Len Bias

Len Bias

Bias after being selected in the 1986 NBA Draft.
Personal information
Born	(1963-11-18)November 18, 1963 Landover, Maryland
Died	June 19, 1986(1986-06-19) (aged 22) College Park, Maryland
Nationality	USA
Listed height	6 ft 8 in (2.03 m)
Listed weight	210 lb (95 kg)
Career information
College	Maryland
NBA draft	1986: 2nd overall
Selected by the Boston Celtics
Playing career	1986–1986
Position	Forward
Career highlights and awards
ACC Male Athlete of the Year (1985-86)
Stats at Basketball Reference

Leonard Kevin Bias (November 18, 1963 – June 19, 1986) was an American college basketball player who suffered a fatal cardiac arrhythmia that resulted from a cocaine overdose less than 48 hours after being selected by the Boston Celtics in the 1986 NBA Draft. Bias was the second player selected in the draft, after Brad Daugherty of the Cleveland Cavaliers. Bias was known to his family, friends, teammates, and in the media as "Len" or "Lenny" rather than by his formal name, Leonard.

College career

From Landover, Maryland, Bias attended Northwestern High School in Hyattsville, Maryland, and subsequently the University of Maryland where he became a star player and an All-American. Wearing number 34, he impressed basketball fans with his amazing leaping ability, his physical stature and his ability to create plays. During his college career Bias was considered one of the most dynamic players in the nation. In fact, Bias was rated by some draft publications as the most complete forward ever to come out of college. Bias was one of the first, if not the first player to warrant comparisons to Michael Jordan, even though Jordan himself was only in his second professional season at the time Bias was drafted.

Bias died in a dormitory on the University of Maryland, College Park campus. Later, his death would be featured as part of an anti-drug media campaign. A district court and court of appeals found that Bias was an intravenous drug user.

Death

Less than two days after being selected by the defending champion Celtics as the second overall pick in the 1986 NBA Draft, Bias flew in to Maryland from Boston at around 11:00 p.m., and ate crabs with some teammates and a member of the football team. He left at approximately 2 a.m. on the 19th, drove to an off-campus gathering, which he attended briefly before returning to his dorm at 3:00 a.m. Bias, who consumed large quantities of cocaine at some earlier point, was talking with teammate Terry Long when he collapsed sometime between 6:25 and 6:32. According to Bias' sister (who only had a secondhand account of the story), the player was sitting on a couch and leaned back as though he was going to sleep, but instead began to have a seizure. Bias died of a cardiac arrhythmia, related to the cocaine overdose.

The lawsuit

Len Bias' parents, as executors of his estate, brought suit against three parties in United States District Court. Bias' parents sued the Adidas Shoe Company, Lloyds Insurance Underwriters, and Advantage International (and its employee agent who represented Len Bias), a sports and entertainment agents' firm. These defendants won a grant of summary judgment in District Court. The plaintiffs then filed an appeal to the US Court of Appeals. The Court of Appeals' decision was reported in Bias v. Advantage International, Inc., et.al., (905 F.2d 1558, 1990).

The original suit claimed: (1) that Bias’ estate was owed a $1 million contract signing bonus that it was alleged Adidas entered into with Bias on the afternoon of his death at the signing ceremony where he also signed his rookie contract with the Boston Celtics Basketball Club; (2) that Bias’ parents were directly owed a similar amount as the beneficiaries on a “Jumbo” comprehensive liability policy that they had purchased from Lloyds Insurance (paying the initial annual premium in full) one year earlier; and (3) that Advantage International (by and through their agent - employee) had failed in their duty to their client (Bias) to obtain a life insurance policy (also of at least $1 million in value) as the parents asserted that Bias had instructed his agent to do.

