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Speaker 1: Yeah, because Gwennolen Brooks was one of the most distinguished

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Speaker 1: poets in the country at the time. And to have

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Speaker 1: that person who represents the pinnacle of you know, of

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Speaker 1: a literary position, have a meeting arguably the best college

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Speaker 1: basketball player in the United States at the time. I mean,

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Speaker 1: that's remarkable, isn't.

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Speaker 2: There were these connections and political connections, cultural connections, social

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Speaker 2: connections that I had no idea about when I was

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Speaker 2: a kid. But once you started digging deeper into them,

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Speaker 2: do you realize that this may have been the most

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Speaker 2: impactful moment modern sports history.

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Speaker 3: He was prepared to be, but.

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Speaker 4: He's one of the more painful what if in.

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Speaker 5: Pop culture history.

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Speaker 6: It's called Home Court. It's a play about an inner

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Speaker 6: city family that's striving to beat the odds, which I

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Speaker 6: should notice not too loosely on the tragedy of of

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Speaker 6: lam bias.

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Speaker 7: Just.

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Speaker 8: Trying to jump to about it.

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Speaker 9: I think it's not just me. I think it's just

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Speaker 9: like lam Bias Post nineteen eighty six overwhelms the narrative

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Speaker 9: of lam bias pre naty, pre overdose, and overwhelms it's

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Speaker 9: so much so that for me him as a basketball player,

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Speaker 9: has to constantly try to compete with his effect of

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Speaker 9: the culture in all of those other ways.

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Speaker 10: In this episode of limb Bias the Mixed Legacy cultural Catalyst,

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Speaker 10: the impact of Bias' legacy on American culture.

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Speaker 1: It must have been in the middle of May, no

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Speaker 1: more than a week or so before the end of term,

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Speaker 1: when I experienced a Len Bias surprise. I know it

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Speaker 1: was nineteen eighty six because I come to the University

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Speaker 1: of Maryland the fall before in order to help start

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Speaker 1: up a Master of Fine Arts program in creative writing.

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Speaker 1: Of course, I knew about the fine reputation of the

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Speaker 1: English department. What I was most familiar with from its

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Speaker 1: national reputation was Maryland's basketball team and its colorful coach,

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Speaker 1: Lefty Drizzel. Once on the Maryland campus, I followed Duzelle's

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Speaker 1: team with special interest. I say Drisell's team, when what

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Speaker 1: I mean is the team of Len Bias, the All

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Speaker 1: America forward who was by acclamation, the best basketball player

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Speaker 1: in the country, A player like the great ones, who

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Speaker 1: could dominate the other team all by himself in any

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Speaker 1: number of ways.

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Speaker 3: Those are the words of Stanley Plumbley, one of the

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Speaker 3: country's prize writers Plumbly arrived in the University of Maryland

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Speaker 3: in nineteen eighty five and started writing program for graduate students.

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Speaker 3: He was Maryland's Poet Laureate from two thousand and nine

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Speaker 3: to twenty eighteen. As a youth, his two obsessions were

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Speaker 3: reading in basketball.

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Speaker 1: I remember thinking that he played like a professional. His

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Speaker 1: skill and size, speed and quickness, grace, and aggressiveness set

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Speaker 1: him apart. Yet for all his talent, he was also

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Speaker 1: a quiet player, no show, voting, no display, all business.

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Speaker 1: He was what might be called a working class player.

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Speaker 3: More worth than Plumbly, but that was not his voice.

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Speaker 3: Plumbly passed away in twenty nineteen. His words were read

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Speaker 3: by Michael Collier, a colleague of Plumbley at Maryland. Collier's

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Speaker 3: creative thoughts were often intertwined with those of Plumbley. For

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Speaker 3: good reason. Colley has started working at Maryland a year

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Speaker 3: before Plumbley. He helped Plumby build the creative writing program

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Speaker 3: for much more than three decades at Maryland. Their officers

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Speaker 3: were adjacent to each other, and Callier was also Maryland's

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Speaker 3: Poet Laureate from two thousand and one to two thousand

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Speaker 3: and four. They talked often about len Bias, his Collier's

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Speaker 3: in his own words.

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Speaker 1: You know, len Bias was on everybody's mind. You know,

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Speaker 1: Stanley was a basketball player. He played basketball, I think

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Speaker 1: in college. When he would come over to my house,

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Speaker 1: we often shot baskets in the driveway because I had

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Speaker 1: a hoop for my sons.

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Speaker 3: Plumbley soft tuss extended to his writings. The words of

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Speaker 3: Plumby read by Calia, first appeared in a forward in

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Speaker 3: the book Born Ready, The Mixed Legacy of len Bias,

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Speaker 3: and it is one example of how the legacy of

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Speaker 3: len Bias is reflected in American culture even today. In

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Speaker 3: this podcast series about the vast and mixed legacy of

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Speaker 3: len Bias, we have explained how its death has impacted

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Speaker 3: society in profoundly different ways. Maryland Athletics, his friends and family,

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Speaker 3: mandatory minimum prison sentences, the Celtics, the NBA, his teammates,

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Speaker 3: his family. In this episode, we examine lens legacy through

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Speaker 3: a cultural lens. We focus on the impact of his

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Speaker 3: legacy on race and social justice, how it influenced music

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Speaker 3: and how it connected to literature, how it was presented

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Speaker 3: in the theater, and how it has even recently been

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Speaker 3: referenced in popular television series. In life, len Bias was

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Speaker 3: a transformative basketball player. In death, He's a cautionary tale,

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Speaker 3: an iconic symbol of poor decision making. Len Bias is

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Speaker 3: also a cultural catalyst. In this episode, Unstorian legacy adjuxtapose

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Speaker 3: with those many important figures in American cultural history, Emmat

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Speaker 3: Till's Terrible Tale and racial injustice, the tragic young death

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Speaker 3: of rapper Biggie Small's, the Black folklore fable of John Henry.

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Speaker 3: His legacy is reflected in the writings of contemporary black culture,

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Speaker 3: included by Reginald Dwayne Betts and Justin Tinseley. The impact

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Speaker 3: of his death is even woven in the storyline of

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Speaker 3: TV series Snowfall, about the drug culture of the eighties.

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Speaker 3: The debut of the show's fifth season in February of

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Speaker 3: twenty twenty two begin with a recreation of Bias collapsing

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Speaker 3: in his Maryland dorm room on the morning of June nineteenth,

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Speaker 3: nineteen eighty six. There are references to Bias and his

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Speaker 3: death in later episodes. For Stanley Plumley, Bias represents both

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Speaker 3: a heroic and tragic figure, and is forward in the

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Speaker 3: book Born Ready, The mixed legacy of Lembias. Plumbley re

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Speaker 3: accounted the day he met Bias while working at Maryland.

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Speaker 3: It was part of an event hosted by his department.

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Speaker 3: Callia picks up the story from there.

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Speaker 1: I was asked by the Dean's Office Arts and Humanities

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Speaker 1: to introduce Gwendolen Brooks, the National Poet Laureate who in

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Speaker 1: nineteen fifty became the first black poet to win the

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Speaker 1: Pulitzer Prize. I remember asking her to read one or

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Speaker 1: two particular favorites of mine, one of which is her

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Speaker 1: signature poem We Real Cool, We Real Cool, We left.

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Speaker 7: School Light Wait stright straight, Wait thing Cima wait, Jim

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Speaker 7: jee Jim wait die.

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Speaker 3: Call you, continues this narration of the forward written by Plumbly.

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Speaker 1: The structure of the event called for the Dean to

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Speaker 1: introduce me, followed by my introduction of Brooks. For a moment,

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Speaker 1: Brooks and I were standing there together when suddenly, from

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Speaker 1: the opposite side of the stage, there arrives a very

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Speaker 1: tall young man bearing a large bouquet of red roses.

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Speaker 1: It was Len Bias, whose presence came at the request

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Speaker 1: of Joyce, and Joyce, a professor of Afro American Literature

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Speaker 1: at Maryland. Bias took Joyce's class in the nineteen eighty

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Speaker 1: three fall semester, and, as Joyce explained it, graciously earned

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Speaker 1: a D grade, despite the fact he missed classes frequently

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Speaker 1: and flunked the two assignments he completed. It was not

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Speaker 1: her policy to flunk athletes. Joyce developed a friendship with

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Speaker 1: Bias and considered him sweet and thoughtful. Joyce arranged the

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Speaker 1: reading by Brooks and asks Bias if he would present

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Speaker 1: Brooks with a bouquet of flowers. She thought Bias's gesture

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Speaker 1: would help show a link between the excellence of black

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Speaker 1: basketball players and black poets and showcase the artistry of both.

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Speaker 1: She had hoped that Bias's participation could translate to increased

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Speaker 1: respect for poetry to the level students respect basketball players.

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Speaker 1: The Maryland basketball banquet was being held at the same

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Speaker 1: time at the Stamp Student Union, about a half mile away,

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Speaker 1: but that did not stop Bias from surprising Brooks and

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Speaker 1: everyone else attending the event. He shakes my hand and

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Speaker 1: then embraces the diminutive Brooks and places the great flowers

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Speaker 1: into her open arms. The audience goes slightly wild. I

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Speaker 1: can see the tears in Brooks's eyes, and everyone can

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Speaker 1: see the smile on len Bias's face. At the reception,

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Speaker 1: we all talked, but who knows what about likely? We

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Speaker 1: talked about the future, notably the future of the basketball star.

