One FBI agent called him a "flunky.". On December 5, 1990, 20-year-old Jay Bias, Len's younger brother, was gunned down in a shopping mall parking lot, just a few miles from the University of Maryland. "Part of him wanted to play and be the second Lenny, but the pressure people kept putting on him took its toll. It didn't make sense on a lot of levels at the time. Curry knew -- and liked -- Brian Tribble. U ambicioznom i otvorenom filmu o Biasovu ivotu i smrti redatelj Kirk Fraser razgovarao je s Biasovim suigraima, prijateljima i obitelji u . He had enrolled at Prince George's Community College, but still had aspirations for a Division I basketball career at Georgetown, and he was something of a playground virtuoso, whose vertical leap was once measured at 43 inches. Save to an Ancestry Tree, a virtual cemetery, your clipboard for pasting or Print. This was eight years B.O.J. This is a digitized version of an article from The Timess print archive, before the start of online publication in 1996. In the days following Len Bias' death, the basketball team's academic counselor submitted her resignation amid revelations Bias and several other players were flunking their classes. Resend Activation Email, Please check the I'm not a robot checkbox, If you want to be a Photo Volunteer you must enter a ZIP Code or select your location on the map. When Len Bias dropped dead two days after the '86 NBA Draft, he forever altered our perception of casual drug use. She listened, and she nodded, and then she told herself, "He's already gone.". It didn't matter that Bias had nothing to do with crack -- Bias was a major story, and crack was a major story, and to conflate them was simply a shortcut to political progress. He had a sister named Michelle and two brothers, Eric and James Bias III, who also went by "Jay." Len Bias (Getty Images) Bias attended Northwestern High School in Hyattsville, Maryland. Bias' brother, Jay, was also 16 and . Certainly, academic standards have been raised at many schools, including Maryland, and athletic departments are much more tightly regulated and controlled than they were back then. Self - Len Bias' Father. Try again later. Now, here was the perfect call to action, a young man of modest means on the verge of becoming rich, an athlete who had instilled pride in white and black communities, suddenly gone -- and for no good reason. brandon fugal wife; lucky 13 magazine 450 bushmaster. He was the first player in NBA history to die before playing a game. From Landover, Maryland, Bias graduated from Northwestern High School in Hyattsville, Maryland. The wife, Shaunelle Tyler, testified that Bias, whom she had known in high school, had recently asked if he could come see her, a request to which she said she did not respond. I think greed is healthy. A force both in the paint and above the rim, Bias looked like the modern prototype for an NBA power forward. Leonard Kevin Bias (November 18, 1963 - June 19, 1986) was an American college basketball player who attended the University of Maryland. One, Terry Long, placed the handle of a pair of scissors in Bias' mouth to prevent him from biting his tongue; another, David Gregg, held Bias' legs. (AP) _ The younger brother of the late University of Maryland basketball star and cocaine overdose victim Len Bias was shot and killed while driving out of a shopping center Tuesday in what police called utter senseless violence.. Please try again later. Larry Bird, reached by phone at his home in French Lick, Ind., declared to a reporter -- in a quote that would be woven into the legend -- that this was "one of the cruelest things I've ever heard." June 13, 1991. "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? Len's younger brother, was murdered in 1990 Len and Jay's graves are literally side-by-side at Lincoln Memorial Cemetery. Jerry Samuel Tyler, 24, was charged with first-degree murder in the death of Jay Bias, Hawkins said . Like many of us, Derrick Curry was still terribly naive about the realities of the drug trade in the late 1980s. She has never allowed herself to project into the future, or to examine the possibilities, the endless permutations of what-ifs that guide the discussion of her son whenever his name arises. Len Bias was experimenting with cocaine for the first time that night. He speaks of the team's graduation rates during his tenure, which he insists were solid. A: That is possible, yes. To preserve these articles as they originally appeared, The Times does not alter, edit or update them. 0 cemeteries found in Suitland, Prince George's County, Maryland, USA. 4: Said by many former ACC players and coaches to be one of the greatest to play in that conference. Yet Leonard Bias was also 22 years old, just coming to terms with his own maturity. I don't want to talk about this junk, man. And I do believe that because of this public narrative and the consequences of this narrative, the death of Len Bias can be classified as the most socially influential moment in the history of modern sports. Drag images here or select from your computer for James Stanley Jay Bias III memorial. "We've seen so many of these things happen to athletes, people expect it more now. 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. There is a problem with your email/password. 