40 for 34 #31 - June 12

Cocaine Introduction

Chris Washburn claims Len Bias introduced him to cocaine.

Chris Washburn was a sophomore at N.C. State when he met Len Bias. It was during the Wolfpack’s trip to play Maryland in College Park in late January, 1986. He says they became good friends. Some three months later, Washburn claims, Bias introduced him to cocaine. Washburn says it happened when he was back at school after N.C. State’s loss to Kansas in the NCAA tournament’s Elite Eight in April. He was planning to go to class the next day when he was awakened by a knock on his door at 3 a.m.

It was Bias and Charles Logan, a former basketball coach at St. Augustine College in Raleigh, North Carolina. “Usually I didn’t wake up at 3 a.m. but it was Len Bias coming into my room,” he says. “I didn’t use cocaine until that time. But I didn’t want to be the only one not trying it. It was a big part of it that Len asked me to try it."

(NOTE - the audio version of this story includes Washburn discussing the incident in more detail).

Washburn became addicted to cocaine during his rookie season with Golden State Warriors. He played only two seasons, with three different teams, and received a lifetime suspension from the league in 1989 after failing a drug test three times. From 1991 to 1994, Washburn spent time in prison for drug-related offenses. He later played professional basketball in Europe and Puerto Rico as well as the Continental Basketball Association and the United States Basketball League, while still addicted to cocaine. Washburn says he stopped using cocaine in 2000.

Excerpted from the book,

Born Ready: the Mixed Legacy of Len Bias

Buy autographed copies

as a Father's Day Gift

The audio for this post was narrated by the author,

Dave Ungrady.

And listen to more about Len's early life in Episode 2 of the narrative podcast series, Len Bias: A Mixed Legacy

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