40 for 34 #38 - June 18

Absent Hero

Some Had Hoped to Give Len Bias a Hero's Homecoming

On the evening of June 18, 1986, Brian Waller and Johnnie Walker joined some of the other regulars for their weekly pickup game on adult night at The Rec....also know as the Columbia Park Recreation Center. That's where years before Walker taught Waller and Len Bias the basics of basketball as teenagers. It was the perfect place for the three to celebrate the choice of Bias as the No. 2 overall pick by the Boston Celtics in the 1986 NBA draft the day before.

Bias hadn’t said he would stop by that night, but Waller and Walker still held out hope that he would surprise them. They were so excited about Bias being selected by the Celtics that they cut their game short and talked most of the night about his good fortune. “We were just hanging out talking and waiting for him to walk through the door,” says Waller. “Every time the door opened, we looked to see who was gonna walk through, thinking and hoping it was him.”

Others had hoped, or had expected, Bias to visit them soon after his return. Vicky Bullet had just completed her freshman year on the women’s basketball team. She was also part of a group on campus that had set up a welcome home celebration for Bias. 

"We were all waiting for him to come to Cole Field house, I remember that, like it was yesterday," she said. "And, you know, we're gonna cheer him on. We had banners and everything.  Everybody was on the main court, just waiting...maybe 200 students...it was just a summer school session. So not too many people were on campus. But I know our whole basketball team was there. And, and we waited and we waited, and, you know, nothing, nothing ever happened." 

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