18 Burst results for "Len Bias"
Book of Basketball 2.0
"len bias" Discussed on Book of Basketball 2.0
"It. Don't throw in the towel and that's one of the things that lend did. I believed that my two sons were to seen. That went down into the ground and be is later. You and i are talking. It's unbelievable it's hard to imagine her son lend today in twenty twenty one. He would be fifty seven years old. You would still be tall still broad-shouldered beyond that we don't know maybe he would have children. Maybe even grandchildren maybe he would have a few nba championship rings. If you believe the people who saw him play he would definitely have a boston. The hall of fame. Maybe we'd be talking about him as a to michael jordan or maybe james worthy or maybe something in between he would have his mother and he would have his old teammates and he would have decades of new experiences new relationships and new memories. Life can take you to some strange places. But it's nice to imagine that all of those bonds would have remained strong and it's easy to imagine how he would have been embraced by those who never got to know him by his teammates in boston by celtics fans by arenas all across the country filled with people experiencing his magnetic talent for the first time. But we don't know we don't know any of it So here's a moment. We do know a moment. Many saw live and that many more can see now if they go hunting for the right clip online. It's june seventeenth nineteen eighty six lynyrd. Kevin bias is sitting at madison square garden. Waiting he's wearing a cream colored suit slim-fitting with a white pressure and black tie his father's with them. So is this friend. John salley his mother and his siblings are all back home in maryland watching him on tv. David stern causes name. The boston celtics select len bias. At university of maryland he stands and he smiles. He walks onto the stage and shakes the commissioners hand. He's been drafted by a team. He'll never play for. He's sending a jolt of excitement through a city that will never get to know and love him as they should right then. He looks happy after leaving the stage. He sits down for an interview. He fidgets with boston celtics cap and his hands throughout the night both before and after he's picked by the answers questions about the future about his new team about his new role about who he can become so i just go out and play the best. I can never give up. I always wanted to be the best and always play from my mom and dad. Because that's eight. If i play good here and maybe give me too. Well wanna go. I can take care of of my fellow citizens and bravo's you What if the len bias story is written and reported by me jordan. Ritter con.
Book of Basketball 2.0
"len bias" Discussed on Book of Basketball 2.0
"Look different if bias and lived. I've always said. I don't know like i say again. If the narrative by michael jordan would have been the same if len bias was because that would have kept the boston celtics. Rain move it. I'll put it this way. Michael jordan going against the boston celtics got the pitcher him. Dribble the ball between his legs. Doing all this stuff and then shooting going after the library and it was like the high flying. That was great. But the deal is len. Bias doesn't die. Nike would have had split that money. They would have to think of another way of designing what they were doing. Because len buys was a force on easy would've with no question like step in and play. So i i just think that would have been so big for the bill. Despite would've change the mentality of what the nba was trying to sell june nineteenth. Twenty twenty one marked the thirty five year anniversary of linda's death thirty five years later and bias still conjures these memories for those who watched him played with them and loved him thirty five years later and his place in our collective cultural memory remains fixed. Personally i was born about eighteen months before bias died. I have no memory of watching him play. But i can't remember a time when i didn't know who he was. We'll never know who buys could have become his life and his death. He's become an object of fascination and a source of incredible grief. He's become someone whose name is known everywhere for how he died for what has lost meant and for who he was. During the twenty two years he lived the entire time. I've worked on this project. Something when east. Baya said has stuck with me. I really didn't know who was until he died. She knew as her son. She knew she loved him but she didn't know what he meant to people for. So many of the people in this story biases memory has followed them everywhere in the year. Sense kief gatlin is now an assistant coach at high point university. He finds himself talking about bias with young players. Sometimes trying to make sure they understand who is friend and teammate. Was i think the perception when you talk to your kids live is is that i saw you to. He's a great player. He doubted drugs. Does what all young kids say. You know what happened. How good was whatever. And and i'll tell them all the time well. Youtube clip is nothing. You got really see his full body of work as the years. Pass the number of people who really saw him get smaller bit by bit.