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Speaker 3: It is not often a prominent athlete connects with the

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Speaker 3: icon of poetry for such a rare event. That fact

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Speaker 3: was not lost on Klia. He reflected on significance of

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Speaker 3: Bias meeting Brooks.

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Speaker 1: Gwenoln Brooks was one of the most distinguished poets in

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Speaker 1: the country at the time, and she was finishing her

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Speaker 1: stint as a poetry consultant to the Library of Congress,

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Speaker 1: a position that's now known as the US Poet Laureate.

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Speaker 1: And to have that person who represents the pinnacle of

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Speaker 1: you know, of a literary position have a meeting with

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Speaker 1: arguably the best college basketball player in the United States

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Speaker 1: at the time. I mean, that's remarkable, isn't it. That

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Speaker 1: doesn't First of all, athletes and poets don't get together

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Speaker 1: like that in a public way.

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Speaker 5: They really don't.

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Speaker 1: And it meant to me the coming together of two cultures,

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Speaker 1: you know, the literary humanities culture and the student athlete culture.

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Speaker 1: And that doesn't happen in that way in a public

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Speaker 1: way very often, and it seemed clear to me that

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Speaker 1: Len Bias recognized the importance of the moment, and so

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Speaker 1: I also I also thought that that was some very

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Speaker 1: honorable and what you might not expect out of a

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Speaker 1: student athlete.

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Speaker 3: Many years later, call You was compelled to write a

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Speaker 3: poem about Brooks meeting Bias, in the form of something

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Speaker 3: called a golden shovel, a poetic style that pays homage

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Speaker 3: to Brooks by incorporating a line from one of her poems.

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Speaker 1: I chose two lines from the Gwendolyn Brooks poem titled

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Speaker 1: the Last Quatrain of the Ballad of Emmett Till. And

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Speaker 1: we all know who Emmett Till is, a fourteen year

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Speaker 1: old African American young man who was lynched in Money, Mississippi,

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Speaker 1: in nineteen fifty five. These are the lines that I

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Speaker 1: chose for my golden shovel. She kisses her killed boy,

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Speaker 1: and she is sorry.

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Speaker 3: Klia nar rates the poem he wrote about Brooks and Bias.

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Speaker 1: It's called then Bias a bouquet of flowers and ms Brooks.

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Speaker 1: He arrives in the middle of her reading. She has

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Speaker 1: to stop and taking the flowers he's brought, kisses the

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Speaker 1: beautiful young man whose yellow socks are her dowdy sweaters. Antithesis.

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Speaker 1: What said between them is killed by applause, but not

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Speaker 1: his smile, which is the smile of a boy standing

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Speaker 1: in the silence he's created, and not her magnified stare,

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Speaker 1: which says she understands why he's arrived late, he is

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Speaker 1: already leaving, and that he is sorry. It's the only

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Speaker 1: poem I've ever written about an experience I had at

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Speaker 1: the University of Maryland. I've never written about anything that

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Speaker 1: happened at the University of Maryland, and yet when I

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Speaker 1: was given this assignment, this moment immediately came back to

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Speaker 1: me in a really powerful way. And it was a

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Speaker 1: kind of coincidence that I came across these lines in

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Speaker 1: the last quatrain from the ballot of Emmett Till. But

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Speaker 1: they seem to fit perfectly.

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Speaker 3: Call youa sees a connection between bias until that includes

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Speaker 3: a maternal extension.

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Speaker 1: And I think too, there's a kind of congruence not perfect,

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Speaker 1: between Emmett Till and Len Bias. There are definitely connections

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Speaker 1: that you can make between their their deaths, and Mattill

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Speaker 1: was a complete victim of a moment, uh and in

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Speaker 1: a moment defined by American culture, American racist culture. And

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Speaker 1: you know, we're not we're not over that. And len Bias,

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Speaker 1: I think you can say not in that, not in

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Speaker 1: the same way. But he is a kind of of

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Speaker 1: I don't like the word victim, but but I but

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Speaker 1: I see Bias as as a kind of his death

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Speaker 1: as a kind of tragedy that was also a way

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Speaker 1: of reading it into a national tragedy, into narratives American

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Speaker 1: narratives that follow national tragedies after his death. There were

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Speaker 1: so many things that were racialized about it for me,

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Speaker 1: a kind of terrifying poignancy to it.

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Speaker 5: You know.

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Speaker 1: The other thing too, that connects him is the role

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Speaker 1: that that mother's played, their mother's played in their deaths,

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Speaker 1: because Len Bias's mother was and has been very forceful,

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Speaker 1: and of course Emmett Till's mother did that almost unbelievable

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Speaker 1: thing of allowing Emmett to be in an open casket

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Speaker 1: and and also allowing the photographer to come in and

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Speaker 1: and and and take a series of of pictures of

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Speaker 1: him in the autopsy room. But as a way of

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Speaker 1: not allowing his death to go you know, unnoticed that

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Speaker 1: it would, that it could help.

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Speaker 5: People.

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Speaker 1: And what it helped was, you know, directly, someone like

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Speaker 1: Rosa Parks make a decision to stay on, to stay

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Speaker 1: in the seat at the front of the bus rather

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Speaker 1: go to the back. There's a direct connection there. So

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Speaker 1: he his death was not in vain, to use a cliche,

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Speaker 1: and the mother was behind that very eloquently and movingly.

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Speaker 1: One of the things that allowed other people to learn

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Speaker 1: from deaths, let's say not was the mothers. The mothers.

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Speaker 1: It's kind of interesting, huh.

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Speaker 3: Ronald Dealy was inspired to write a song about Bias

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Speaker 3: after he heard the news about his death in nineteen

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Speaker 3: eighty six. He was living in Washington, DC area and

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Speaker 3: was a big fan of Lembias.

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Speaker 8: Often a Marilyn fan for quite three years.

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Speaker 5: I used to live right across.

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Speaker 8: From the campus, a little town called Lekeland.

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Speaker 5: I used to go to the games.

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Speaker 8: Back, you know, when I graduated from high school back

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Speaker 8: in nineteen sixties, three sixty four, somewhere in there, you know,

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Speaker 8: but only went to one of them, Bias and games,

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Speaker 8: you know how popular he was. I just wanted to

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Speaker 8: see him play because I heard a lot about him,

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Speaker 8: you know how good he was, And I told him,

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Speaker 8: my son, let's go up and see, you know how.

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Speaker 5: Great that is.

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Speaker 3: Daily played in a band called the Chang Band in

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Speaker 3: the nineteen sixties and seventies. He also tried songwriting. It

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Speaker 3: took the death of Bias to convince Daly to write

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Speaker 3: a song about him, and for Delhi to finally record

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Speaker 3: a song that he had written. At the time, he

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Speaker 3: was working for an electric company that he partially owned.

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Speaker 8: Yes, I was driving down the road and I was

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Speaker 8: on delivery and I heard the news on the radio

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Speaker 8: about his death, and I just said, this is really

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Speaker 8: really sad. I said, I want to write a song

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Speaker 8: about this guy, you know, I said, because he's so great.

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Speaker 8: I just I just started, you know, singing. I said,

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Speaker 8: by h he was Marilon scuperstar. And it took me

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Speaker 8: about today to really write the song.

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Speaker 11: He was superstar. He wasn't pretty, just one other st

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Speaker 11: this guy.

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Speaker 1: You ever seen.

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Speaker 5: I played it for.

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Speaker 8: I then biased his father for Father's Day, I dedicated

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Speaker 8: to to him, Yeah, for Father's Day.

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Speaker 3: Delhi was living at the time in a town called Bladensburg,

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Speaker 3: about five miles from where Baia's family lived. He sent

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Speaker 3: the producers of this podcast. There is a copy of

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Speaker 3: a picture of him posing with Lindy's Bias and others

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Speaker 3: in the Bias house.

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Speaker 8: At that time, they didn't really know of me, and

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Speaker 8: I wanted to meet the family. That was the first

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Speaker 8: time I met the family, you know, with my kids

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Speaker 8: and my sons, and they were sitting in Letting Biases

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Speaker 8: chair and all that. It was really beautiful, you know,

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Speaker 8: Li Bias told me I was like part of the

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Speaker 8: family tree because of you know, how close that I was,

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Speaker 8: you know, writing this song, and how fast I've done it,

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Speaker 8: you know, in two days, and you know, she got

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Speaker 8: a copy of the song. I wanted some proceeds to

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Speaker 8: go to the Bias family. I didn't want to do

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Speaker 8: that just for myself. I just wanted to do it

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Speaker 8: for the Bias family, which I would like to see

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Speaker 8: a movie downe of Len Bias and you know, use

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Speaker 8: my song as a soundtrack. And this is the purpose

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Speaker 8: of me, you know, going this far with it.

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Speaker 3: You can listen to the song in its entirety at

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Speaker 3: the end of this episode.

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Speaker 5: This is dedicated so the greatest it never was.

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Speaker 3: Other musicians have also memorialized Biased. Some thirty years after

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Speaker 3: his death of Biased, rap artists whose musical name is

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Speaker 3: mc long Shot released a song simply called len Bias.

