'Without Bias' sadly gripping

2009-11-08T22:03:49-05:00

2009-11-01T21:57:10-05:00

2009-11-02T09:20:33-05:00

al the pal

Omaha 836166

3 I absolutely remember the moment I heard he died and it was surreal hearing it. I would go as far as to say Michael Jordan would not have been as huge because it would have been just like Bird vs Magic but he (Jordan) really had no equal in his time in the NBA. without question the best college basketball player I ever saw period. 7494267

2009-11-08T22:03:49-05:00

http://img.fannation.com/upload/user_profile/image/721/162/thumb/Picture_103.jpg 2647 XX

jimsvejk

prague 721802

I would go as far as to say Michael Jordan would not have been as huge because it would have been just like Bird vs Magic but he (Jordan) really had no equal in his time in the NBA.

10 i disagree, and think they would have been equal. though you drew the same parallel with magic v. bird in the decade prior. 7584451

2009-11-08T21:56:50-05:00

http://img.fannation.com/upload/user_profile/image/721/162/thumb/Picture_103.jpg 2647 XX

jimsvejk

prague 721802

9 without a doubt one of the saddest 'what could have beens' in the history of amercian sports. in the 80s the NBA had magic-bird, this decade has kobe-lebron and the 90s sadly were not bias-jordan. i have to agree seth, as a heels fan, that the comparisons at the college level were favorable for jordan. their rivalry through the 90s would have been a momentoous one for sure, especially with the college roots (not unlike magic and bird's)i look forward to seeing this when i am home from europe. 7584408

2009-11-04T10:04:12-05:00

Sho'Nuff

Arlington 908064

8 They updated the the pic. It was originally Adrian Branch. 7527373

2009-11-03T07:45:54-05:00

http://img.fannation.com/upload/user_profile/image/427/040/thumb/JPalmer.jpg 6 SC

CTown

North Charleston 427480

7 Mdterp911, come on! You have to remove the terp from your user name since you can't tell the difference between AD and LB... 7508921

2009-11-03T02:35:31-05:00

hera98

No City 688220

6 I'm from Europe, can't see American TV from here: can I buy a DVD? How? 7508677

2009-11-02T17:36:22-05:00

robaxt

Austin 906912

5 Mdterp 911 can't be serious Adrian Branch was a lefty 7504189

2009-11-02T17:33:16-05:00

robaxt

Austin 906912

4 mdterp911 has got to be kidding wasn't Adrian Branch a lefty 7504145

2009-11-02T09:20:33-05:00

al the pal

Omaha 836166

2009-11-02T08:07:12-05:00

mdterp911

Hagerstown 906588

2 That picture isnt Len Bias, its Adrian Branch 7493669

2009-11-02T01:22:59-05:00

http://img.fannation.com/upload/user_profile/image/620/977/thumb/08_jessica-gomes_07.jpg 223 XX

Iggyzillious

Pullman, WA 621617

1 I look forward to seeing the documentary and while I feel the criticism of the music is valid, the injustice in drug policy as a result of racially biased policies is a very important topic and is valid to the documentary if Bias's death played a roll in dialog for that legislation. I am not a big college basketball fan and I had never heard of Len Bias prior to the commercials for this. Seth I think you are off base to argue that based on Bias' college experience that he was a better basketball player than Michael Jordan. Granted Bias made a very poor decision that denied the world to see if he would have transitioned well to the pro game. However base supposition seems to belong for TV or radio pundits rather than a journalist. I'd assume sports journalists should have higher standards or maybe I just have more respect for print journalists than I should in this day and age. 7493365