Book of Basketball 2.0
"len bias" Discussed on Book of Basketball 2.0
"Never had for the star that they're never going to see blossom in maryland. The community lost someone they loved. Someone they'd watched grow up someone who represented the very best of their home state in boston. The loss of lynn bias felt like the loss of possibility. I don't think it was hyperbole to say that len bias was going to be something special. Now you never know until they get out there and play but he had all the tools to be a great player for a long time and he was going to be the bridge between the big three and the next group. That's the idea. So many people point to biases a generational bridge. The celtics were the league's best team. Yes but in hindsight their greatness was fragile. Bill walton was thirty four years old. Robert parish was thirty. Three bird and maceio were still firmly in their prime but both dealt with nagging injuries. Biased could've lessen their load a little bit. Maybe he'd come off the bench at first but he had the talent to make sure the celtics barely missed a beat when bird or maceio arresting and eventually those guys aged vice would have taken the reins. That's how eight imagined it. He would have been worshipped in boston. And the reason. I feel that way because a kid couldn't have been coming into a more perfect situation for himself. He was coming into a situation where he could have been a player that played with three hall of famers and he'd been number of fourth guy. But i can easily see lynn playing with kevin and larry in the front court as a small forward or larry the small forward at lynn plan. The power kevin playing center. I just think his athleticism and enthusiasm and energy would have been the exactly what our team would need it but instead those celtics never won a title again and it happened almost immediately. You know they raise the banner. They start playing eighty six eighty seven. Of course the celtics have a great year but walton never really plays again birds. Having seal problems and elbow. Problems and paris has a sprained ankle and then of course they get to the finals somehow. Even with all these injuries the celtics got back to the finals in nineteen eighty seven but there they lost again to magic johnson in the lakers. And.
Book of Basketball 2.0
"len bias" Discussed on Book of Basketball 2.0
"So in an was in one thousand nine hundred eighty five. I was playing golf down by the cave. It was summer when danny ainge. I laid eyes on the man who could change the fate of his franchise. Angels the boston celtics starting shooting guard. He was early in his career finding a role on a team packed with talent. The celtics had just come off a loss to the lakers in the one thousand nine hundred eighty five. Nba finals abbas is stopping by marshfield. On my way back where red used to have this summer camps red auerbach. He's one of the great coaches in. Nba history his celtics teams won nine championships between nineteen fifty seven and nineteen sixty. Six in the eighties. He'd moved from. The celtics sideline to the front office in every summer. He hosted these camps where he invited a bunch of college. Stars wasn't really feeling like i wanted to play with the campers. I was basically going to stop by and say hi to read so he gets there. The some of the late round draft picks that were air and some of the campers and local college kids and lynn bias was there. I mean my gosh. It was like there was nobody else in the gym from my perspective. I couldn't tell you any any of the other players there. It was just slim bias. And i was watching him. Play afterwards buys went back to maryland. He was still months away from his famous game against north carolina. Still yet to reach the full peak of his stardom age went back to boston where he and his teammates would put together. One of the best seasons in nba history going sixty seven and fifteen and beating the houston rockets in six games to win the title but that season even while the celtics were focused on the task at hand bias loomed in the background. Boston made a trade the year before sending gerald henderson to seattle for a first round. Pick in the nineteen eighty. Six draft in seattle was bad. So boston was in the rare position of being an elite team with a high lottery. Pick as we started talking as it became clear that we were probably get entrapped len bias. You know it was just okay. So he's going to be a kid that comes in and comes off the bench. And he'll be able to prolong the celtics dynasty for another decade from the wringer podcast network. This is what if the lynn bias story. I'm your host jordan ritter when we debate the greatest nba teams of all time. A few usual suspects tend to come off their the.
Book of Basketball 2.0
"len bias" Discussed on Book of Basketball 2.0
"He still thinks about his own lost basketball dreams. He had some serious talent. And even though the knicks gave him a tryout after he got out of prison at thirty one years old he never got to play competitively again but mostly he feels grateful for the people who fought on his behalf. Curry knows that his situation was unique yet. Senators on his side. He got a presidential pardon but there have been and continue to be so many others serving similar sentences who never had access to those resources according to the sentencing project an advocacy group working toward decarbonisation. In twenty sixteen fifty five percent of the federal prison population was serving under a mandatory minimum sentence. When you get out there still who knows how many people all that locked up also on unjust charges or with these unjust sentences. At least what was that like for you like re knowing that you've got you know probably friends right back in prison. We're still dealing with all that. Yeah it was tough. And i never forgot them and so you know when i got home. I spoke up on capitol hill about injustice and always mentioned that. It's a whole lot of direct current left behind that you all have on the fan and think about to just one per. Yeah if thou- like me and the mandatory minimums they're still on the books when you think about those laws what comes up. Is it anger. is it hurt. It used to be anger and it went from anger to her cooking. Like wow you know you look at your own government. If you can't trust the government who can you trust next time on the finale of what if the lynn bias story as it became clear that we were probably to trap in bias. You know it was just okay. So he's going to be a kid that comes in and comes off the bench and you'll be able to prolong the celtics dynasty for another decade. I don't think it was hyperbole to say that len bias was going to be something special. He had all the tools to be a great player for a long time and he was going to be the bridge. He has the endorsement of the only people that matter like. If you're you weren't sure will read. And larry just told you what they think so you think something different will then do what about assault you. Life is hard. Everybody's trying to make it. But i just try to let people know yes. I went through in my family. Went through but guess what you can make it. Don't throw in the towel and that's one of the things that lend did. What if the wind bias story is written and reported by me jordan. Ritter con.