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Speaker 3: It lasts just under four minutes and it's a part

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Speaker 3: of a three song album called Instant for Eternity. The

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Speaker 3: other two songs on the album about domestic abuse and

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Speaker 3: romantic breakup. It was written and produced by Chad Heaslip.

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Speaker 3: He was born in Chicago South Side. He released his

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Speaker 3: first single in two thousand and two. You've heard clips

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Speaker 3: of the song throughout this podcast series. Now we play

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Speaker 3: for you in its entirety.

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Speaker 5: It's just dedicated.

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Speaker 3: So the greatest it never was.

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Speaker 12: Yeah, so friend or a fly minutes so sad when

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Speaker 12: a young ace in he had it all strong, quick

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Speaker 12: and he was sol They called him Frosty because he

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Speaker 12: was cool. When he fall jump Shot hurt because so

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Speaker 12: pure it be fall, just.

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Speaker 1: The for greatness of loss.

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Speaker 12: Let you know them all other memories remember me. I

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Speaker 12: hope they do the same. As for Lena the best

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Speaker 12: ever it never became. You could try to blame but

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Speaker 12: the fact that he died and with nobody's fault for

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Speaker 12: his own because he tried something and they cried them.

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Speaker 12: But before that he was tears to show he was

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Speaker 12: the boy. You wouldn't doubt that he was gonna make it.

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Speaker 12: That's the number two pick by the Boston substitute. Would

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Speaker 12: have been so sick. Battle Liber Jordan for the scorpron

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Speaker 12: in the East.

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Speaker 5: They did it once.

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Speaker 13: In college.

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Speaker 12: Lenny Fights was the beast from the streets of landover

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Speaker 12: to the A C.

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Speaker 5: C Unanimous all world.

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Speaker 12: He was prepared to be, but they had another player

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Speaker 12: for the brother man. They say, what was to catch

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Speaker 12: me out coming out of Maryland? He's saying proof you

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Speaker 12: can't get too high. At the funeral, his mama ain't cried,

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Speaker 12: and the people said the.

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Speaker 3: Boy on the brind the boy would fly man.

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Speaker 12: It's so sad when the young Grace Dye second shoulder

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Speaker 12: in the game, he made them a name. This the

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Speaker 12: story of the best. It never became, I said the

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Speaker 12: bud and Rim, the boy of a flying man. It's

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Speaker 12: so sad with a young grades Dye second sholder in

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Speaker 12: the game.

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Speaker 5: He made them a name.

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Speaker 12: It's the story of the best.

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Speaker 3: It never became.

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Speaker 12: I guess the lesson that learned is blaming by your

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Speaker 12: get burned when it comes that if everybody get a turn,

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Speaker 12: such a blessing and the curse would limb by slept

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Speaker 12: the earth. He gave the world a wake up, calling

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Speaker 12: its fight a bunch of cherchs with the war on drugs,

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Speaker 12: and like the war wrong Browns with gold chains and beakers.

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Speaker 12: They thought they keep us on the ground and behind Boss.

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Speaker 12: We all should find God and live it to the limit.

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Speaker 12: Because Lynny defied us. Despite the fact that you never

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Speaker 12: saw twenty three, he was the best never saw since

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Speaker 12: twenty three. Then I saw the open wounds, his baby

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Speaker 12: brother saw the tomb, and.

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Speaker 5: That's start of the war.

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Speaker 1: Wrong guns, y'all would assume, But no, they knew.

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Speaker 5: What's all the same.

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Speaker 3: If you shot and you're.

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Speaker 12: Black, you're just a part of the game. But if

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Speaker 12: you shoot and you're black, you're a part of the blame.

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Speaker 12: But in the end, man, they all get paid trying

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Speaker 12: to pay respect to one of the greatest ever never.

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Speaker 3: They see it's like for food for the better.

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Speaker 5: He's starting proof you can't be too dope because in

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Speaker 5: the end and you just might choke.

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Speaker 3: And the people say the boy the bream, the boy

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Speaker 3: would fly.

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Speaker 12: Man, it's so sad when the young Grace die second

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Speaker 12: shoulder the game.

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Speaker 1: He made him a name.

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Speaker 12: This is the story of the best never became, I said.

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Speaker 12: The bove the brim, the boy ever flies man. It's

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Speaker 12: so sad when the young grades die second Sholl in

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Speaker 12: the game.

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Speaker 5: He made him a name. This the story of.

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Speaker 3: The best and never became. I said, this is the

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Speaker 3: story of the best ever.

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Speaker 1: I said, this the story of the blessing never became.

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Speaker 5: I said the bull, the brim, the boy would fly man.

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Speaker 12: It's so sad when the young Grace died, second shroller

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Speaker 12: the game.

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Speaker 5: He made him the name.

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Speaker 3: This story of the best never became.

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Speaker 6: It's called Home Court. It's a play about an inner

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Speaker 6: city family that's striving to beat the odds, which I

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Speaker 6: should notice face not too loosely on the tragedy of Lambias.

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Speaker 6: The play spans eight years of his life, you know,

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Speaker 6: till the time that he makes it to the pros

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Speaker 6: and by the time that he makes it and he

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Speaker 6: goes through drug abuse.

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Speaker 3: That's Brian Gumbel, a former host of The Today Show

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Speaker 3: on NBC. He's talking during the broadcast in nineteen eighty

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Speaker 3: eight with Eugene Key, an actor who plays the character

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Speaker 3: based on Lambias in a play called Home Court. Here's

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Speaker 3: Eugene Key talking again, this time in an interview more

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Speaker 3: than thirty years later.

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Speaker 5: We were trying to portray.

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Speaker 14: The character that's having a lot of pressure being put

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Speaker 14: on it, you know, as being this perfect person. This

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Speaker 14: is what my character a Damien, kind of fell into.

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Speaker 3: The play. Is another example connecting the Bias story to

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Speaker 3: American culture. The format of expression was the theater. Home

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Speaker 3: Court was created by the Creative Arts Team, then a

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Speaker 3: part of the Educational Theater Company in New York University.

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Speaker 3: The team uses theater an interactive drama to address social

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Speaker 3: and academic issues. Jim Maroney, a co founder of the

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Speaker 3: Creative Arts Team, was its playwright in residence. He started

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Speaker 3: developing the play in the summer of nineteen eighty six,

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Speaker 3: shortly after Bias died his Maroney talking after the play

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Speaker 3: was performed in nineteen eighty seven.

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Speaker 15: The phenomenon Crack, which eclipsed in New York City around

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Speaker 15: June of last year, along with the death of then Bias,

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Speaker 15: became an inspiration to develop a play that wasn't a lecture,

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Speaker 15: but it was the best of drama with a message.

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Speaker 3: Here, Maroney during the interview in twenty twenty when Glenn.

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Speaker 16: Died, that was an extraordinary event which caught my attention.

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Speaker 3: The Creative Arts Team still exists today. Since its inception

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Speaker 3: in nineteen seventy four, it has tried to force the

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Speaker 3: creativity and critically engage with the world a focus his

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Speaker 3: youth facing challenges in their lives. His Maroney again in

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Speaker 3: twenty twenty.

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Speaker 16: The majority of our contracts dealt with substance abuse prevention

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Speaker 16: from the city and at risk youth and conflict resolution.

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Speaker 5: This seems to be a very good.

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Speaker 16: Model for what we could do in the schools because

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Speaker 16: every middle school student high school student knew about lend bias,

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Speaker 16: and the play was a natural. The subject matter was

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Speaker 16: a natural for that to happen, and so it just

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Speaker 16: took off like a rocket for our purposes. We couldn't

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Speaker 16: find a better subject matter that would hit it that

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Speaker 16: age group.

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Speaker 3: During his four year run, Home Court appeared in school

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Speaker 3: districts throughout the United States, including New York City Public schools.

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Speaker 3: Also had runs at festivals and in theaters in Seattle, Dallas, Houston,

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Speaker 3: and even in Scotland.

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Speaker 16: We would have wracked up at least twenty five thirty shows,

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Speaker 16: maybe even more forty shows per season.

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Speaker 3: The Today's Show feature created quite a buzz about the

440
00:29:18,320 --> 00:29:21,520
Speaker 3: play and extended the cultural reach of the bias Starry.

441
00:29:22,160 --> 00:29:25,440
Speaker 16: When it was shown on Today's Show, we were inundated

442
00:29:25,840 --> 00:29:26,840
Speaker 16: by requests.

443
00:29:27,160 --> 00:29:31,120
Speaker 17: That's when the league called up to be a part

444
00:29:31,240 --> 00:29:34,160
Speaker 17: of their rookie transition program.

445
00:29:34,200 --> 00:29:37,720
Speaker 3: That's Zach Miner, an executive coach focused on life skills.

446
00:29:38,240 --> 00:29:41,360
Speaker 3: When the Today's Show featured Home Court, Mina was working

447
00:29:41,360 --> 00:29:44,760
Speaker 3: with the creative Arts team. The lead he was referring

448
00:29:44,800 --> 00:29:49,000
Speaker 3: to is the National Basketball Association. Mina help adapt the

449
00:29:49,040 --> 00:29:52,320
Speaker 3: show to have more of an impact on NBA players.