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. Len Bias. A few years after Bias' death, more tragedy struck. He started fights. Bias is a graduate of Northwestern High School in Hyattsville, Maryland, and hails from Landover, Maryland. Still, I ask: Would Bias' story have achieved the same status as a cultural touchstone if we had known he -- while probably not a habitual user -- had dabbled in cocaine for months, or that his close friend was apparently dealing cocaine, or that the truth was far more nuanced than the mythology? "I had a guy who called me and said, 'Listen, he wasn't doing lines of cocaine,'" Herzog recalls. OMG! Bias was one of four children born to James Bias, Jr. and Dr. Lonise Bias. 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. Derrick Curry (whose original sentence was nearly three times that served by most murderers) was 31 years old when his sentence was commuted by President Clinton in 2001. 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. He was pronounced dead of two gunshot wounds to the back at 2:52 p.m. at Leland Memorial Hospital in Riverdale, the same hospital where his brother Len Bias was pronounced dead in June 1986. The assembly is mandatory. 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. The impact of Len Bias' death still reverberates 22 years later. Her son, who in his senior season at the University of Maryland was widely regarded as the best college basketball player in America, a can't-miss talent with absurd hang time. Family members linked to this person will appear here. Driesell asks. And Brian probably figured, 'Well, doggone, this is easy.' He took out two personal loans and used most of the money to lease a cobalt blue Nissan 300ZX with a T-top. By Jerry Bembry @Jerrybembry. The cocaine overdose death of Len Bias shocked the sports world through its illustration of the extent of drug use among athletes. June 17, 2016. Len and Jay Bias, brothers who died less than five years apart, are literally now resting side by side. ), 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. Or perhaps -- as Len Bias' former college basketball coach, a crusty old Southerner named Charles G. "Lefty" Driesell, told me -- Len Bias changed absolutely nothing at all. A Prince George's County man was sentenced to life in prison yesterday for the fatal shooting of James S. "Jay" Bias III, brother of the late college basketball star Len Bias, whose . He, too, was a basketball player at Northwestern High School, a fleet guard with Division I prospects who was a close friend and classmate of Len Bias' younger brother, Jay. Oops, some error occurred while uploading your photo(s). ", Twenty minutes after he says these things and hangs up, Driesell calls back and indirectly apologizes for his tone of voice. Without Bias is directed by Kirk Fraser and created by Sam Bardley with Marion Barry Jr. and Jeff Baxter. of Md., 1st round NBA draft pick of the Boston Celtics.Jay Bias, 20, a former high school basketball standout, was shot in midafternoon in the parking lot of Prince George's Plaza in Hyattsville. This is no doubt a major reason why I have never touched cocaine myself, and why, several years ago, when an acquaintance of mine who was a product of the same generation tried cocaine for the first time, he thought immediately of Len Bias, as I'm sure hundreds or thousands of others did, too. It was not just about the game anymore. Some of you are aware. The suspects opened fire from another car, Polk said. You have chosen this person to be their own family member. (UPI, July 21, 1986). To Marshall, and a certain segment of the public, suspects included not only Brian Tribble, but the entire athletic culture at the University of Maryland. Brian is and was a very intelligent person. We maintained a certain amount of faith in public institutions, and in the notion of laissez-faire democracy that dictated the Reagan philosophy. His parents James Bias Jr. and Dr. Lonis Bias had four children. In death, he became a . "I think if Brian was a real friend -- and I know personally that he loved Lenny, and I have seen Brian break down from talking about Lenny -- he wouldn't have let him do it," Curry says. Bias, a two-time player of the year in the Atlantic Coast Conference, was picked number two by the Boston Celtics in the 1986 NBA draft. Basketball . "Put him in with good people, and he'd be the best there, too.". Please enter your email address and we will send you an email with a reset password code. Hyattsville, Prince George's County, Maryland, USA. Verify and try again. and "I CAME THROUGH TO SHOW YOU THE WAY!" Watch the 1986 "Nightline" report on drugs after Bias' death. They got into an argument. Connect with the definitive source for global and local news. Which memorial do you think is a duplicate of James Bias (9588316)? But then I drove to the cemetery, in a Maryland suburb of Washington called Suitland, and I trudged up a hill, and I found the markers, a couple of rectangles blotched with age, stamped into the dirt and rocks and tufts of grass. I went to see them not long after I heard Lonise Bias tell an incredible story to a group of South Carolina high school students: While witnessing the burial of her son Jay, she looked down and realized she was standing on the grave of her eldest son, Leonard. ", 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. Thirty years ago, Len Bias died of a cocaine overdose, just two days after he was selected by the reigning NBA champion Boston Celtics with the second pick of the 1986 draft. Regard for the rule of law had been entirely subsumed; several coaches complained they could not win without cheating. James Bias. Hide all | And the media, Herzog admitted, was "so naive" about drugs. Another man was cut by flying glass and was taken to Leland Memorial where he was treated and released. 