Book of Basketball 2.0
"len bias" Discussed on Book of Basketball 2.0
"Tough the need for elected officials in the congress to put on the mantle of toughness is very very important. So there's this constant ratcheting up. The senate passed the bill in october. Reagan signed it into law later that month about a week before the midterms and as for tip o'neill strategy to inch the democrats back toward power. It worked they took back the senate. They built on their advantage in the house. In addition to the federal legislation a number of states put very different but also incredibly harsh laws on the books. Many of them are known as lynn. Bias is law so these len bias laws are commonly state laws which provide if you're a drug dealer and somebody dies from the drugs that you sold. You're going to be prosecuted with murder. You have delivered the fatal instrument that has killed someone. That's right in about twenty states you can be charged with murder for selling or even giving someone deadly drugs and there are prosecutors who style themselves as tough on crime around the country who make quite a spectacle if not an obsession about sort of trying to do this and it's become in the tragedy the opioid epidemic even more widespread if selling an ob wait contaminated with sentinel in somebody dies a want to prosecute the person who sold the drugs for murder as well so i understand the desire for vengeance and so the question is what behavior might deter well on the deterrence part. It doesn't deter anything. We'll be right back when these laws were passed. Derek currie barely paid attention to them was still in high school. He was still mourning by his death but he would. Experience the full impact of these laws. Just a few years later in nineteen ninety after high school curry went to kansas to play junior college basketball but during a break from school he was back home in maryland there. He spent a lot of time hanging out with another good friend named norman normal drugged oh i mean i knew what he did you know but he never really brought it around meal anything like that and yeah. I was naive. I never been in trouble for never. Did anything legal my thing was. I'm not doing. So why am i going to get in trouble to curry. Norman was a friend from the neighborhood. Do he admits that he occasionally let himself linger a little. Too close to norman's business. I will say i was probably honestly.
Book of Basketball 2.0
"len bias" Discussed on Book of Basketball 2.0
"Wore on drugs. Had begun under nixon and nearly seventy s but it was starting to gain new momentum under reagan. Almost all of it centering around crack and then. On june nineteenth lynn bias died of cocaine intoxication. Not crack powder and yet all the tenders. They're all fuels there. People are ready to try to wrestle with this and then pour len buys his death. I mean you know. It's a stereotype or cliche. But that's the match and fire just booze bet. July first lady. Nancy reagan wrote an op. Ed for the washington post framed around by his death and warning about the dangers of drugs. It's too late to save len bias. She wrote but it's not too late to save the young kids who idolized him. For their sake. I implore you to be unyielding and inflexible in your opposition to drugs biases. Death was a major factor in contributing to the panic around cocaine but other stories had made a big impact in the preceding years in nineteen eighty. Richard pryor famously set himself on fire while freebasing coke in nineteen eighty five eleven members of the pittsburgh pirates were suspended for using the drug so as mlb all star pitcher steve. How in nineteen eighty six another athlete cleveland. Browns safety dan rogers died of a coke induced heart attack. In eighty-five public polling shows that the number of americans who saw drug abuse is the nation's biggest problem hovered around just three percent by august. Eighty six that number had quadrupled a few years later it would reach as high as sixty four percent. At the time eric sterling was working as assistant counsel to the crime subcommittee and the us house of representatives under new jersey. Congressman william hughes. Sterling's job involved working with house members to craft legislation setup hearings negotiate with senate staffers and try to move forward bills related to crime in america. When len bias died my boss came to me and said the speaker. It has decided. You know we're going to go ahead on big anticrime anti-drug bill. The speaker was tip. O'neill he was from boston. So he followed the story surrounding bias especially closely and with the nineteen eighty-six midterms approaching. He was looking for an issue that the democrats could hammer in the build up to election. Day and o'neill in eighty six watches onto the death of bias as the political. Never that the drug issue can be the basis for the democrats to take the senate back. When o'neill called for this bill. After the july fourth recess. He asked to get it done in. Just four weeks and really. The republicans weren't fighting against them. It was like the two parties were competing with each other to see who could be the harshest and punishing the use and sale of drugs. Here's david farber again. There's essentially no one opposing the idea of doing something. Incredibly harsh about drug use and drug sales in the united states conservatives liberals black politicians white politicians. They're all on board and when that happens in washington. Dc a.