450
00:29:52,760 --> 00:29:57,760
Speaker 17: I know that, unfortunately, the league was developing a bad

451
00:29:57,880 --> 00:30:02,760
Speaker 17: reputation of you know, the celebrities, sex, drugs, and rock

452
00:30:02,800 --> 00:30:06,120
Speaker 17: and roll. You know, when we did that show, it

453
00:30:06,240 --> 00:30:09,880
Speaker 17: had such an impact that they felt that that was

454
00:30:10,040 --> 00:30:14,080
Speaker 17: a very important part of the story to go along

455
00:30:14,120 --> 00:30:17,360
Speaker 17: with how do you become successful? How do you fight

456
00:30:17,720 --> 00:30:20,200
Speaker 17: some of the challenges that you may have grown up

457
00:30:20,240 --> 00:30:24,840
Speaker 17: with in order to achieve success in basketball or in

458
00:30:24,880 --> 00:30:25,720
Speaker 17: any other sport.

459
00:30:26,520 --> 00:30:30,360
Speaker 3: Home Court was part of the NBA's rookie orientation program

460
00:30:30,520 --> 00:30:33,920
Speaker 3: for a few years. Minor worked as a facilitator during

461
00:30:33,920 --> 00:30:36,320
Speaker 3: the show for the NBA Rookies, he talked to the

462
00:30:36,360 --> 00:30:39,160
Speaker 3: audience acted as a catalyst for discussion.

463
00:30:39,440 --> 00:30:43,320
Speaker 17: What drama actually does is allow them to talk objectively

464
00:30:43,440 --> 00:30:44,440
Speaker 17: about what they see and.

465
00:30:44,480 --> 00:30:45,240
Speaker 5: What's going on.

466
00:30:45,680 --> 00:30:49,960
Speaker 17: And of course as they speak objectively, they're also coming

467
00:30:50,000 --> 00:30:53,240
Speaker 17: up with their own feelings and emotions about situations and

468
00:30:53,280 --> 00:30:56,160
Speaker 17: sometimes revealing some of what they are going through. We

469
00:30:56,480 --> 00:31:00,960
Speaker 17: presented the show, we then did break out groups and

470
00:31:01,120 --> 00:31:06,120
Speaker 17: had q and as with the players at that time,

471
00:31:06,640 --> 00:31:10,040
Speaker 17: and of course the league actually used that show as

472
00:31:10,080 --> 00:31:13,280
Speaker 17: a as to create talking points for.

473
00:31:15,800 --> 00:31:16,640
Speaker 5: For the situation.

474
00:31:16,920 --> 00:31:20,080
Speaker 17: You know, once they saw that drama had the effect

475
00:31:20,080 --> 00:31:27,200
Speaker 17: that it has, we then created other, uh, not necessarily shows,

476
00:31:27,560 --> 00:31:32,479
Speaker 17: but the stage presentations that would reflect some of the

477
00:31:32,520 --> 00:31:37,760
Speaker 17: situations that young athletes would go through upon entering the league.

478
00:31:37,840 --> 00:31:39,000
Speaker 5: You know, whether it was.

479
00:31:39,000 --> 00:31:44,800
Speaker 17: With agents, how to manage the agent responsibility, how to

480
00:31:44,880 --> 00:31:48,520
Speaker 17: manage family, friends and family became a big part of

481
00:31:48,800 --> 00:31:53,800
Speaker 17: that program, you know, talking about that, and that's I

482
00:31:54,560 --> 00:31:58,640
Speaker 17: think a part of that was where land Biss's mom

483
00:31:59,360 --> 00:32:03,840
Speaker 17: came and s because it was very important that these

484
00:32:03,880 --> 00:32:08,120
Speaker 17: young men understood that family could be a challenge as well.

485
00:32:08,200 --> 00:32:10,040
Speaker 5: The family could be a support.

486
00:32:10,760 --> 00:32:13,600
Speaker 17: As Lynn Bias's mom was, and family could be a

487
00:32:13,680 --> 00:32:17,000
Speaker 17: challenge as we've seen in other situations.

488
00:32:17,360 --> 00:32:19,680
Speaker 3: What the students saw in the play was not a

489
00:32:19,760 --> 00:32:23,959
Speaker 3: complete representation of Bias, but there are some similarities between

490
00:32:24,000 --> 00:32:27,960
Speaker 3: Bias and Damien, the character based on Bias. Eugene Key

491
00:32:28,000 --> 00:32:29,200
Speaker 3: played the role of Damien.

492
00:32:29,920 --> 00:32:31,960
Speaker 14: We had it in the script that his brother was,

493
00:32:32,440 --> 00:32:36,960
Speaker 14: you know, kind of the problem kid, and Damien, which

494
00:32:37,040 --> 00:32:40,000
Speaker 14: was the Lynn Bias character, was the one who had

495
00:32:40,000 --> 00:32:43,480
Speaker 14: the talent that was so successful, and the younger brother

496
00:32:43,640 --> 00:32:45,520
Speaker 14: was the one who was always the one.

497
00:32:45,280 --> 00:32:48,080
Speaker 5: That was in trouble. So he was the one that

498
00:32:48,200 --> 00:32:49,480
Speaker 5: was in the drugs and everything.

499
00:32:50,360 --> 00:32:51,760
Speaker 11: Well, my man, love with me.

500
00:32:51,840 --> 00:32:52,280
Speaker 1: What's up?

501
00:32:52,520 --> 00:32:53,720
Speaker 3: And nothing you can help you with?

502
00:32:54,120 --> 00:32:55,400
Speaker 5: Oh yeah, come on.

503
00:32:55,560 --> 00:33:01,520
Speaker 1: Later on, I got caught shot.

504
00:33:01,600 --> 00:33:04,760
Speaker 12: If it didn't sneaking what it all happened so fast,

505
00:33:04,800 --> 00:33:06,160
Speaker 12: I was in the store of mine, in my own

506
00:33:06,200 --> 00:33:08,640
Speaker 12: business with crystalies.

507
00:33:09,080 --> 00:33:10,239
Speaker 5: He cleaned himself up.

508
00:33:10,640 --> 00:33:16,560
Speaker 14: Apparently by that time, Damien, the Limbia's character was on

509
00:33:16,600 --> 00:33:20,720
Speaker 14: the move with with high school and college.

510
00:33:22,360 --> 00:33:26,840
Speaker 11: Day he's learning from the hospital the vision it's here.

511
00:33:29,240 --> 00:33:37,160
Speaker 11: I'm hoping it, dear mister Washington, based on your Scholasticphy,

512
00:33:37,160 --> 00:33:40,760
Speaker 11: Achievement and your proficiency A center for Junior high school

513
00:33:40,840 --> 00:33:44,840
Speaker 11: seventy eight. You have a seen a two year starship

514
00:33:44,920 --> 00:33:48,120
Speaker 11: of George Cows.

515
00:33:51,640 --> 00:33:56,480
Speaker 14: Now he's got the NBA knocking on his door and

516
00:33:56,520 --> 00:33:59,640
Speaker 14: his brother comes back out of rehab and notice that

517
00:33:59,720 --> 00:34:01,000
Speaker 14: there's changes in his.

518
00:34:01,000 --> 00:34:02,880
Speaker 5: Brother that he didn't recognize before.

519
00:34:03,400 --> 00:34:06,560
Speaker 14: But then he recognized that he's doing drugs because of course.

520
00:34:06,560 --> 00:34:08,200
Speaker 5: He can recognize the signs.

521
00:34:08,600 --> 00:34:11,680
Speaker 14: And not only that he's doing crack at this point,

522
00:34:12,200 --> 00:34:16,759
Speaker 14: he's also drinking and everything. But try to tell his brother,

523
00:34:16,920 --> 00:34:20,439
Speaker 14: look this, I've been there. This is not the road

524
00:34:20,480 --> 00:34:24,480
Speaker 14: to go down. And my character Damien based on the

525
00:34:24,560 --> 00:34:26,680
Speaker 14: bias and throwing the mine own business.

526
00:34:27,239 --> 00:34:30,520
Speaker 5: I got this. I can take care of it. Say

527
00:34:30,600 --> 00:34:32,719
Speaker 5: you're you're the junkie, You're the.

528
00:34:32,640 --> 00:34:35,160
Speaker 8: One that failed the family.

529
00:34:35,800 --> 00:34:38,120
Speaker 5: I'm the one that's going to be successful, just like

530
00:34:38,200 --> 00:34:38,759
Speaker 5: you're doing that.

531
00:34:39,280 --> 00:34:40,719
Speaker 1: Don't you try to jump to league.

532
00:34:41,480 --> 00:34:42,680
Speaker 3: You were jumpy, all right.

533
00:34:42,880 --> 00:34:48,720
Speaker 5: And what I do is killing And unfortunately he passes

534
00:34:48,760 --> 00:34:52,040
Speaker 5: away over the overdose he had.

535
00:34:52,080 --> 00:34:56,840
Speaker 11: The time was going his way, he was on his

536
00:34:56,880 --> 00:34:57,920
Speaker 11: way to the very to.

537
00:35:00,080 --> 00:35:02,239
Speaker 14: And when we were doing it in a lot of

538
00:35:02,239 --> 00:35:03,360
Speaker 14: different neighborhoods.

539
00:35:03,520 --> 00:35:04,520
Speaker 5: They're not afraid to.

540
00:35:06,040 --> 00:35:11,839
Speaker 14: Uh voice their opinions even while you're doing the show.

