The year was 1986. The space shuttle Columbia exploded. MLK’s birthday became a national holiday. The Chicago Bears shuffled to the Super Bowl. The Chernobyl nuclear plant exploded. Mike Tyson wins his first world boxing title. And Len Bias died.
There are very few moments in your life that are stamped and engrained in your memory. Where you were. What the day was like. Who you were with. I so vividly remember that day on June 19th outside my Mom’s house. My buddy running up to me, just two-days after Lenny got drafted by the hated Celtics, telling me that Lenny had died. My heart sunk. “What?!” I couldn’t move. “Nah, man!” I was devastated.
Reluctantly, since I’m a die-hard Laker fan, I had just come to terms with the fact that Lenny was just drafted by the bastard Celtics. It was tough to watch the hated Celtics just win the NBA title that year…AND get the 2nd pick in the NBA draft…AND get LEN BIAS!! The Celtics went 67-15 that year…AND they got LEN BIAS!! What a crock. Completely unfair. The specimen of all basketball specimens was going to the Celts?! Fuck.
I had watched Lenny with a passion coming up with the Maryland Terrapins. As a kid, I lived outside College Park and had gone to many games at Cole Field House…I had always been a Terp fan…and had followed the squad even from afar after moving to California - Adrian Branch, Buck Williams, Ben Coleman, Albert King…and especially Lenny Bias.
We used to play dunk hoops in late high school and early college. We used to try an emulate our favorite players moves, shots, walk…everything. Who did I try and emulate? Well…check out the 1:26 spot on the video above. I swear, I was watchin’ that very game, that block, and you can hear the massive Lenny scream “Gimme dat!” That’s what I remember. That was what I “tried” to emulate (remember…were talking dunk hoops). That’s what I miss.
As a friend of Kirk’s since 1984ish, I was watching that game at his Grove condo. We (our friends) were in awe of Lenny Bias. There is another play that we would try to emulate at the 2:20 point of the video. It was a simple (as if we all are 6′8″ tall) 2-handed reverse. But on the way down, Len spreads his hands out and plays it up for the crowd. About 2 months ago ESPN Classic replayed a game he played against North Carolina (sorry Joe Zamora). It really makes you wonder what the world missed out on when Len died. It certainly wouldn’t have been 22 years between titles.
