game flawlessly, should write it instead. Someone who knew his personality knew his family and his friends. Knew him inside and out. I want to hear stories about how Bias made people laugh instead of how he ended up making people cry.
I was around three when Bias passed away and was more infatuated with Sesame Street than I was with basketball. The only things I remember on Bias are the games that I see on ESPN Classic. I don’t have the words to describe Bias, as he deserves to be described. I sat and watched this video for the past 30 minutes, and then spent another 30 trying to figure out a way to portray a man who could leap tall buildings but would rather burry a 15 foot jumper in your face.
Like I said, I don’t have the words. But others do.
The great Red Auerbach (then working in the front office for the Boston Celtics) once said about Bias: "Oh, yeah, I definitely wanted him. Absolutely. Because he was a ballplayer. He could handle the ball, he could shoot it, and he was just what we needed.” To be fair he was just what everybody needed. In his senior season at Maryland he averaged 23.2 points and seven rebounds a game and led the ACC in scoring. He was ACC player of the year twice in ’85 and ’86. When all was said and done at College Park, Bias finished with 2,149 points (an averaged of 16.4 a game), and 745 rebounds (3.4 a game). He was named MVP of the 1984 ACC tournament, and a consensus All-American as a senior. There hasn’t been a more decorated player in Maryland basketball since.
Seth Davis once called him a “bigger, stronger version of Michael Jordan”. He was a force. He was a rare player that had a way to get to the rim whenever he wanted. It was as if he was driving a monster truck and everyone else was stuck in a Pinto. It was impossible to try and box Bias out, because he would just jump up and stick one of those mammoth arms out in the air and snip the ball out of the air before you even left your feet. When he flew he looked like he was climbing an invisible staircase that no one else could see.
There were few athletes who belong in the same sentence with Michael Jordan, but Bias is one of them. He had all of Jordan’s well known mannerisms: overly competitive, a great teammate, and a basketball player that surpassed the system in which he played. Early in his career, Bias was upset that he wasn’t getting enough playing time, but only because he knew that he could help his team in ways they couldn’t imagine. He was upset when he lost and unbelievably ecstatic when he won.
And did he ever have the power to take over a game. Just ask anyone who was in attendance at the Dean Dome on February 20th, 1986. Those unfortunate Carolina fans witnessed one of the defining games of Bias’s career, a 36 point, 6 rebound, and 3 assist masterpiece against the number one team in the country. Maryland was overmatched and undersized and had no business beating Carolina that day. But Bias willed Maryland to win. No play sums up the career of an athlete better than when Bias buried a jumper, then turned around and stole the Carolina inbounds and broke the Tar Heels back with a thunderous reverse dunk.
We live in a world now where a simple reverse dunk would earn you boo’s at the Slam Dunk competition. Where players routinely throw balls off the glass on fast breaks, so that their teammate behind them can slam it home. But watching Bias’s dunks 20 years later; you’re still left at a loss for words. It’s not because of the simplicity of the dunks, but how effortless Bias made it look. It was like breathing to him. That is the true sign of greatness: to do something so hard to the common man, and make it look as easy as tying one’s shoes.
Said Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski: "This is my 24th year at Duke and in that time there have been two opposing players who have really stood out: Michael Jordan and Len Bias. Len was an amazing athlete with great competitiveness. My feeling is that he would have been one of the top players in the NBA. He created things. People associate the term ‘playmaking' with point guards. But I consider a playmaker, as someone who can do things others can't, the way Jordan did. Bias was like that. He could invent ways to score, and there was nothing you could do about it. No matter how you defended him, he could make a play."
Coach K would know too. He witnessed one of Bias’s greatest performances in the 1984 ACC tournament final, when Maryland beat Duke 74-62. Bias’s numbers: 26 points and four rebounds on 12-17 shooting. He led Maryland to their first ACC title since 1958. The famous picture of Bias standing and swinging the net like a lasso at the end of that game is the best example of “a picture says a thousand words”. Those huge arms holding a little piece of nylon with a smile the size of the Chesapeake Bay is how Bias should always be remembered.
Len Bias was many things: a victim, a tragedy, a martyr, a student and a son. But he was also a hell of a basketball player. And it’s time that we start appreciating what a gift he was to the game.
Chris DiIonno was more than a little Biased in writing this article. He can be reached at .
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