541
00:35:12,400 --> 00:35:16,239
Speaker 5: So when when they see me take out a quack pipe.

542
00:35:16,440 --> 00:35:19,800
Speaker 14: And I'm blowing it up, you know, and smoking and everything,

543
00:35:19,960 --> 00:35:22,920
Speaker 14: you can just hear some of the gaps in the audience.

544
00:35:22,960 --> 00:35:24,960
Speaker 14: It's like, oh my god, he's doing right now?

545
00:35:25,560 --> 00:35:26,120
Speaker 5: What?

546
00:35:26,120 --> 00:35:26,359
Speaker 7: What?

547
00:35:26,840 --> 00:35:28,960
Speaker 5: How did that happen? You know, that kind of thing.

548
00:35:29,280 --> 00:35:32,640
Speaker 3: Some students offered their thoughts about the play's message. Their

549
00:35:32,719 --> 00:35:34,880
Speaker 3: comments come from local news reports.

550
00:35:35,320 --> 00:35:38,160
Speaker 8: It's a drama called Home Court, and it's playing the

551
00:35:38,239 --> 00:35:40,440
Speaker 8: pop school auditoriums all around the city.

552
00:35:40,800 --> 00:35:43,280
Speaker 6: As mister G found out from the beginning, the play

553
00:35:43,320 --> 00:35:44,840
Speaker 6: touches on some raw nerves.

554
00:35:45,280 --> 00:35:48,280
Speaker 1: The audience, eighty ninth graders hang on every word.

555
00:35:48,480 --> 00:35:50,479
Speaker 3: If you knew what drugs could do to you, why

556
00:35:50,480 --> 00:35:51,920
Speaker 3: did you start in the first place?

557
00:35:52,040 --> 00:35:54,080
Speaker 5: And I guess it was that I had to make

558
00:35:54,120 --> 00:35:54,640
Speaker 5: for myself.

559
00:35:54,640 --> 00:35:56,120
Speaker 16: I guess I.

560
00:35:57,680 --> 00:35:59,960
Speaker 1: Told you when you experiment with John said, you come in.

561
00:36:01,320 --> 00:36:02,600
Speaker 5: Tell you anything about drugs?

562
00:36:02,719 --> 00:36:02,919
Speaker 1: Yeah?

563
00:36:03,040 --> 00:36:05,480
Speaker 9: What was it telling? It tells me not to take

564
00:36:05,520 --> 00:36:07,880
Speaker 9: it because then you think you're all right, but then

565
00:36:07,920 --> 00:36:08,719
Speaker 9: I'll take it too far.

566
00:36:08,760 --> 00:36:10,919
Speaker 13: And the adventure to your dang.

567
00:36:16,520 --> 00:36:19,560
Speaker 3: Reginald Betts was only six years old when Lenn Bias died,

568
00:36:20,200 --> 00:36:22,720
Speaker 3: but he grew up in the same Prince George's County

569
00:36:22,719 --> 00:36:26,319
Speaker 3: community as Bias. He eventually began hearing stories from his

570
00:36:26,400 --> 00:36:30,080
Speaker 3: father and others about Bias that he might have rivaled

571
00:36:30,200 --> 00:36:33,799
Speaker 3: Michael Jordan had he lived. Bets was more familiar with

572
00:36:33,840 --> 00:36:37,640
Speaker 3: the tragic story of Reggie Lewis, who, like Bias, was

573
00:36:37,680 --> 00:36:41,040
Speaker 3: a first round picked by the Celtics in nineteen eighty seven,

574
00:36:41,560 --> 00:36:43,520
Speaker 3: one year after the Celtics picked Bias.

575
00:36:44,120 --> 00:36:47,880
Speaker 9: You know, it's hard to recognize the tragedy of Reggie

576
00:36:47,920 --> 00:36:51,800
Speaker 9: Lewis and then recognized the tragedy of Linn Bias.

577
00:36:52,160 --> 00:36:54,920
Speaker 3: Lewis died of a heart condition when Betts was thirteen

578
00:36:55,000 --> 00:36:59,000
Speaker 3: years old. Soon after he began to hear more about Bias.

579
00:36:58,880 --> 00:37:02,440
Speaker 9: And recognized Limbias his tragedy connected to the drug trade,

580
00:37:02,920 --> 00:37:08,279
Speaker 9: connected to what was going on with prison and incarceration

581
00:37:08,440 --> 00:37:10,800
Speaker 9: in the early nineties. It was impossible for me to

582
00:37:10,840 --> 00:37:13,120
Speaker 9: really think about that as a thirteen year old, you know,

583
00:37:13,160 --> 00:37:15,319
Speaker 9: I was I was trying to figure out how to

584
00:37:15,320 --> 00:37:17,440
Speaker 9: be a seventh grader, how to be a eighth grader.

585
00:37:17,280 --> 00:37:20,439
Speaker 3: A bad decision by Bets when he was sixteen led

586
00:37:20,520 --> 00:37:23,359
Speaker 3: him to learning even more about bias. He was an

587
00:37:23,360 --> 00:37:27,040
Speaker 3: honor roll student and class treasurer at Suitland High in

588
00:37:27,120 --> 00:37:30,960
Speaker 3: District Heights, Maryland. Bets joined some friends for a night out.

589
00:37:31,160 --> 00:37:33,759
Speaker 3: A group carjacked the man who had fallen asleep in

590
00:37:33,800 --> 00:37:36,759
Speaker 3: his car outside the mall in North Virginia. It was

591
00:37:36,800 --> 00:37:39,719
Speaker 3: the first time Bets broke the law, much less held

592
00:37:39,719 --> 00:37:42,160
Speaker 3: a gun. He served eight years of a nine year

593
00:37:42,200 --> 00:37:45,440
Speaker 3: prison sentence for a conviction of armed carjacking.

594
00:37:45,640 --> 00:37:50,000
Speaker 9: I'm sixteen, and I'm in prison, and in some real way,

595
00:37:50,120 --> 00:37:53,960
Speaker 9: you know, my life feels like it's cut short, in

596
00:37:54,000 --> 00:37:57,920
Speaker 9: some profoundly tragic way. And I think you begin to understand.

597
00:37:58,200 --> 00:38:02,200
Speaker 9: I begin to understand and think differently about limbias is death.

598
00:38:02,840 --> 00:38:06,319
Speaker 9: But also because I began to think differently about the

599
00:38:06,360 --> 00:38:09,680
Speaker 9: war on drugs, I began to think differently about mass

600
00:38:09,680 --> 00:38:13,000
Speaker 9: incarceration as a thing, you know, And so that just

601
00:38:13,040 --> 00:38:17,959
Speaker 9: forced me to consider him as a figure on top

602
00:38:18,000 --> 00:38:21,480
Speaker 9: of change in sports. I didn't really know who he

603
00:38:21,640 --> 00:38:23,799
Speaker 9: was until I went to prison, and so then by

604
00:38:23,800 --> 00:38:26,799
Speaker 9: the time I get to prison, he just becomes not

605
00:38:26,880 --> 00:38:29,400
Speaker 9: a footnote, because it's not fair to say he's a footnote,

606
00:38:29,480 --> 00:38:32,960
Speaker 9: but he becomes an explanation for something, and he becomes

607
00:38:33,000 --> 00:38:36,400
Speaker 9: an explanation for why. It's just like the fucking dual

608
00:38:37,200 --> 00:38:41,560
Speaker 9: tragedy of drugs, right. It's the fact that they actually

609
00:38:41,640 --> 00:38:47,799
Speaker 9: do ruin our community and the fact that, like you

610
00:38:47,840 --> 00:38:51,280
Speaker 9: think that the punishment that comes out of the response

611
00:38:51,320 --> 00:38:56,680
Speaker 9: to bias is death is as disastrous as as the death.

612
00:38:57,239 --> 00:38:59,359
Speaker 9: So you know, if you say, you know, like, how

613
00:38:59,400 --> 00:39:02,920
Speaker 9: did he come up the poem? I mean, honestly, he

614
00:39:03,000 --> 00:39:06,680
Speaker 9: comes up in a poem because he's just always dead.

615
00:39:06,880 --> 00:39:11,320
Speaker 3: Betts left prison with a General Education Development degree or GED.

616
00:39:12,080 --> 00:39:15,160
Speaker 3: He went on to earn an undergraduate degree in creative

617
00:39:15,200 --> 00:39:19,040
Speaker 3: writing from the University of Maryland. Betts was the student

618
00:39:19,080 --> 00:39:22,920
Speaker 3: speaker at his commencement. He later taught poetry at the university.

619
00:39:23,440 --> 00:39:26,440
Speaker 3: Betts earned a law degree at Yale and later passed

620
00:39:26,520 --> 00:39:30,360
Speaker 3: requirements to practice law in Connecticut. He has given elections

621
00:39:30,440 --> 00:39:36,080
Speaker 3: on topics ranged from mass incarceration to contemporary poetry, and

622
00:39:36,120 --> 00:39:40,560
Speaker 3: the intersection of literature and advocacy. Betts has earned several

623
00:39:40,600 --> 00:39:45,360
Speaker 3: prestigious fellowships, including the Gugenheim. He served as President Obama's

624
00:39:45,440 --> 00:39:49,759
Speaker 3: counsel for Juvenile Justice and delinquency prevention. Betts wrote a

625
00:39:49,800 --> 00:39:52,680
Speaker 3: memoir that focused on his time in prison in Virginia.