Book of Basketball 2.0
"len bias" Discussed on Book of Basketball 2.0
"I'll go to summer school and make it up which he did. This is true. Remember reason bias was on campus the night before he died was because he was enrolled in summer. School it's hard to imagine this happening now for the number two. Pick to still be taking classes. But that's what he was doing. And yet molly says it was hard not to be struck by what slaughters investigation turned up. I'm very cynical about college. Athletes being student athletes. And i think that maryland is not alone in this at all but it brought to light at maryland a lax atmosphere where the kids weren't going to class so the question mccain if the athletics department wasn't making sure players went to class then what else were they miss it so the whole atmosphere of well. Yeah how could drugs have gotten into the basketball team. It became clear that well he'd lots of things happen with these basketball players. Just like every other student on campus when they're away from their parental controls they get out of control. Sometimes during the academic investigation left told the washington post quote if a player don't graduate that's on him in lefties defiance slaughter thought. He saw something deeper in the book. Linney lefty and the chancellor by c fraser smith slaughter says quote. I concluded that he did not have the respect for the players that would be needed if they were to succeed in life not at basketball but in life while the grand jury investigation ended with no indictment on august twenty seventh. The university investigations continued. The man was a legend at maryland. He taken the program places. It never knew it could reach but now left. He started to wonder if he could keep his job. I admit with him in his office and he asked me you. he's a doctor. Slaughter amount on your coach and i said Made the decision pouliot. Is you know. I'm still investigating the situation. So he said to me at that time. Then you can't fire me. And that was the challenge that i could not go by. Why did you feel that. That was a challenge. You could not let go by did not like that response. You can't fire me. He was challenging mile authority to make the right. Decision was long after that i decided to go. Technically slaughter didn't fire lefty but he did push him out. That october lefty resigned and for slaughter. This was a risky decision. He had so much support from fans left. It was loathed by maryland fans. And i think he felt he had enough supporters that he he did not need to be concerned about reflected on the farm. I think that was basis for statement. You can't fire me for lefty. This was incredibly painful at a press conference announcing his resignation he said quote. It is obvious that the administration wants to make a coaching change. And i do not want to coach. If i am not wanted unless pay for down to the left you pay for. I don't know. I don't know what should happen. Here's mike wilpon. And i'm glad i couldn't understand the three hundred sixty degrees of twenty seven years old and a lot of people will say they did understand that they're line. They didn't understand that either. We made up the rules as we went and people feel so bad about.
Book of Basketball 2.0
"len bias" Discussed on Book of Basketball 2.0
"Are case. So maryland was not a hotbed of trucks but slaughter filled. The teams academic performance was not satisfactory. Academic committee showed the we needed to strengthen our academic academic requirements for arrest leagues. This left the maryland players. Already wracked with grief moving through the world under a microscope. Here's derek lewis. You don't want to go anywhere because it was somebody's gonna be waiting for you. They could just just like you and then suddenly tape the quarter neighborhood. Save united asking a question so that was great name. We want you know we were going. We want we want men yet or growing young man. We're still who still you know. Young guys slaughter may have been feeling pressure from the media and the public but he was already skeptical of the culture surrounding big time college athletics. I was very concerned about. The athletics was superseding. The academic mission was the big time schools. We're placing athlete. I we'd following the practice. We're just preparing. These young men and women were professional career in the wake of the academic investigation. The school set aside three hundred fifty thousand dollars to hire a psychologist and eighty four tutors to work with student. Athletes bias was twenty one credit short of graduation when he died and the press made. This seem like a really big deal. A chicago tribune columnist wrote quote. When bias died everyone found out he really wasn't a student at all. Lefty still bristles at the criticism of players academic performance for him. It just meant bias with serious about basketball but that he was still on track. Academically is last semester. Okay he was playing so we miss some classes. Probably about playing being on trip to caesar was over the celtics. Everybody wanted him to try out right so he went to six or eight try camps which would take a lot of his class time right so he very seldom went to class. Why did he have to spend time thinking about class his last semester. Because he knew he was going to be a multi multimillionaire right..