<div class="photo_container image_right" style="width: 300px;"> <div class="photo"><img src="http://www.si.com/2009_images/len-bias.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="410" /></div> <div class="photo_attributes" style="text-align: left;">Len Bias died hours after being drafted by the Boston Celtics ( Focus on Sports/SI)</div> </div> Since I idolized Maryland forward Len Bias while growing up as a high school kid in the suburbs of Washington, D.C., you can imagine how much I was looking forward to firing up a DVD of Without Bias, the documentary that will air on ESPN Tuesday night at 8 p.m. as part of the network's "30 for 30" series. Alas, my giddiness morphed into profound melancholy as soon as the documentary began. The first thing that came on the screen was footage of Bias -- handsome, strong, bartitone-voiced -- conducting a television interview late in his senior season. "It probably won't dawn on me until about 10 years later," he said with a soft smile, "when I'm old and watching somebody else playing and say, 'Wow, I used to could do that. I could do it better than that." Could he ever. Bias's genius comes through during this documentary, but that is also what makes it so hard to watch. You can't see him glide and dunk and sink feathery jumpers without cringing from the knowledge that it will all end with a cocaine-induced heart attack suffered two days after the Boston Celtics selected Bias with the second pick in the 1986 draft. Without Bias is not without flaws, but it does an excellent job capturing both the brilliance and the tragedy of this beautiful, gifted athlete. Kirk Fraser, the director of Without Bias, went to great lengths to demonstrate just how good Bias was. Bias has often been compared to his ACC contemporary, Michael Jordan, but to be honest, that comparison is a bit of a stretch -- for Jordan. As the documentary makes clear, Bias as a college player was just as athletic as MJ, but he was two inches taller, had greater strength to finish around the basket and was a far superior jump shooter. Michael Wilbon, who got to know Bias while covering him for The Washington Post, says in the documentary that Bias "had the purest jump shot I've ever seen. The purest. Straight up, off the floor, perfect form, perfect elbow, perfect release point, perfect follow through. It was a vision. It was a work of art." Indeed, one of my favorite alltime college basketball stats is the fact that when Bias was a senior, he led the ACC in free throw percentage. Without Bias is at its most compelling when it recreates, minute-by-minute, the night Bias died. Fraser secured interviews with all of the major principals, including the teammates and friends who partied with Bias that night and were with him when he convulsed with seizures. That segment, which includes the audio of the full 9-1-1 call placed by Bias's friend Brian Tribble, is absolutely harrowing. As the documentary recounts the aftermath of that night, I found myself getting angry that Bias's death cost Maryland coach Lefty Driesell his job. To this day, I cannot fathom why Lefty had to go. Watching the video of Lefty walking with his family off the court inside Cole Field House following his resignation announcement, I was sadly reminded that nobody at the university had the guts to stand up for Driesell and refuse to let him be the scapegoat. As sportswriter Jackie MacMullan aptly put it, "People always need someone to blame." Without Bias makes a couple of mistakes that are not uncommon in sports documentaries. When chronicling the prosecution and media investigation, Fraser used excessively ominous music to underscore the narrative. The music is distinctly at odds with the soundtrak used in the rest of the documentary, and it reveals a director who is trying too hard to manufacture tension when the facts he's presenting are unsettling enough.   The documentary also veers badly off-course when it delves into a larger societal narrative of the scourge of cocaine in inner-city Washington, D.C., as well as the ensuing Congressional legislation that mandated excessive sentences for people convicted of possessing a small amount of crack cocaine (read: black males in the inner city) but was more lenient towards those convicted of possessing powdered cocaine (wealthy white folks from the suburbs). Those are compelling topics, but they seem out of place here. The time spent on those disgressions would have been spent on the stories of Bias's younger brother, Jay, who was murdered three years after Len's death, and the work that their mother has done in the years since to spread the word on the dangers of teenage drug use. When Wilbon quoted Jay Bilas as saying that there is a certain generation of Americans that marks time by the moment they heard about Len Bias's death, I nodded my head. I am part of that generation. I even remember my reaction when my friend, Evan, called me that morning and told me the news. "It's a hoax," I said. Unfortunately, it was all too real. Without Bias may not be easy to watch, but no matter what generation you belong to, it is important that you know his story. Even as you lament what could have been, you can't help but be amazed at what this guy could do. Follow <a href="http://twitter.com/SethDavisHoops">Seth Davis on Twitter</a> or <a href="http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000401200701">click here to friend him on Facebook</a> http://img.fannation.com/upload/user_profile/image/889/088/thumb/davis_seth.jpg 0 CT

Seth Davis Hoops

Ridgefield 889748 84501 <div class="photo_container image_right" style="width: 300px;"> <div class="photo"><img src="http://www.si.com/2009_images/len-bias.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="410" /></div> <div class="photo_attributes" style="text-align: left;">Len Bias died hours after being drafted by the Boston Celtics ( Focus on Sports/SI)</div> </div> Since I idolized Maryland forward Len Bias while growing up as a high school kid in the suburbs of Washington, D.C., you can imagine how much I was looking forward to firing up a DVD of Without Bias, the documentary that will air on ESPN Tuesday night at 8 p.m. as part of the network's "30 for 30" series. Alas, my giddiness morphed into profound melancholy as soon as the documentary began. The first thing that came on the screen was footage of Bias -- handsome, strong, bartitone-voiced -- conducting a television interview late in his senior season. "It probably won't dawn on me until about 10 years later," he said with a soft smile, "when I'm old and watching somebody else playing and say, 'Wow, I used to could do that. I could do it better than that." Could he ever. Bias's genius comes through during this documentary, but that is also what makes it so hard to watch. You can't see him glide and dunk and sink feathery jumpers without cringing from the knowledge that it will all end with a cocaine-induced heart attack suffered two days after the Boston Celtics selected Bias with the second pick in the 1986 draft. Without Bias is not without flaws, but it does an excellent job capturing both the brilliance and the tragedy of this beautiful, gifted athlete.