Len Bias — The NBA Superstar Who Died Two Days After Being Drafted

#NOLAZINE - For many basketball fans, Len Bias remains one of the biggest “what if?” stories in sports history.

On June 17, 1986, the defending NBA champion Boston Celtics selected University of Maryland superstar Len Bias with the No. 2 overall pick in the NBA Draft. He was 22 years old, 6-foot-8, explosive, athletic and viewed as a potential NBA star. NBA

Two days later, Len Bias was dead.

A Superstar Headed to the NBA

Bias had developed into one of the most celebrated players in college basketball at Maryland. His combination of size, strength, leaping ability and scoring made him a tantalizing NBA prospect.

The situation he was entering made his future even more exciting. Boston had just won the 1986 NBA championship and already featured Larry Bird, Kevin McHale and Robert Parish. Instead of a typical No. 2 pick joining a rebuilding franchise, Bias was preparing to join a championship team. NBA.com

The possibilities seemed enormous.

Then everything changed.

What Happened After the Draft?

After being selected, Bias traveled to Boston and met with the Celtics. He returned to the Washington, D.C., area and eventually went back to the University of Maryland campus.

During the early morning hours of June 19, 1986, Bias collapsed inside his dormitory suite. Emergency personnel desperately attempted to revive him, but he never regained consciousness. He was pronounced dead at a nearby hospital. The Washington Post

He had been an NBA draft pick for barely two days.

The Maryland medical examiner subsequently determined that Bias died from cocaine intoxication, which disrupted the electrical activity controlling his heartbeat and led to seizures and cardiac arrest. The Washington Post

The Celtics Lost Their Future Before It Began

The timing made the tragedy almost unimaginable.

Boston wasn't drafting Bias merely hoping he could become good someday. The Celtics were already champions and had landed one of college basketball's premier prospects.

Bias never attended an NBA training camp.

He never played in a preseason game.

He never stepped onto an NBA court.

His professional career ended before it could officially begin.

That created a basketball question that remains impossible to answer:

How great could Len Bias have become?

Mike Krzyzewski later placed Bias among the greatest ACC players he had seen, alongside Michael Jordan. Some observers believed that adding a player with Bias' potential to Boston's championship core could have helped extend the Celtics' dominance. NBA.com

Of course, nobody can know what Bias would actually have accomplished in the NBA. That's precisely what makes the story so haunting.

His Death Became Bigger Than Basketball

Bias' death quickly became a national story about cocaine and drug use.

The circumstances surrounding his final hours triggered a grand-jury investigation, while his death became part of a much larger American conversation about drugs during the 1980s. The Washington Post

It also permanently changed how millions of people remembered the 1986 NBA Draft.

What should have been the beginning of a young superstar's professional career instead became one of the darkest moments in basketball history.

The Len Bias “What If?”

Nearly every generation of sports has players whose careers were shortened by injury or tragedy, but Len Bias' story is different.

We never got to see the NBA version of him at all.

He went from celebrating being the second player selected in the NBA Draft to losing his life only two days later.

The Celtics thought they had acquired another potential superstar who could eventually help carry the franchise into its next era.

Basketball fans were preparing to discover just how good Len Bias could become.

They never got the chance.

And almost four decades later, Len Bias remains one of the greatest unanswered “what if?” questions in NBA history.