Book of Basketball 2.0
"len bias" Discussed on Book of Basketball 2.0
"Are case. So maryland was not a hotbed of trucks but slaughter filled. The teams academic performance was not satisfactory. Academic committee showed the we needed to strengthen our academic academic requirements for arrest leagues. This left the maryland players. Already wracked with grief moving through the world under a microscope. Here's derek lewis. You don't want to go anywhere because it was somebody's gonna be waiting for you. They could just just like you and then suddenly tape the quarter neighborhood. Save united asking a question so that was great name. We want you know we were going. We want we want men yet or growing young man. We're still who still you know. Young guys slaughter may have been feeling pressure from the media and the public but he was already skeptical of the culture surrounding big time college athletics. I was very concerned about. The athletics was superseding. The academic mission was the big time schools. We're placing athlete. I we'd following the practice. We're just preparing. These young men and women were professional career in the wake of the academic investigation. The school set aside three hundred fifty thousand dollars to hire a psychologist and eighty four tutors to work with student. Athletes bias was twenty one credit short of graduation when he died and the press made. This seem like a really big deal. A chicago tribune columnist wrote quote. When bias died everyone found out he really wasn't a student at all. Lefty still bristles at the criticism of players academic performance for him. It just meant bias with serious about basketball but that he was still on track. Academically is last semester. Okay he was playing so we miss some classes. Probably about playing being on trip to caesar was over the celtics. Everybody wanted him to try out right so he went to six or eight try camps which would take a lot of his class time right so he very seldom went to class. Why did he have to spend time thinking about class his last semester. Because he knew he was going to be a multi multimillionaire right..
Book of Basketball 2.0
"len bias" Discussed on Book of Basketball 2.0
"Not the case. What i don't like about talking about this do you anybody else. I never i loved leonard buys if i thought thought he was on drugs outta kicked off the team and the hell you. I remember some thirty five years ago. Sure sure even if i did. I wasn't telling him to try hide. What killed leonard again. The grand jury chose not to indict lefty. But that same summer the university started its own investigations to say that for the next four to five months did nothing but deal with after-effects we'll invoices death slaughter needed answers. His most famous student had died after using incredibly pure cocaine right there and an on campus dorm. Everyone needed answers. So he two committees and launched two investigations one into drug use on campus and another into the academic performance of student athletes. Now the academic performance of basketball players doesn't have anything to do with a cocaine related death to be honest looking back thirty five years later. The idea seems kind of ridiculous but at the time with all of the media coverage swirling around the program certain details captured public attention particularly the news that bias like many other. Nba prospects had stopped going to class in the spring of his senior year. As well as the fact that other players weren't on track to graduate this made the basketball program seemed to many like it existed only to compete not to educate accusation was throughout the press and a lot of people in the public s- accusing the university of being a place. Where drugs.
Book of Basketball 2.0
"len bias" Discussed on Book of Basketball 2.0
"And they did as we've established biased captured. The affection of everyone on maryland's campus that included the chancellor john b slaughter an electrical engineer by trade slaughter had been appointed by president. Jimmy carter is the director of the national science foundation before being lured out of government to take the job at maryland in nineteen eighty two. He was the first black chance there in the schools. History and one of the only black people in america to hold the highest office and institution of maryland size as chancellor he came to know and care for len bias. Wonderful smile he was always seem very calm and considerate use. A gentleman had agreed sense of humor. He also has committed to forty was he was doing. Slaughter also had a really good relationship with lefty. at least to start came to maryland. He was very warm toward me considered less dear friend. When bias was a senior kief gatlin was in his junior year. As the team's point guard. Gatlin says lefties power as a coach. Didn't just stop at the recruitment process back. Then gallon says. Most coaches rain their programs with an iron fist. The power structure was clear but he thought lefty was different. I think left. He was ahead of his time because he connected with us so when he had to bring the hammer down whatever we knew it was coming from a good place because he already connected with this players may have with lefty but he could be obstinate. Ornery kind of jackass at times. Especially when dealing with the media as molly dunham glassman recalls. What was left lefty like to cover. Well i don't know you know left. He's very complicated guy. I always got along with him. We had our moments. He certainly was not a feminist and he was not happy to see women on the beat. Really and what did how did he express that well he would couple of my predecessors he would them in post game press.
Book of Basketball 2.0
"len bias" Discussed on Book of Basketball 2.0
"Had to ask them to stop practicing. Otherwise the other guys couldn't get better. We're used to star players understandably not taking practice seriously to save their energy for games but bias was practicing too hard dominated practices in fact the only thing that he was good. Good we every coach. I think rug suicide sprint up. The free throw line and back in half court bag of the free to live back baseline back and he won every it was the fastest player. We with bias. Emerging as a star lefty had turn maryland into one of the most exciting programs in the country and left. He developed a deep fondness for his most talented player. Van pelt tells another emblematic story by favorite lefty and leonard story keep data and shared with me their plan at nc state. They weren't yellow jerseys. At halftime paint in the jersey was coming out of it because he was sweating so much and there's like yellow paint coming down his arm and at halftime lefty screaming at the team. Look limited linnet is a warrior gave the ball to linnet and they gave. The bottle entered the second half they beat. Nc state down in raleigh. But it was. I love it. Because i can picture lefty pointing to this greek god of a man with the sweat in the paint of his jersey coming down his perfectly chisel arms like was he a great coach he knew to tell the give the.
