Yesterday we looked at Len Bias vs. David Robinson in 1985, two very memorable players for very different reasons: Navy’s Robinson grew six inches in college and emerged as a superb, Hall of Fame center who won multiple championships while Maryland’s Bias of course died the night he was drafted by the Boston Celtics of acute cocaine intoxication.
As far as basketball heartbreaks go, the only things that approach it were Hank Gathers, who died on the court, and Maurice Stokes, whose injury led to paralysis and an early death. Reggie Lewis is in this discussion too.
But no one was as shocking as Bias who appeared, even just out of his teens, to be an all-time great.