I’m unfortunately not a Bias supporter. I say ‘unfortunately’ since he had such a tragic ending, but I’ll cut/paste something I’ve posted online before about Len Bias. I’ll add that I lived in Baltimore 25 years ago and got to see a ton of full game tapes of his as a Terp from friends, and I was pretty shocked at how little impact he often had in games, especially against decent opponents.

1) Here are his college stats. If he’s supposed to play PF or in the post, then his rebounding totals are horrible (best season was 7.0 rpg). If he’s supposed to play SF or on the perimeter, then his ball-handling and passing are horrible (33 assists in 32 games as a senior). Good luck finding many highlights of him taking more than 1 dribble … few & far between. He played off the ball and finished off alley-oops; he wasn’t a creator or outside shooter. He used his quick first step to take lots of 1-dribble pull-up jumpers, but that’s arguably the least efficient shot in basketball, so it predictably had inconsistent results. Watch whole game videos with Bias, and you’ll probably be SHOCKED that he’s often not involved for long stretches, then he makes a highlight basket or two, they rave about him, and then you don’t see him doing anything again for a while.

2) He often posted his best stats & highlights against unathletic players, and would often do much worse (and be FAR less efficient) against better players. It’s a bit jarring to see how regularly he just vanished in games against athletic opponents (like the final game of his junior season against unranked 8-seed Villanova: box score).

3) His defense was bad. He was a tremendously athletic 6-ft-8 forward, yet he never averaged 1 steal or block per game in a season. Again, watch the game videos – he doesn’t stand out on D in any way, and certainly isn’t stopping anybody inside or outside.

4) It’s hard to argue he carried Maryland to any sort of decent heights. Bias is compared to Jordan, yet Maryland was 8-6 and 6-8 in the conference during his 2 ACC Player Of The Year seasons. They twice started the year ranked when he was there, but ended the year ranked only once (which was worse than their preseason ranking, plus it was his sophomore season when he wasn’t even the best player on the team). The pundits who voted definitely expected Bias & the Terrapins to do more than they did. In case you missed that, Bias was twice the ACC POTY but his team was NOT ranked at the end of either of those seasons.

5) Regarding Maryland’s tourney runs with Bias …. not good.

• ‘83 (Fr) - MD was 8th seed: beat 9-seed Chattanooga by 1, then lost to 1-seed Houston by 10

• ‘84 (So) - MD was 3rd seed: crushed 11-seed WVU 102-77, then lost to 2-seed Illinois by 2

• ‘85 (Jr) - MD was 5th seed: beat 12-seed Miami (OH) by 1 in OT, beat 13-seed Navy by 5, then lost to 8-seed Villanova by 3

• ‘86 (Sr) - MD was 5th seed: beat 12-seed Pepperdine by 5, then lost to 4-seed UNLV by 6

• In summary, they barely beat teams seeded 9, 12, 12, 13, and crushed an 11 (never beating a team from one of the 6 major conferences). Those are all the tourney wins over 4 years by someone compared to MJ. When they were in single-digit dog fights with teams seeded 2, 4, 8, they couldn’t pull it out. And none of those 3 teams they had close losses to had a player considered to be anywhere near Bias’ level.

It was absolutely a possibility. He preferred the ABA because they would have put him in NYC, where he wanted to be. KAJ and his team ran a very serious process, and they asked both league’s to give them their best offer in a single meeting. Unfortunately, the ABA approached it like it was just their first crack at KAJ, the NY Nets’ owner failed to give KAJ the famed $1m check to prove they were serious and had money (it was not Mikan who forgot to give it to him, as is often reported), and KAJ’s team didn’t see them as serious, so he went to the NBA.

I don’t know if the ABA would have absorbed the NBA, but I suspect they would have been a far more high profile league (and would have attracted more guys after, likely including Maravich), a bunch of NBA teams would have gone under, and there probably would have been a merger eventually.

It’s worth noting that Dr. J was still in college, and also then went on to play for Virginia for years before joining the Nets. Kareem would’ve joined a Nets team largely defined by playmaking PG Bill Melchionni and would’ve been without a clear co-star as a rookie until the Nets traded for Rick Barry the next summer (which very likely would’ve still happened, just with slightly different compensation due to the draft pick definitely conveying lower). So we would’ve gotten a Kareem & Barry pairing in NY. And Barry might’ve stuck around in New York long enough in the ABA Kareem universe that Erving never becomes a Net.

Nothing was really known until his daughter was older, and then people quickly pieced together the age of the mother and all of that. It didn’t have much of an impact since it couldn’t blow up huge on social media, or even really the internet.

Today, very few people remember Bobby Jones, Sidney Moncrief, and Dennis Johnson, but all of them were defensive MONSTERS.

A guy more people should have known at the time and now was E.C. Coleman. He was a tremendous defensive forward in the 70s, was truly feared by opponents like a peak-Artest/Kawhi/Bowen. He was a huge free agent signing in 1977, but then his brother died of a heart issue, he got all sorts of medical tests over the next year, and he just left the game shortly thereafter with a new perspective on life, new priorities, that sort of thing.