626
00:39:53,160 --> 00:39:56,200
Speaker 3: He also won a National Magazine Award for the story,

627
00:39:56,239 --> 00:39:59,440
Speaker 3: published in the New York Time magazine. Betts has written

628
00:39:59,480 --> 00:40:03,239
Speaker 3: books on poetry, one called The Baskets of the Reagan Era.

629
00:40:03,960 --> 00:40:06,960
Speaker 3: It won him a New England Poetry Award, and that

630
00:40:07,000 --> 00:40:10,680
Speaker 3: book is a palm night of living base heads. Here's

631
00:40:10,719 --> 00:40:12,279
Speaker 3: bath to Reading parts of.

632
00:40:12,239 --> 00:40:15,120
Speaker 9: The Palm Spike had us on edge near ready to

633
00:40:15,120 --> 00:40:18,560
Speaker 9: toss a trash can through the city. Lin Bias was

634
00:40:18,600 --> 00:40:23,000
Speaker 9: dead and we was lamping stone cold, lamping pockets fat

635
00:40:23,000 --> 00:40:27,959
Speaker 9: because we were entrepreneurs back then it was always winter,

636
00:40:28,239 --> 00:40:31,919
Speaker 9: always cold in the street. My mind Rabbit would want

637
00:40:31,960 --> 00:40:36,400
Speaker 9: for equity for Dookie, go change Jordan's more. The hustle

638
00:40:36,480 --> 00:40:40,839
Speaker 9: courted us and we were down. It'll take you to ruin.

639
00:40:40,920 --> 00:40:44,760
Speaker 9: Moms will say, as if disaster wasn't that damn place,

640
00:40:45,239 --> 00:40:51,000
Speaker 9: those afternoons and all that Soireirns Blair. A mandatory minimum

641
00:40:51,080 --> 00:40:58,400
Speaker 9: of years with home becomes God's nightmare, our curse. And

642
00:40:58,480 --> 00:41:00,840
Speaker 9: so the way you see by come up in that

643
00:41:00,880 --> 00:41:05,520
Speaker 9: poem is the way Bias would have came up in

644
00:41:05,560 --> 00:41:09,560
Speaker 9: my life is it's just a marker for the tragedy,

645
00:41:10,360 --> 00:41:14,279
Speaker 9: just like somebody recounting how they came up and how

646
00:41:14,280 --> 00:41:17,440
Speaker 9: they got involved with drugs and bias. It's that marker

647
00:41:17,480 --> 00:41:21,680
Speaker 9: and a complicated marker too, because people so dope knowing

648
00:41:21,680 --> 00:41:25,040
Speaker 9: about the tragedy of bias, and he's so dope the

649
00:41:25,120 --> 00:41:27,279
Speaker 9: other folks knowing about the tragedy to bias. And that's

650
00:41:27,280 --> 00:41:29,319
Speaker 9: what I was trying to The whole poem is trying

651
00:41:29,320 --> 00:41:32,600
Speaker 9: to get at that that that that conflict that goes

652
00:41:32,640 --> 00:41:35,279
Speaker 9: on in somebody's mind where they're forced to be in

653
00:41:35,280 --> 00:41:39,600
Speaker 9: the spot in prison. So the way length Bias operated

654
00:41:39,640 --> 00:41:42,600
Speaker 9: in my head was almost like a fucking ghost.

655
00:41:42,760 --> 00:41:42,960
Speaker 5: You know.

656
00:41:43,000 --> 00:41:44,600
Speaker 9: If you say, you know, like how did he come

657
00:41:44,680 --> 00:41:48,279
Speaker 9: up in a poem? I mean, honestly, he comes up

658
00:41:48,320 --> 00:41:52,719
Speaker 9: in a poem because he's just always there, and that

659
00:41:52,760 --> 00:41:54,680
Speaker 9: poem is written from the perspective of the dude that's

660
00:41:54,680 --> 00:41:56,840
Speaker 9: selling drugs. But when you put Linn at the center

661
00:41:56,880 --> 00:41:59,879
Speaker 9: of it, I mean the real tragedy is that, like

662
00:42:01,320 --> 00:42:05,120
Speaker 9: now forever, to put Lynn at the center of any conversation,

663
00:42:06,600 --> 00:42:08,759
Speaker 9: it's also to put cocaine at the center of it.

664
00:42:09,600 --> 00:42:12,640
Speaker 9: And that's how powerful the drug was, is that once

665
00:42:12,760 --> 00:42:16,040
Speaker 9: you introduce it into a story, it's a co star,

666
00:42:17,000 --> 00:42:19,680
Speaker 9: and Lynn's life makes it forever a kind of co star.

667
00:42:25,040 --> 00:42:28,959
Speaker 4: Culturally speaking, what could this guy have been? You know,

668
00:42:29,080 --> 00:42:31,480
Speaker 4: who would he have become in the league. How my

669
00:42:32,239 --> 00:42:34,960
Speaker 4: career arts and paths have been different had Lynn Bias

670
00:42:35,000 --> 00:42:35,600
Speaker 4: stayed running.

671
00:42:35,960 --> 00:42:39,880
Speaker 3: That's Justin Tinsley, an ESPN commentator and a senior culture

672
00:42:39,960 --> 00:42:44,080
Speaker 3: and sports reporter for The Undefeated, just like Dwayne Betts.

673
00:42:44,400 --> 00:42:47,920
Speaker 3: Justin Tinsley was very young when Len Bias died. He

674
00:42:48,040 --> 00:42:51,720
Speaker 3: was only four months old. Tinsley first heard about Bias

675
00:42:52,239 --> 00:42:55,360
Speaker 3: in the mid nineteen nineties from his uncle, who lived

676
00:42:55,360 --> 00:42:59,160
Speaker 3: in the Washington, DC area. His uncle was a Len

677
00:42:59,200 --> 00:42:59,799
Speaker 3: Bias fan.

678
00:43:00,160 --> 00:43:03,120
Speaker 4: May have been like nine, nine or ten, and we

679
00:43:03,120 --> 00:43:06,240
Speaker 4: were talking about basketball and I really wish Michael Jordan

680
00:43:06,239 --> 00:43:08,719
Speaker 4: would come back, and you know, I miss watching him

681
00:43:08,719 --> 00:43:12,720
Speaker 4: play basketball. He was like, yeah, I wish Lyn Bias

682
00:43:12,760 --> 00:43:15,759
Speaker 4: would have been around to play Mike, you know, with

683
00:43:15,840 --> 00:43:17,879
Speaker 4: the Celtics and see how that would have played out.

684
00:43:18,160 --> 00:43:22,520
Speaker 4: Kind of like a John Henry type guy for my generations.

685
00:43:23,200 --> 00:43:27,960
Speaker 13: He took John Henry to the tunnel, include him in

686
00:43:28,000 --> 00:43:33,400
Speaker 13: the lead to drive John Henry.

687
00:43:42,440 --> 00:43:45,520
Speaker 3: John Henry was a folk hero in black culture. According

688
00:43:45,560 --> 00:43:48,839
Speaker 3: to his legend, he was a steel driver. Henry helped

689
00:43:48,880 --> 00:43:51,800
Speaker 3: hammer through rock to build railways through the mountains of

690
00:43:51,840 --> 00:43:55,959
Speaker 3: West Virginia in the eighteen hundreds. He symbolizes the hard

691
00:43:56,000 --> 00:43:59,560
Speaker 3: work of many African Americans who helped build and maintain

692
00:43:59,640 --> 00:44:03,120
Speaker 3: the round at a time when black people in America

693
00:44:03,160 --> 00:44:07,160
Speaker 3: were slowly earning more rights and liberties. Tinsley sees a

694
00:44:07,200 --> 00:44:09,839
Speaker 3: parallel between John Henry and Bias, and.

695
00:44:09,760 --> 00:44:13,480
Speaker 4: So he's a tall tale, but he's also even more

696
00:44:13,520 --> 00:44:15,520
Speaker 4: so a cautionary tale for my generation.

697
00:44:16,360 --> 00:44:21,360
Speaker 13: John Henry the found the mountains and his hammer was

698
00:44:21,600 --> 00:44:27,160
Speaker 13: stracking fire. He hamm't soon that he Brew.

699
00:44:27,440 --> 00:44:34,000
Speaker 11: Is handing down down Henry.

700
00:44:36,040 --> 00:44:39,239
Speaker 3: According to legend, Henry died from a broken heart, a

701
00:44:39,320 --> 00:44:43,160
Speaker 3: victim of exhaustion. In real life, Bias died of a

702
00:44:43,200 --> 00:44:47,160
Speaker 3: heart attack after abusing an excessive amount of pure cocaine.

703
00:44:47,760 --> 00:44:50,560
Speaker 3: Tinsley has been working on a book about the nineteen

704
00:44:50,680 --> 00:44:55,640
Speaker 3: nineties rap artist Biggie Smalls. Like Bias, Smalls died too early.

