The story of Len Bias is never anything but sad. The former number-two overall pick in the 1986 Draft was supposed to revitalize the Boston Celtics at the tail end of Larry Bird and Kevin McHale‘s careers. But it never happened after his cocaine use immediately following the draft caused Bias to pass away due to heart failure.
Now, Chris Washburn, who was the 3rd pick in that draft to Golden State, is saying he was also doing cocaine the same night Bias was.
As Hoopshype.com writes, Washburn planned to meet up with Bias soon after the draft, but never got the chance to:
On the same night of June 18-19, Washburn said he also was doing cocaine. He had remained in New York, and was snorting it at an apartment in the Bronx. He said there were about 10 people with him, including three other NBA players he wouldn’t name.
“I was up the whole night doing drugs,” Washburn said in an interview with HoopsHype. “I look back now and that could have been me. I could easily have been in (Bias’) shoes back then.”
Washburn remembers the next morning speaking at a Police Athletic League event at a New York park. He said it felt odd because “you don’t want to be around police when you’ve been doing drugs all night.”
Soon, though, Washburn received news that really rattled him. He was walking up a New York street when stopped by a stranger.
“Someone recognized me and said, ‘Did you hear about Len?”’ Washburn said. “He told me, and I said, ‘No. Stop lying.’ Then he went and bought a paper and showed it to me… It was on the back of the New York Post (that Bias had died)… I was extremely upset. I had never known anybody at that point in my life who had died so he was the first.”
There’s little doubt the anxiety from that night has stayed with Washburn all these years. Have you ever been driving on the highway when an accident occurs within eyeshot? You start freaking out, the heart thumping, the head shaking and the mouth running. That could’ve been me! It should’ve been me…
Washburn has to feel the same way. While he has gone on to help mentor others so they don’t fall into similar situations, the story is one that he won’t soon forget.
In a strange way, this almost isn’t even a surprise knowing the history of the 1986 NBA Draft class. As Hoopshype.com points out, Washburn was eventually banned from the NBA after two seasons for failing a third drug test. Three of the first seven players taken suffered through rampant drug use with none of them living up to their potential. Not only that, but four players taken in the first three rounds of that seven-round draft have died for various reasons (notably Drazen Petrovic in an automobile accident).
While the NBA seems to have righted the ship since the 1990s after the league supposedly dealt with a number of drug problems through the ’70s and into the ’80s, this is just another reminder of how fragile life can be.
What do you think?
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