Book of Basketball 2.0
"len bias" Discussed on Book of Basketball 2.0
"The top five and seventy four winning the acc regular season titles and seventy five and eight. He recruited at incredibly high level. That's what left. He was known for convincing top prospects to come to college. Park van pelt homey a famous story about lefty recruiting. Tom mcmillan a future. Olympian and congressman. Belot said very bright guy around north carolina's got more volumes in the library and left them. If you read all the books that our library. I'll get you some more books in the early eighties left. He turned on the charm with lynn. Bias a good recruit if not yet a phenom biased would become the best player left. He ever coached and when the public was grieving his death when the media and the university administration and the justice system all found themselves searching for answers their attention turned to the same man who had convinced by us to become a terrapin. The man who had become an icon in maryland. They turn their eyes to lefty drizzle from the ringer podcast network. This is what if the lynn bias story. i'm your host jordan ritter con left. He remembers the first time he saw bias. Play came by basketball camp from the time he was about didn't ninth grade. I guess maybe eight. So i knew what i saw in cam play so.
This Day In Esoteric Political History
"len bias" Discussed on This Day In Esoteric Political History
"Justice for them to adam. Final final thought here. Yeah i think it's a great point nicole. About how complicated it is i. It's funny and i know it's the it's the show that everyone mentions when you talk about the war on drugs but i'm re watching the wire right now. I haven't seen it since it came out and it's just striking really beyond even the war on drugs. How much it reads like a a road map for how america went wrong. See the collision of just shameless careerism joking the stats racism income inequality in. It's all in there and it's so complicated yet. The answers in some way are simple which is just start doing the right thing. One step after another which which hopefully will will get on that path. All right well we will leave it. There adam. Mckay thank you so much for doing this. And congratulations again on making a great series of the thank you guys. Thanks for having me my pleasure and nicole hammer. Thanks to you as always thank you. Jody and calico jackson. Thanks to you. My pleasure this day in political history is a proud member of radio. Tovia from pr axe network of independent listener supported artists on podcast and we are of course in in the middle of our spring fundraiser for radio. Tovia a thank you to everyone who has donated for those of us. Waiting to become members now. Is the time go ahead and become a recurring member and let us know we will let you see the big list of ideas that we used to put together this show each and every week. A researcher and producer is jacob feldman. Our producer is britney brown. You can get in touch with any questions or comments ideas for the show. Email us this day pod at gmail.com. You can also find a form at this day. Pod dot com where you can find out lots more information about the show my name. Is jody adver again..
This Day In Esoteric Political History
"len bias" Discussed on This Day In Esoteric Political History
"Was talking about it. It was covered everywhere. I think it's like sitting with that personal tragedy for a moment before we get into the politics of it all because here was this young man who had just been drafted into the nba. He was finally going to be able to build a career and a life and generational wealth in this new role And just a few days later. He died in this tragedy. And it really is a heartbreaking story just on a personal level and in addition to everything else the other thing that's lost a little bit with it is now we're used to hearing sadly were used to your stories especially after the opioid epidemic about people dying from drugs. It's actually fairly common Half a million people by some estimates since the soccer family unleashed a mobile ads our country. So now we're kind of used to it at that time it wasn't that calming you had john. Belushi was the big one that we had heard who had died from cocaine and heroin a few years before that and so this was kind of a new thing When we heard that he had died from cocaine it hit all of us little strange. We i grew up in a relatively Working class community so none of us can ever afford cocaine. We were pretty much kegs of beer. And maybe a little bit of marijuana so So we know encounters with cocaine at that time and It was really about. That was a big part of it as well was the tragedy the real sadness for his family and by all accounts not that it would make a huge difference but by all accounts. Len bias is a wonderful guy beloved by his teammates. A shining light out of the university of maryland. So yeah you had like triple tragedy and shot going on here. You had a wounded family. You had a whole community that have placed their hopes on him not to mention a massive national