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When Len Bias died, I was but a mere toddler. A sports blogging prodigy-to-be, just learning to string together poorly constructed fart jokes. Therefore, I have no memories of Bias. I know he was a great college player, who was drafted by the Celtics and died shortly thereafter of a cocaine overdose. That’s about it.
So I went into last night’s 30-for-30 documentary “Without Bias” with high hopes that I’d learn more about the man, and his tragic passing. Unfortunately, I did not.
Chris Littmann at The Sporting Blog has a fine review of the film, as does our own Searching for Billy Edelin, both of which share the same opinion as me: The doc answered nothing. Essentially, it was an hour-long play-by-play of the night Bias died, with a dash of politics thrown in (about a five minute tangent on how Bias’ death led to ridiculous mandatory minimum drug convictions, which may be true, but seemed awkwardly patched into the storyline).
We certainly didn’t learn whether or not this was Bias’ first time experimenting with coke, or if he was a regular user, which seemed to be the big breakthrough the film was searching to accomplish. Because it definitely wasn’t meant to be about Bias, the basketball player. This film was about Bias, the possible, but maybe not, although maybe he was, drug abuser. And if that was the focus, it failed to paint any sort of definitive picture. There were conflicting opinions from every angle — friends, family, teammates, journalists — none of which seemed to corroborate one another.
But what do I know? Watch for yourself at 10 p.m. ET tonight on ESPN2 when they re-air “Without Bias.” And if you already saw it, feel free to share your thoughts in the comments.
4 comments
Comments
Agreed
The Bias doc offered no new insights… It was still engaging, but I’d have watched just about anything instead of the Cavs-Wizards third quarter last night. I’d been hoping for the film to be a sort of companion piece to this E-Ticket article from last year, but it pretty much ignored any of the innuendo about prior drug use, in favor of vague (and confused) sentimentality that we’d seen in a hundred other Bias treatments.
Could have been much more informative, more focused, and probably more poignant—someone still needs to make a definitive Bias documentary, or perhaps write a book. I don’t know.
by Andrew Sharp on Nov 4, 2009 9:51 AM EST reply actions
Yes, it was engaging — I was at no point bored by it or anything — it just left me wanting a lot more. I think it may have been doomed from the start by time constraints — 45 mins (when you factor in commercials) just isn’t long enough. Although,as you said, more focus certainly would’ve helped.
by Chris Mottram on Nov 4, 2009 10:14 AM EST up reply actions
disagree
I learned much more about Len Bias than I would have otherwise known. He certainly was a great talent, but more importantly a good guy with a supportive family. The one thing that I was thinking after I watched it was the use of this documentary as a tool to educate our sports’ athletes on the consequences of poor choices of the company that one keeps and it only takes one night of using to perish as Bias did.
Mark F.
by ginzo69 on Nov 4, 2009 10:07 AM EST reply actions
yes, that point absolutely resonated with me…one night can ruin everything.
but for someone trying to better understand bias and all that surrounded him during his final months (and the fallout afterwards), the doc could have provided more.
by Nick Fasulo on Nov 4, 2009 10:59 AM EST up reply actions
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