1976 was just a weird year, and the Suns definitely should have lost in the WCF to the heavily favored Warriors, but Rick Barry ALLEGEDLY sank his own team since they didn’t stand up for him in a fight. Paul Westphal was a far better player than most fans know/remember, they had a ton of good role players who played hard (Gar Heard, Curtis Perry, DVA, etc.), but they also got a historic rookie season from Alvan Adams. He was a great passer, and his averages of 19-9-6-1.5-1.5 will never be touched by a first year player again. He’s still the only rookie ever to average at least 5 rpg, 5 apg, 1 spg, and 1 bpg. Seems like several did or would, but nope, just Alvan Adams.

I mean, the #2 pick in the 1984 draft that could have been Jordan was originally theirs, which happened right at the same time Clark Kellogg’s super promising career started winding down at an early age due to injuries, so …. yeah.

And obviously the destruction of their ‘04 season with the Malice wasn’t good; they were 7-2 before that point and absolutely humming as Artest’s game was getting to be really complete.

What if Michael Jordan messed up his back after crashing hard to the ground on this dunk attempt in his very first pro game? The league was clearly about to lean in hard to exciting stars, so how does Stern “create” the storylines of the 90s without MJ?

What if Duncan won 10+ rings? The amount of times the Spurs could/would/should have had a great chance at winning the title but didn’t due to untimely injuries or miraculous performances or plays by an opponent was insane: ‘98 (Duncan twisted ankle), ‘00 (Duncan out), ‘01 (Derek Anderson out, he was SA’s best 3-point shooter and perimeter defender), ‘02 (Robinson injured), ‘04 (Fisher’s shot with 0.4 seconds), ‘06 (Manu’s dumb foul, followed by Dirk’s uncalled foul of Duncan), ‘08 (Manu injured), ‘11 (Manu broken arm, Duncan major ankle injury), ‘12 (OKC shot out of their minds against superior SA team), ‘13 (Ray Allen shot). After plugging in most of the holes with SA’s title-winning years (‘99, ‘03, ‘05, ‘07, ‘14), plus they had a better shot in ‘15 than most fans remember (crazy CP3 game-winner), you can see that Duncan likely had the best chance ever at matching Russell’s 11 rings.

What if Magic had to go to the Jazz, the team that had the #1 slot in the 1979 draft? Dr. Buss put up with a lot from him over the first 5-7 years of his career, and he had the most perfect situation ever to succeed, so I’m curious what happens in another spot.

I’m glad we’re not in the “hand completely on top of the ball” days, but it seems like things have gone too far, especially with relaxed reffing around gather steps and all that. I like where they were in the 80s/90s with more freedom of where the hand could be, but you still had more carries called, and Euro steps and the like had to really be clean to be allowed.

BTW, if you’re able to watch highlights of 60s/70s guards Earl Monroe (duh), Archie Clark, and Jimmy Walker, those three had a big hand in the dribbling rules getting relaxed/changed at that time.

Both were super legit! Watching how 17-year-old Sabonis played against 22-year-old mega-prospect Ralph Sampson in 1982 (21 pts, 14 rebs, 3 assists, 4 blocks, while very nearly toppling #1 Virginia in a preseason exhibition game) and then doing great against David Robinson in his two big match-ups with him in the mid-80s despite the fact he should have been resting major Achilles injuries are some huge indicators of how great he could have been in the league. Drazen was as legit a scorer and shooter as has been stated about him - not just “he died early so we gotta say good stuff” hyperbole. Unfortunately, Drazen was put into two bad situations in the NBA (Portland who barely used him, and NJ who let the inmates run the asylum at the time), so he was ready to leave the NBA at the time of his death, close to signing with a team in Greece.

He’d be called the best passer ever by far more people today. For those that don’t know, HOF-er Bob McAdoo played with Ernie D in his one healthy season (‘74 ROTY while leading the league in apg) and then with Magic later on the 80s Lakers, and he’s called Ernie the best passer ever. A lot of his perception would of course be tied to team success, so that’s a giant question mark since the entire 70s and early-80s were nuts for that type of stuff.

If anyone here doesn’t know who Ernie Digregorio was, go watch his passing highlights on YT, including the greatest pass in basketball history. You’re welcome.

Kidd. I’m not taking anything away from LeBron, but Kidd was an unbelievable creator of offense in a way that most fans still don’t get. And don’t get me started on his undervalued defense.

Jerry West would be the alpha guard today, no question. Amazing outside shooter, relentless driver (he still holds the NBA record with most made FT’s in a season, and that was with really tight reffing in the 60s/70s where lots of drives got offensive fouls), amazing defender who would hold the all-time steals record if they were recorded before his final season, and very smart passer. And he was a real leader who teammates loved. Also, he was taller than he was listed, and faster than most people think.

If they came up today without all the coke stuff, I’m really fascinated by how good Marvin Barnes and Marques Johnson could have been in the modern game.

Connie Hawkins is another one who would have dominated today. He was literally a taller Dr. J with a better outside shot, and far better passing. He wasn’t as dramatic of a dunker as Dr. J, but describing Hawkins’ offense starts with the base of Dr. J.