at that point burgeoning international fan base. There was crushed by this. Yeah it was. It was really a can't overstate what. What a huge shocked and tragedy. It was. I mean. I think so much about the aftermath of the death as well because when we think about the completion between cocaine and crack and this being you know a huge moment in explodes in the in the crack error and him being pinned to that in the racial dynamics of this like the the aftermath of his death also i think robs him of a lot as well because tickets completely stigmatized in a way that all of that you know hero worship comes down to you like this. Oh like you know. He did drugs. You know. all the sudden everyone becomes unworthy when they're addicted to drugs and out of control and you know it's worth clarifying. There's far as we know limbaugh took regular old cocaine which you know as adema sort of saying we're sort of through the seventies at least a party drug for relatively reach white people and the way that this story metastases into this idea that. Oh here's this young black man and he did crap within the rumors that came out. I mean adam. Can you talk about why this tragedy and the rumors around it sort of perfectly. Just zipped into this growing tidal wave of a moral and political hanoch around crack cocaine and i could speak to it from two perspectives. One is the perspective. I had when i lived through the events seeing it from a distance from very very far away and then the other one is what we now know after working jody on gut that the wing and in the moment cracked was this exotic strange scary far off Danger to a lot of people and at the same time. We're living through a time in the country where our political wins are changing in a drastic way. Where america's swinging hard to the right wing as a reaction to the reforms of the sixties into the seventies. And what you have is is is kelly's one hundred percent right tragic because you have a lot of politicians and by the way i i'm the democrats in this because the whole country was swinging to the right and tip. O'neill was a big driver of the criminal justice bill that came as a result of len bias. This isn't just republicans. And what do you do if you're a politician who cares about your career and wants to you know sites on off of votes you look for scapegoats and what. Better scapegoat situation. Their than an aggrieved sports fan base mixed with drugs mixed with rates. And that's what you see. Is this just absolutely horrific collision between all of these forces. We talked about this in the last episode. We did about mandela's visit to boston in just a few years later. Nineteen ninety but it is worth saying that. The boston of the story is really important to Because it is the center of the political university for democrats at this point including tip. O'neill speaker of the house is a huge celtics fan. There are reports that he actually wanted to meet with len bias after limbaugh scott drafted so. It's not a coincidence. And it's a huge factor. Hit at this does center in boston. Boston's known as kind of the the white team at this point. So there's a big racial undertone with this. They drafted their first big african american player. And then you mix in the crack you mix in the fearmongering antipathy meal tip o'neill jumps all over. The republicans jumped all over it. And then this nasty rumors starts. St was smoking crack len bias and he was not but it didn't matter at that point then. The media jumped by dan media become deregulated and really was about ratings. Over news. news in the seventies used to be about a steaming awards and breaking scoops and at this point. Now it's about ratings ratings ratings. I mean at this point you have. Cnn as a twenty four hour news network you can have this kind of round the clock coverage that can take advantage of all of the incendiary parts of the story And there were plenty of incendiary things to point to especially once the media started viewing this through the lens of race and transforming cocaine into crack It just has devastating consequences when you think about the difference between crack cocaine. The only difference is water and heat like it's they're not to drastically different chemicals at at play here but i mean it's highly racialized so when they introduced this legislation that's meant to crack down on drugs. There's a couple things at play one. Is that the penalty for the amount of crack that you can have on you. Versus cocaine is like a hundred to one. I mean those. Those consequences are devastating which explode the prison industrial complex but also that democrats are a big part of this black. Political figures are a big part of this. I think the book locking up our own which also plays into this part where there wasn't any room to say but this is a public health crisis. There wasn't any room to sort of look at this with the lens. That we look at opioids. Today it was just jugs are bad if you do them. You're bad if you're if you're if you're black you're really bad you know like your criminal and you don't deserve to.