705
00:44:56,239 --> 00:44:59,840
Speaker 3: He was gunned down to twenty five. In the book,

706
00:45:00,280 --> 00:45:03,640
Speaker 3: tensely connects Biggie's life with the War on drugs and

707
00:45:03,680 --> 00:45:09,280
Speaker 3: mandatory minimum sentences, among other issues of that time, Tensely

708
00:45:09,360 --> 00:45:13,000
Speaker 3: sees parallels between the story of both Biggie and Bias.

709
00:45:14,280 --> 00:45:17,920
Speaker 4: Talks about being neck deep in the drug game and

710
00:45:18,000 --> 00:45:21,400
Speaker 4: understanding that like if I walk around this corner, if

711
00:45:21,400 --> 00:45:23,520
Speaker 4: I sell to the wrong person, like that could be

712
00:45:23,520 --> 00:45:25,640
Speaker 4: the end of me, whether whether I'm killed or whether I.

713
00:45:25,600 --> 00:45:26,799
Speaker 5: Go to jail for a long time.

714
00:45:26,960 --> 00:45:29,279
Speaker 4: So when we talk about these mandatory minimums, and we

715
00:45:29,320 --> 00:45:32,440
Speaker 4: talk about this life or death experience in the streets

716
00:45:32,480 --> 00:45:36,000
Speaker 4: selling drugs and being caught with even a small amount

717
00:45:36,120 --> 00:45:39,319
Speaker 4: of a paraphernalia on at that point in the late

718
00:45:39,360 --> 00:45:41,560
Speaker 4: eighties and early nineties to lead to a long trip

719
00:45:41,640 --> 00:45:44,160
Speaker 4: up state. And so when we talk about that, you

720
00:45:44,200 --> 00:45:47,160
Speaker 4: could piece it back to lin Bias. It may not

721
00:45:47,239 --> 00:45:51,400
Speaker 4: be Biggie saying, oh, making a rhyme about Linn Bias,

722
00:45:51,480 --> 00:45:53,480
Speaker 4: but you know when he was, you know when he

723
00:45:53,520 --> 00:45:55,960
Speaker 4: talks about the streets is a shortstop either you slinging

724
00:45:56,000 --> 00:45:58,319
Speaker 4: crack rock where you gotta win the jump shot. You

725
00:45:58,320 --> 00:46:01,600
Speaker 4: know you can piece that Ba to somebody like a

726
00:46:01,680 --> 00:46:05,120
Speaker 4: limb Bias, because that death changed everything. When we talk

727
00:46:05,160 --> 00:46:08,360
Speaker 4: about Limbias, culturally, we talk talk about how his death

728
00:46:10,320 --> 00:46:14,120
Speaker 4: in so many ways an overreaction by the federal government,

729
00:46:14,160 --> 00:46:19,000
Speaker 4: and that overreaction directly impacted our community. And you know

730
00:46:19,080 --> 00:46:23,840
Speaker 4: people who look like that. So in my generation especially, now,

731
00:46:24,360 --> 00:46:27,680
Speaker 4: there there's this there's this emphasis, and there's this thirst,

732
00:46:27,719 --> 00:46:32,960
Speaker 4: and there's this intersection of sports and in wider culture

733
00:46:33,239 --> 00:46:36,719
Speaker 4: and history and why why these things all matter? Like

734
00:46:36,920 --> 00:46:40,520
Speaker 4: when we talk about we talk about Kareem Abdul Jabbar,

735
00:46:40,560 --> 00:46:42,759
Speaker 4: we're not just talking about the fact he's the most

736
00:46:42,800 --> 00:46:45,759
Speaker 4: decorated basketball player of all time, where he has more

737
00:46:45,760 --> 00:46:48,440
Speaker 4: points than anybody who's ever played in the NBA. No,

738
00:46:48,520 --> 00:46:53,520
Speaker 4: we talk about Kareem about by we measure him obviously

739
00:46:53,520 --> 00:46:55,600
Speaker 4: by his skills on the corporate but we also measure

740
00:46:55,640 --> 00:46:57,920
Speaker 4: him by his impact on society at large.

741
00:46:58,400 --> 00:46:59,520
Speaker 5: Limbias is the same.

742
00:46:59,600 --> 00:47:03,279
Speaker 4: He never scored a basket in the NBA, but his

743
00:47:03,480 --> 00:47:08,840
Speaker 4: impact again on society at large is massive. When you

744
00:47:08,880 --> 00:47:11,480
Speaker 4: mentioned somebody like len Bias's name to people in my

745
00:47:11,560 --> 00:47:15,440
Speaker 4: generation is always like, yeah, he could have been something

746
00:47:16,040 --> 00:47:20,760
Speaker 4: we were robbed of seeing a potentially all time great.

747
00:47:20,600 --> 00:47:28,160
Speaker 3: Talent, unlike Dwayne Betts and Justin Tenseley, Michael winrib was

748
00:47:28,200 --> 00:47:31,160
Speaker 3: old enough to understand the impact of the death of

749
00:47:31,200 --> 00:47:34,279
Speaker 3: Lambias when it happened. He was thirteen years old when

750
00:47:34,320 --> 00:47:39,320
Speaker 3: Len Bias died. While living in State College, Pennsylvania. Winrib

751
00:47:39,440 --> 00:47:43,120
Speaker 3: was a huge fan of college basketball. He was well

752
00:47:43,160 --> 00:47:48,319
Speaker 3: aware of who Bias was. Wineribber journalist, author of four books,

753
00:47:48,360 --> 00:47:52,080
Speaker 3: and a screenwriter. His focus is sports, American culture in

754
00:47:52,120 --> 00:47:55,920
Speaker 3: the twentieth century history. He's written for The Ringer, The Athletic,

755
00:47:56,200 --> 00:47:59,520
Speaker 3: grant Land, and Bleacher Report. In two thousand and eight,

756
00:48:00,480 --> 00:48:04,440
Speaker 3: wrote an essay about bias legacy for ESPN, the magazine

757
00:48:04,800 --> 00:48:09,040
Speaker 3: title The Day Innocent Died. The story presented a sweeping

758
00:48:09,160 --> 00:48:12,840
Speaker 3: look at the death of Bias and its impact on society.

759
00:48:13,280 --> 00:48:17,799
Speaker 3: It also helped Convince podcast producer Dave Ungrady to look

760
00:48:17,880 --> 00:48:21,800
Speaker 3: even deeper into the ln Biased legacy, a result on

761
00:48:21,960 --> 00:48:25,840
Speaker 3: Grady's book Born Ready, The Mixed Legacy of Lent Bias.

762
00:48:26,239 --> 00:48:28,279
Speaker 3: This podcast series is based.

763
00:48:28,000 --> 00:48:28,640
Speaker 5: On the book.

764
00:48:29,120 --> 00:48:33,440
Speaker 3: Wine Rib believes the Biased story has few rivals in history.

765
00:48:34,360 --> 00:48:37,080
Speaker 2: Once I dove into it and started to look back

766
00:48:37,120 --> 00:48:43,279
Speaker 2: at it, there were these connections political connections, cultural connections,

767
00:48:43,360 --> 00:48:46,400
Speaker 2: social connections that I had no idea about when I

768
00:48:46,440 --> 00:48:50,319
Speaker 2: was a kid, But once you start digging deeper into them,

769
00:48:50,560 --> 00:48:55,600
Speaker 2: do you realize that this may have been the most

770
00:48:55,640 --> 00:48:59,080
Speaker 2: impactful moment in modern sports history just because of the

771
00:48:59,120 --> 00:49:02,759
Speaker 2: impact it had on politics, on culture, on a generation

772
00:49:02,920 --> 00:49:04,440
Speaker 2: of African Americans.

773
00:49:04,880 --> 00:49:07,799
Speaker 3: It's a wine with the issue that still plagues race

774
00:49:07,840 --> 00:49:11,440
Speaker 3: relations in this country today have a direct tie to

775
00:49:11,520 --> 00:49:12,920
Speaker 3: the death of Led Bias.

776
00:49:13,280 --> 00:49:16,200
Speaker 18: Yeah, I think it's become more and more relevant over

777
00:49:16,239 --> 00:49:20,239
Speaker 18: the course of time as we've realized what we were

778
00:49:20,320 --> 00:49:25,520
Speaker 18: fifty years into the drug war and.

779
00:49:24,360 --> 00:49:28,040
Speaker 2: It's obviously been a colossal failure. I think I think

780
00:49:28,160 --> 00:49:30,680
Speaker 2: everybody on both sides of the political aisle would probably

781
00:49:30,680 --> 00:49:34,640
Speaker 2: admit that at this point, and Bias, I think stands out.

782
00:49:35,640 --> 00:49:39,920
Speaker 2: His story just stands out as an exemplar of that

783
00:49:40,600 --> 00:49:44,680
Speaker 2: failure and how all of the policies that were attempted

784
00:49:44,719 --> 00:49:50,120
Speaker 2: to further the war on drugs, nearly all of them

785
00:49:50,120 --> 00:49:52,919
Speaker 2: have failed. And this, this what happened in the wake

786
00:49:53,000 --> 00:49:58,399
Speaker 2: of his death, is kind of the prototypical example of that.

787
00:49:59,080 --> 00:50:02,640
Speaker 2: And when you sort of realize the impact that it's

788
00:50:02,680 --> 00:50:03,600
Speaker 2: had on.

789
00:50:03,560 --> 00:50:09,160
Speaker 19: A generation, particularly of African Americans, who have been imprisoned

790
00:50:09,200 --> 00:50:11,839
Speaker 19: because of the laws that were passed in his name.