I’m not much for doing specific rankings, but he’s someone I’d consider for maybe a 3rd-tier of historic ISO scorers. Top tier are the few absolute terrors (ex: MJ, Bernard King), 2nd-tier are those guys who were regularly destructive in that way but didn’t have the consistent efficiency (ex: T-Mac, Melo, Dantley), and then 3rd-tier is guys like him who can get their points, but not at a level of consistent All-NBA. He wasn’t that long ago, so I’m pretty sure he’d be good today.

Jones and Sanders would have obviously still been elite defenders, but for what club and how forgotten would they have been as defensive forces (like who remembers Mel Hutchins?). I guess Siegfried is similar since his defense was a talking point around the late-60s Finals vs. LA/West, but he seems more likely to have not stuck in the league since he already didn’t want to go to the NBA after being drafted because he didn’t want to play in Cincinnati. But he got to play with college buddy Hondo on the mega-successful Celtics … maybe elsewhere he’s a decent SG for a while who then retires early to go do something better. Easy to stay when you’re winning titles on the regular.

Derek Fisher seems the most obvious to me. He stabilized the Lakers big-time as a locker room leader, first with the Shaq/Kobe years (the were 5th in the West late in the ‘01 season when he was out injured, then Fisher returned for the last 20 games, they were absolute world beaters even with Kobe out for 10 of them, and killed the playoffs) and later with the Kobe/Gasol years.

Another would have been Sam Cassell. Also, those 80s Celtics teams had numerous future head coaches on them, so take your pick there, lol.

If the debate is about impact on winning, it’s Russell, and it’s not that close. He had a hugely positive impact on his teammates (WAY better passer than he’s given credit for), and he was a master mind-game manipulator with opponents, including Wilt. I read the SI pre-season issue before Wilt’s rookie year, and it’s basically talking about Wilt joining a stacked team so they should win it all, and the Celtics might be done because their two guards were so old (literally had a comic of two guys bent over with canes and old wizard beards, indicating Bob Cousy and Bill Sharman who were in their early-30s). But then reality happened.

Big agreement from me on Laimbeer. I think he should be in as a player and as a coach. If we’re only talking about players from the NBA who are eligible for the Hall, some others for me would be Shawn Marion, Paul Silas, Shawn Kemp, Marques Johnson, Buck Williams, Tom Chambers, Kevin Johnson, Mark Price, Gus Williams …. but I must say that I’m not a strong proponent of much of anything the HOF does.

That being said, it’s a complete joke that executive Leo Ferris is out, similarly with 30s/40s player Cowboy Edwards, plus Rens player Wee Willie Smith. Those are probably the 3 people most obviously missing from the HOF dedicated to all of basketball history.

They could have done something in 2004, but then Webber returned and their ball movement stopped and they were no longer looking great in Peja’s big season (Sacramento was 1st in the West at 44-16 before Webber came back). Unfortunately, they’re just so poorly run and never seem to have their stuff together, but I always like seeing underdog teams and franchises mired in mediocrity for years to make a come up … like the Pistons in the 1980s after ~30 years of nonsense.

Roger Brown and Connie Hawkins are big ones for me since they had tremendous talent, but were stuck sidelined from the NCAA and the NBA. Obviously there were a ton of drug-based “what ifs” in the 70s, like Marvin Barnes and John Brisker and David Thompson, and I really like thinking through what those guys could have been.

One that I particularly like, and was another drug/addiction one, was Roy Tarpley with the Mavs in the late-80s. They got really good really quickly with him, nearly toppled the Lakers, and then he was basically done. He was a fantastic rebounder who also had fantastic impact on his clubs, including Michigan.

Oh yeah, the Cleo Hill story always gets me wondering if he could have been the 3rd-best guard of the 60s if he wasn’t drafted to the ALLEGEDLY most racist team in NBA history (St. Louis Hawks).

It helped A LOT in the 90s that Jerry Krause was structuring that roster around Jordan, and that the NBA had a lot of incentives to keep the Bulls at the top with the most marketable athlete on the planet. After that, Krause left, they went all in on some players they shouldn’t have (including the more recent Lavine), Rose got hurt, and then they just sort of reverted to the mean without ever getting traction on anything. I don’t follow them closely, but I get the sense they’ve been in “So what do we do now?” mode for a while, and they never go smartly and boldly enough into one direction, much like many franchises get stuck in for a long time.

I did not, but sounds like a cool book! Thanks for the recommendation!

But what did you mean by “pure” player? Do you mean best player (not someone whose total contribution to the game includes coaching, etc.) who won’t get in based upon what they did in the NBA? When you saw best, do you mean skills & such (someone like Tom Chambers), or do you mean impact on the game (someone like Bill Laimbeer)?

Raymond Lewis.

Assuming you mean someone who played in the NBA, what do you mean by a “pure basketball player”?

He was one of two major Suns injured by Game 3 of that 2021 Finals (his wrist and Booker’s hamstring and nose), so he should have won that title. That’s the biggest one he coulda/shoulda gotten.