Book of Basketball 2.0
"len bias" Discussed on Book of Basketball 2.0
"Just goes doesn't so that so myself that i'm pretty good guy. The boston globe legendary journalist. Bob ryan was there. They fly them up immediately for meet the media and schmooze and i was doing radio w. e. in boston. I can still remember him. Sitting down to interview with us in a grey suit on as celtics hat on his father was over here in a quarter beaming. You know it was so sweet was wonderful. And there's one specific moment from that day that really sticks out in bob's mind somewhere in the middle of all this larry bird did say that he was so excited about bias. Coming to he was he was gonna come back early. He was going to connect. It was really excited about happened bias on the team. It was he. He was keeping track of college. Cropping who he was definitely told me that after the presser buys paid a visit to reebok with whom he was finalising shoe contract the sneakers were in their infancy just a few years earlier. Converse had dominated the industry and the seventies everyone was wearing chuck taylors all across the nba. But by the mid eighties. Other brands are trying to compete. Sonny vaccaro a titan of the sneaker industry worked at nike back then he signed michael jordan in nineteen eighty-four he saw an nba star could be far more powerful marketing force than any brand even the iconic shots. Congress was the place to go. There wasn't marketing. He was also and i think that's why michael bill nike. Reinvented the world. Now reebok was trying to get involved and they wanted bias. Everyone wanted bias. Land had a chance to the money was going to be to be new. Got no doubt in my no god in my mind. He was a worthwhile investment. it wasn't just by was a great player. It was something more than that charisma charismatic. In his game he connected to the audience and his game. He wasn't a personality because of other things personality but what he can do on the floor. The car obviously wanted bias to sign with nike but reebok had an advantage. The company was based right there in boston and the waiver car tells it bias agreed to a deal with reebok before nike ever even got the chance to make their own offer. If nike and sunny mccarroll what had bid for len buyers we would have made a bid guy making the bid. The reebok deal was for one point. Six million dollars over five years. Sunny says that if nike you've been given the chance they probably would have arrived at the same number for context nike paid michael jordan. Two point five million for a five-year deal in nineteen eighty-four soon enough nike would come to dominate the industry. But at that moment leeann buys in boston. Saudis would have made re walker player. He would have given reebok a head. Start on everything. We'll be right back. So after the draft len his father and his agent leaf entrace all route across town for a party at reebok's headquarters bias got some swag for himself and his siblings and with that he flew back to maryland. After a brief visit to his childhood home he went to campus to hang out with some friends. One of them was keith. Gatlin we met in episode one maryland. Point guard the man spent years learning. How best to get lynn bias. The basketball and he was by his mate sharing an apartment with him and a couple of other maryland players. Terry long david. Greg gatlin remembers the early days of that summer before the draft. He was in summer. School would also in Excitement but you didn't really know where he was gone so he was just like came to this over so i can finally know wail gone and linney had a puppy that he had got really close to he was just. I can't wait to see where men dog is going after. Bias return from the draft gallon. Saw him briefly back on campus. He got back the night after doing interviews in boston. Oxley like we're talking now. He was excited and all the guys were happy form. Decided and we had a conversation about you. Know you found out where you're going and stuff like that and that was the last conversation that we had all the guys together in the room. It's just anything else. Kinda stand out in your mind. About what what he was like in a moment just relief You know because that's a grueling process for a couple of months somebody saying you can be a west coast among middle east coast. Somebody said they might take this guy in front of you. You might go in front of this guy so just to get confirmation away was going. I saw a lot of relief that he was like shrill norm not going to be too far from the metropolitan area and we'll be in driving distance. My family get their of. They can fly up any time and stuff like that so i saw him as like a sigh of relief that he was really really happy that it was over. Derek lewis another maryland teammate. Remember stopping by to congratulate bias. That night i saw him briefly artist re long. I had to go to some classes. I had class mornings. I didn't see law goes a low graduations and happy for him and and and back at that point of the night was it's comb where they call me a did has gotten here and you know you get around a bunch of guys talking trash and know how many phases shoes you're gonna give me and all that stuff no you when you fly me up and i think it was that conversation..
Podcast Gumbo
National Fluffernutter Day with Zach Davis
"So each week, one of my podcast friends challenged me to find an episode related to one of those days and I'll be releasing it on the actual date occurs. So let's get to it. What is today's National Day? Hi. My Name Is Zach Davis and I would like to know about the national fluffer Nutter Day. The reason I want to know more about this. Is because fluffer nutter was invented in my hometown of Somerville Massachusetts and I'd like to know more about this wonderful product that was invented right where I live. I have to admit Zach. This is one of those days that reminds me there's a national day for everything. Maybe in the future, there will be a national podcast Gumbo. Day. October eighth is national fluffer, Nutter Day. For those people who live on Mars a fluffer nutter is a marshmallow cream and peanut butter sandwich in truth I probably haven't had one since college but as type this, I have a strong urge to buy some fluff the next time I'm at the supermarket. My first recommendation is from the stories and stuff podcast and is the short episode called what the fluff which includes though what the fluff evil that takes place in where Else Union Square in Somerville Massachusetts. At the festival, you'll get the try all different fluff combinations. You also get a tip about trying to fly on a plane with Fluffy Nodar. So today post delicious fluffer Nutter Sandwich pictures on social media using the fluffer nutter day. Hashtag. Today's guests is Zach Davis. Sack host the Ministry of Ideas podcast a small show about the big ideas that shape our world in season two, there's an episode called shifting blame starts off with the tragic story of college basketball great len bias who died shortly after being drafted into the NBA due to a cocaine overdose biases. Death brought about laws to punish people that are responsible for drug related deaths. It then segues into the American criminal system. For Third Recommendation Zach recommends the constant podcast Zach says and I quote. I'd like to recommend the constant episode the fool killer. It's a five part series about the quest to build a submarine and one of the craziest mysteries you'll ever hear about it unquote. For today's extra hot sauce, I just want to let