In court, the parents failed on each assertion. First, the endorsement contract signed with Adidas was determined and found to contain a “stand pat” clause of 72 hours. Such a clause meant for this contract that the signatory parties agreed to take no direct or indirect actions that relied upon, or to treat as binding the performance terms of the contract, for three (3) days after their signing. In addition, if there were any change(s) to any one of a predetermined set of enumerated conditions during that time (such as the death of a signatory party), the contract would be immediately and automatically terminated. The termination would be without prejudice to any of the parties. It was also determined and found that the contract contained an excess value ratification procedure. This procedure implemented the requirements of the articles of incorporation of the Adidas company. Those requirements stated that any contract signed by the officers or employees of the corporation, on its behalf above a certain dollar value (and Bias’ endorsement contract was above this value); was not to be regarded, relied upon, or treated as binding upon any party, or the corporation; unless, and until, the contract had been formally ratified through an affirmative vote of ratification by the Adidas Board of Directors.

Therefore, at the time of signing, the signatory parties knew that the performance terms of the endorsement contract (e.g., payment of the signing bonus) were not to be considered by Bias or his estate as binding upon Adidas until three (3) days later. The parties also knew at the time of signing, that Bias’ death within the three(3) day stand-still window was one of the enumerated stand-still conditions which would automatically terminate the contract as soon as Bias was pronounced deceased. Thus, being terminated, any subsequent meeting of the company’s Board of Directors to ratify a terminated contract would have been moot. Bias’s parents next thought they could at least collect upon the “Jumbo” liability policy they undertook from Lloyds Underwriters in 1985.

Bias and his family determined not to enter the 1985 NBA draft at the conclusion of his highly regarded junior year at the University of Maryland. Since there was a real financial risk that an injury or other unforeseen event during his senior year could harm or eliminate Bias' chance at a multi-million dollar professional basketball draft offer and signing, his parents on their own obtained a liability policy from Lloyds Underwriters. Bias’ parents hoped that the policy would insure against the chance that during his senior year Bias was injured in such a way that his potential NBA career was harmed or lost.

However, the nature and circumstances of Bias’ death and his personal life style as revealed at trial led to the finding and determination that Lloyds had properly decided that Bias had voided the policy well before his actual death by deliberately engaging in acts of known high risk. At trial persons who knew Bias personally and well testified that he was a well known recreational cocaine user. His parents could not offer any evidence that impeached this testimony.

The parents then argued that Advantage International and its agent had promised to acquire a one million dollar life insurance policy, which they never did. While this was true, it was a moot point because, as Advantage International argued, no insurance policy (especially a million dollar one) would have been granted to a known cocaine user. Furthermore, had Bias' agent and/or Advantage International misrepresented to an insurance underwriter that Bias was not a known cocaine user and he was found to be so in death, it would have been insurance fraud on their part. Such a policy would still have been void. Despite the estate's beneficiaries' claims that Bias was not an habitual, known user, Bias’ teammates, school trainers and others familiar with his habits testified under oath that he was. The estate's beneficiaries failed to offer any impeachment of this testimony either. Therefore, the Court of Appeals dismissed the complaint and affirmed the trial court's motion for summary judgment. Bias' parents appealed this decision all the way to the United States Supreme Court. The Court refused to hear the case and the Appeals decision stands.

The possibility

Len Bias represents to the NBA, and especially to the Celtics organization, one of the greatest "what-ifs" in basketball history. Many considered Bias to be the perfect complement to the Larry Bird-led Celtics, a potential backup for both Bird and Kevin McHale who would have limited their minutes and perhaps in turn extended their careers. Some, including Red Auerbach and Johnny Dawkins, a Duke assistant who was a high school and college contemporary of Bias, believed that the inclusion of Bias could have allowed for the Boston Celtic organization's continued dominance well into the 1990s. Mike Krzyzewski and Dean Smith have both stated that Michael Jordan and Bias were the best players ever to come through the ranks of the ACC.

Jay Bias

On December 11, 1990, Bias's younger brother Jay, a promising high school basketball player, was shot to death in a dispute in the parking lot of Prince George's Plaza, a Hyattsville shopping mall located just miles from the University of Maryland.