'Without Bias': Basketball Career Cut Short Still Resonates Today

Len Bias has now been dead longer than he was alive, and yet his life and death don't feel like an old story in Without Bias, the documentary that will debut on ESPN on Tuesday. Instead, the story of Bias, who died of a cocaine overdose at age 22 less than 48 hours after being drafted by the Boston Celtics, feels like something that is still unfolding.

---

---

That's largely because the documentary, directed by Kirk Fraser, relies so heavily on contemporary interviews with the people who knew Bias -- including his mother, father and siblings, and the friend, Brian Tribble, who was with Bias the night he died. Without Bias takes a long view of who Len Bias was and how his shocking death changed America.

And make no mistake, it did change the country: Bias's death was used to justify harsh prison sentences for drug users, as bills known as "Len Bias Laws" were passed in Congress and in many state legislatures. Without Bias suggests that the desire to do something to react to Bias's death resulted in bad public policy.

But while Without Bias is a tragedy, it's also a celebration of an athlete whose career, though far too short, was spectacular. The early part of Without Bias focuses on just how great a player Bias was, and if it starts to feel like overkill when Michael Wilbon mentions comparisons of Bias to Michael Jordan, maybe it shouldn't: Wilbon insists, "For those of us who watched Len Bias night after night, it wasn't unbelievable."

It's heartbreaking to see footage from a 1986 event at which sportscaster James Brown handed Bias a player of the year trophy and told him, "We look forward to seeing you in the pros."

But while Bias surely thought he had a long NBA career ahead of him, he also seemed to know that he was living on borrowed time, talking about the need to live each day like it was his last, and to be thankful for his gifts.

"I think I've been really blessed by the Lord," Bias said in an interview shown early in the film. "I just thank him for all the times that I've had."