Motivational Story - One Mistake Ended a Dream

This week's piece will serve as a reminder that for all the equity an athlete can build up in a season or career, it’s that one ill-timed mistake that can derail his or her Dream in a split second and tarnish a person's name or even ruin their financial earning capabilities.

I bring this to light after reading the news that the late Len Bias was going to be enshrined into the College Basketball Hall of Fame Class of 2021. When I worked with the Washington Capitals NHL team in the early 1980’s, Len was a basketball sensation at nearby University of Maryland. 

In his senior season, he was widely regarded as the best college basketball player in America and a can't-miss talent. A two-time ACC Player-of-the-Year and twice an All-ACC First Team selection. Bias was taken by the then NBA Champion Boston Celtics with the No. 2 overall pick in the 1986 Draft.

Right after the Draft, Bias flew to Boston to meet the Celtics' organization and media members and also to sign one of the richest shoe endorsement contracts (at the time) with Reebok for a reported $3-Million. A day later upon his return back to the Maryland campus, Bias attended a dorm party to celebrate his new-found wealth and died of “cocaine intoxication” that stopped his heart within minutes. All this took place in less than 48 hours. 

Just six days now after seeing his childhood dream come true, Bias was instead laid to rest with more than 11,000 people cramming into his college basketball arena at Maryland where he created his legend to mourn his tragic passing. One of the saddest sights came when the Celtics President & General Manager Red Auerbach would present the Mother of Len Bias with her son’s NBA Jersey that he would never wear all because of One Mistake.

Bias’ story still remains one of the biggest “What If's” in sports history? There are still NBA talent evaluators who wonder if Len would have been as good as or in the same stratosphere as Michael Jordan if he had lived to play? His rookie season would have been only Jordan’s third year playing with the Chicago Bulls in 1986-87.

“He was superman in a basketball uniform,” said Jay Bilas, the college basketball analyst at ESPN and who competed against Bias in all four of his college years while playing at Duke. “I believed he was headed toward Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame status. He would have been, had he played in the NBA.”

The moral of this story: Always be very careful with the company you keep; the time of day and location? You are one cell phone picture away from a PR Nightmare that could cost you a career and lifetime of wealth?

Jim Loria

MOTIVATIONAL QUOTE RELATING TO THIS STORY

“The Reputation of a Thousand Years may be determined by the conduct of One Hour” – Japanese Proverb

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