791
00:50:14,000 --> 00:50:20,160
Speaker 19: It's just it really kind of puts into perspective everything

792
00:50:20,239 --> 00:50:24,719
Speaker 19: that we've been talking about in America for the last year,

793
00:50:25,239 --> 00:50:26,880
Speaker 19: or even for the last fifty years.

794
00:50:41,200 --> 00:50:45,120
Speaker 20: Greetings everyone, This is Dave Ungrady, the executive producer of

795
00:50:45,160 --> 00:50:50,080
Speaker 20: this podcast series. This episode concludes the narrative portion of

796
00:50:50,120 --> 00:50:55,040
Speaker 20: the series. We have presented an unprecedented review of the

797
00:50:55,120 --> 00:50:59,360
Speaker 20: rich and complex legacy of Len Bias, some six hundred

798
00:50:59,440 --> 00:51:03,319
Speaker 20: minutes of total content. I thank all of those who

799
00:51:03,320 --> 00:51:07,600
Speaker 20: have joined us so far in this unique journey, but

800
00:51:07,680 --> 00:51:09,399
Speaker 20: there is more up.

801
00:51:09,440 --> 00:51:12,760
Speaker 21: Next is what I like to call a functional epilogue,

802
00:51:13,320 --> 00:51:17,360
Speaker 21: a mini series of episodes that focuses on decision making.

803
00:51:18,920 --> 00:51:22,320
Speaker 21: In its essence, the Len biased legacy was shaped largely

804
00:51:22,360 --> 00:51:25,000
Speaker 21: by the fact that Len made a poor decision to

805
00:51:25,080 --> 00:51:29,240
Speaker 21: abuse drugs, and as we all know, it killed him.

806
00:51:29,719 --> 00:51:32,120
Speaker 21: The epilogue will help you learn how to make the

807
00:51:32,200 --> 00:51:36,799
Speaker 21: right decision. There are tools you can use, and the

808
00:51:36,880 --> 00:51:40,400
Speaker 21: Decision episodes will tell you about them in the context

809
00:51:40,520 --> 00:51:44,520
Speaker 21: of real life stories. In the epilogue, we will discuss

810
00:51:44,600 --> 00:51:49,399
Speaker 21: decisions made by five people. They all face challenges as

811
00:51:49,400 --> 00:51:52,840
Speaker 21: a result of these decisions. They include one of the

812
00:51:52,840 --> 00:51:56,160
Speaker 21: top high school basketball coaches in the country, Glen Ferrello,

813
00:51:57,160 --> 00:52:02,160
Speaker 21: also Travis Garrison, a former Mayora and basketball star and

814
00:52:02,320 --> 00:52:06,920
Speaker 21: Olympic sprint champion Justin Gatlin. We also talk with students

815
00:52:07,120 --> 00:52:12,840
Speaker 21: Zach Reid and Ben Kotoko. Our discussion is ably anchored

816
00:52:12,840 --> 00:52:17,320
Speaker 21: by Chris Spetsler, an expert on decision making. Chris is

817
00:52:17,360 --> 00:52:21,520
Speaker 21: the executive director of the Decision Education Foundation, a partner

818
00:52:21,560 --> 00:52:25,600
Speaker 21: in a thirty four plus one campaign and this podcast series.

819
00:52:27,040 --> 00:52:30,879
Speaker 21: The decision focused episodes will give you some practical takeaways

820
00:52:31,400 --> 00:52:35,040
Speaker 21: from the series and we urge you to tune in soon.

821
00:52:36,280 --> 00:52:41,560
Speaker 21: For more information, go to Gogradymedia dot com. That's Gogradymedia

822
00:52:41,920 --> 00:52:47,319
Speaker 21: dot com.

823
00:52:47,600 --> 00:52:49,920
Speaker 10: This podcast series is based on the book Born Ready,

824
00:52:50,000 --> 00:52:52,440
Speaker 10: The Mixed Legacy of Lumby's, published.

825
00:52:52,080 --> 00:52:53,360
Speaker 5: By go Grady Media.

826
00:52:53,520 --> 00:52:56,080
Speaker 10: The series is produced by Go Grady Media in partnership

827
00:52:56,080 --> 00:52:59,840
Speaker 10: with Octagon Entertainment. This segment was produced by Daveon Grady

828
00:53:00,040 --> 00:53:02,799
Speaker 10: and Don Marcus. It was written by Davon Grady and

829
00:53:02,920 --> 00:53:07,160
Speaker 10: edited by Don Marcus. Narration by John Sallims with additional

830
00:53:07,239 --> 00:53:11,200
Speaker 10: narration by Jamal Williams. Technical production was provided by Octagon Entertainment.

831
00:53:11,320 --> 00:53:15,960
Speaker 10: Production assistance was produced by Kevin McNulty, Tino Quagliata, Lauren Rosh,

832
00:53:16,360 --> 00:53:21,520
Speaker 10: Georgia Brown, Casey Fair, Jamal Williams, Kelsey Mannox and enzol

833
00:53:21,600 --> 00:53:25,360
Speaker 10: Al Varenda Social Media Assistance. Special thanks to the University

834
00:53:25,360 --> 00:53:29,160
Speaker 10: of Maryland and American University for providing Inside the Decision.

835
00:53:29,280 --> 00:53:32,120
Speaker 10: Education Foundation is a content and promotional partner of this

836
00:53:32,200 --> 00:53:36,399
Speaker 10: podcast series. For more information, go to go Gradymedia dot com.

837
00:53:39,520 --> 00:53:41,480
Speaker 10: This has been a production of Go grading Media and

838
00:53:41,520 --> 00:53:42,360
Speaker 10: The Eighth Side Network.

839
00:54:11,000 --> 00:54:20,480
Speaker 11: Yes, he was Furless superstar. He was the greatest one fault.

840
00:54:22,360 --> 00:54:27,839
Speaker 11: He was so full of Sandregie one of the strongest

841
00:54:27,880 --> 00:54:36,200
Speaker 11: gods you well the seen imagine to play on Hi TV.

842
00:54:37,680 --> 00:54:41,839
Speaker 22: Now I can only see his memory.

843
00:54:43,600 --> 00:54:44,880
Speaker 11: I remember when.

844
00:54:46,360 --> 00:54:47,800
Speaker 5: He made his Fati.

845
00:54:49,000 --> 00:54:51,960
Speaker 11: The man thoughted him on.

846
00:54:52,239 --> 00:54:53,920
Speaker 12: That position.

847
00:54:55,680 --> 00:54:58,600
Speaker 11: So many that Jackie his off.

848
00:54:59,680 --> 00:55:01,359
Speaker 5: But the it must pay them.

849
00:55:03,000 --> 00:55:10,520
Speaker 11: This master dog, he and his team Comptory.

850
00:55:11,760 --> 00:55:12,480
Speaker 3: As well.

851
00:55:13,680 --> 00:55:30,000
Speaker 22: Mastory never free, not free my camel. He have published

852
00:55:30,480 --> 00:55:32,239
Speaker 22: one of pain.

853
00:55:36,000 --> 00:55:37,080
Speaker 1: It didn't even that.

854
00:55:38,840 --> 00:55:43,680
Speaker 11: He'll always be a p a, a Less member before

855
00:55:44,320 --> 00:55:48,760
Speaker 11: we can even say that was on her Less history.

856
00:55:50,960 --> 00:55:57,240
Speaker 11: He'll always be your name card. There's not a certifore.

857
00:55:58,239 --> 00:55:58,879
Speaker 1: Lindsay.

858
00:56:02,040 --> 00:56:07,600
Speaker 11: He was so strong and physical. Still then will have

859
00:56:09,560 --> 00:56:49,040
Speaker 11: is it able? He has been agree.

860
00:56:51,600 --> 00:56:53,360
Speaker 1: Love my mother.

861
00:56:58,600 --> 00:57:04,279
Speaker 11: One of his thankle.

862
00:57:04,080 --> 00:57:10,960
Speaker 22: It is even always, I thought, as well as how

863
00:57:11,080 --> 00:57:13,600
Speaker 22: morea we can even say?

864
00:57:14,680 --> 00:57:16,920
Speaker 1: He started Erlands destory.

865
00:57:19,080 --> 00:57:27,240
Speaker 11: Hello, they've thought about the number thirty four. Then he lies.

866
00:57:30,080 --> 00:57:35,120
Speaker 11: He was so strong and thankful, still letting the talk.

867
00:57:37,320 --> 00:57:38,080
Speaker 5: He's in the.

868
00:57:41,360 --> 00:57:45,560
Speaker 11: Always the populous, there's.

869
00:57:45,440 --> 00:57:53,760
Speaker 5: Number thirty four. He was so short and.

870
00:57:56,040 --> 00:57:56,680
Speaker 11: Still let the.

871
00:58:04,600 --> 00:58:05,480
Speaker 1: Take on the.

872
00:58:14,280 --> 00:58:16,440
Speaker 11: So stop tempt.

873
00:58:17,760 --> 00:58:26,760
Speaker 1: Still in the closer, take on.

874
00:58:28,640 --> 00:58:29,760
Speaker 5: The pas

875
00:58:31,720 --> 00:58:37,880
Speaker 11: Tenif so stop temperati