30 for 30 Actor. There wasn't a happier young athlete in America than Len Bias on the afternoon of June 17. He called at least one of his girlfriends. Weve updated the security on the site. -- 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 . Midway through his haircut, Curry saw a television news report about a shooting at the mall. 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. This relationship is not possible based on lifespan dates. Go ahead and figure it out. Your Scrapbook is currently empty. His grades and test scores were poor, and he chose to enroll at a nearby community college. How could someone who could do that die like this? But it was all part of the same narrative now. Becoming a Find a Grave member is fast, easy and FREE. There was a chill on the airwaves, and we all began to feel as if we had somehow been conned. Learn more about managing a memorial . 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. At Georgia: a former instructor alleged athletes were given special academic treatment. "But the question is, was his style of discipline such that the kids thought it was OK to do this? Tyler accused Bias of flirting with his wife, a clerk in the store, investigators said. Bias and Jordan played against each other four times in college. Tyler could be sentenced to life in prison and Eiland to 50 years. "In death," Dan Baum wrote in "Smoke and Mirrors," Len Bias "would become the Archduke Ferdinand of the Total War on Drugs.". Instead, he spent more than a decade in prison. Eric Sterling, president of the Criminal Justice Policy Foundation, says Bias' death prompted a . . Younger brother of Len Bias, All-American basketball player from Univ. Statter and his colleagues received death threats for broadcasting details of the previous night, details that suddenly seemed frighteningly intimate. 1986: Basketball Star Len Bias Dies. O'Neill thought Democrats should take the lead on getting tough on drugs, and that meant stricter sentences for drug offenders. College career Trivia (2) Brother of Len Bias and Jay Bias. It is a Monday morning, and Lonise Bias is sweating underneath the spotlights on the stage of a high school auditorium in a quiet corner of South Carolina. Are you sure that you want to delete this memorial? Below is an excerpt from Episode 5: "Someone Had to Pay." The full podcast is available on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts, through the Book of Basketball 2.0 feed. Self. It doesn't matter, because it is hard not to listen when a woman with this kind of overbearing presence IS TALKING RIGHT AT YOU. Everything he says seems heartfelt and truthful. O'Neill was thinking about the midterm elections in November 1986; he was thinking about regaining political momentum from a popular second-term president. But here we are, and what's done is done. 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. And clouds of doubt and shame and confusion linger, and truthfully, no one wants to talk very much about the long-term meaning of Len Bias except Lonise Bias, who cannot stop talking about it. Len Bias is an American college basketball player from the University of Maryland and the second overall pick in the 1986 NBA draft. Len Bias. About Love 03. Hes not the man spoiling for a fight.. All across the country, we began to question everything we thought we understood about drugs and athletes and our perceptions of modern celebrity. Dr. A system error has occurred. He was pronounced dead in the same Leland Memorial Hospital emergency room . When was Len Bias drafted? Join the conversation about "The Day Innocence Died.". Mr. Curry later heard that Jay Bias and the man who murdered him had gone together in a limo to their prom a couple of years earlier. The suspect asked Mr. And she admits that among the other emotions her son's death brought on, it brought relief. 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. Just 42 months later, his younger brother, Jay, was killed in a drive-by shooting. U gotta c this: The Hit King and A-Rod are texting! His father James Bias and mother Lonise Bias are just below Jay and then the pallbearers and casket. This was not John Belushi we were talking about; this was not a man who abused his body to its breaking point. Related Tags. In the months before his death, he purchased fine suits and stereo equipment and jewelry, including a $1,300 gold necklace he bought on the installment plan so he could wear it during a television interview. 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. 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