Talk:Len Bias

Yeah, i think his death was a sudden tragedy and it is so depressing to know that we lost one of the greatest African American basketball players to a drug overdose. He will be missed by many and the article was a beautiful piece dedicated on the behalf of his resting soul. May he continue to rest in peace and may many learn from his mistakes that cocaine can even take the life of a vigrant young star.

Explain the context

Whoever put in the last sentence of the first paragraph about a District Court and Court of Appeals ruling that Bias was a drug user needs to explain the context. By way of illustration, was this as a result of a coroners inquest; or was this the finding of a judge or jury in some civil suit related to this matter; or was someone charged with a crime related to Lenny's death and this was the ruling of a criminal court. Please explain why a court took up the matter.--205.188.116.69 18:41, 8 April 2006 (UTC)

---context--- when it comes to the context, the case where it was cited he was a drug user was Bias v. Advantage International, Inc. which was the company that he hired to represent him and his career (agents). They were supposed to get a life insurance policy before the draft for him at his and his families request, then Advantage represented they did, although they did not and the Bias family sued on Len's estate's behalf, but lost in a summary judgment by the District Court and affirmed by the Court of appeals, because they proved that he had been a known drug user, and no insurance company would have insured him regardless. i just read the case in law school civil procedure class. i hope you get this, and it sheds some light.

Trial/ "ruled a drug user"

I don't know specific citations, but the drug dealer, Brian Tribble, was acquited, in a large part due to Len Bias's teammates testifying that he had used the drug previously on numerous occasions. basically the court found that he was not a "first time user" as was played up ( partly as drug war propaganda). His coach and family don't believe he had ever used cocaine because he was polite and church-going...

Neutrality?

"...defending champion Boston Celtics aka the greatest basketball franchise of all time..." This statement, along with a couple of other opinionated statements, should be removed or altered. 216.180.75.58 14:28, 19 December 2006 (UTC)

Jay Bias

"On December 11, 1990, Bias's younger brother Jay, a promising high school basketball player, was shot to death in a dispute in the parking lot of Prince George's Plaza," actually Jay was a 20 year old mail room clerk at the time of his death.

WikiProject class rating

This article was automatically assessed because at least one WikiProject had rated the article as start, and the rating on other projects was brought up to start class. BetacommandBot 08:16, 10 November 2007 (UTC)

really poor understanding of cocaine psychokinetics

"Bias took a lethal dose of cocaine through inhalation (snorting), which, because of its location and method of ingestion (the nasal cavity), the dose went immediately to the autonomic nerve center of the brain. There, it shut down the nerve signals that tell the diaphragm to expand/contract (allowing a person to breathe).[citation needed] In other words, as the dosage in his blood stream rose (through inhalation), he promptly stopped breathing. In addition, other secondary effects of the overdosage were convulsive vomiting and an irregular heartbeat."

this is trash. first of all, "autonomic nerve center of the brain" doesn't mean anything. the autonomic nervous system is peripheral, as opposed to the central nervous system. secondly, cocaine is not a respiratory depressant (nor any other kind of depressant). it is a tropane alkaloid stimulant. He likely died of either a massive cardiac arrest, arrhythmia, or stroke. I don't know the details of this particular case, but I know that the above is incorrect based on basic facts about cocaine and human anatomy. and to boot, it's poorly written.

Scapermoya 09:18, 15 November 2007 (UTC)

Quote really worth mentioning?

" Mike Krzyzewski stated that Michael Jordan and Bias were two of the best players ever to come through the ranks of the ACC"

"Two of the best..." Way to go out on a limb, there Krzyzewski. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 63.225.179.246 (talk) 23:57, 25 April 2008 (UTC)

Exaggeration

"a potential backup for both the aging Bird and Kevin McHale who were getting on and were near the end of their careers."

This statement makes no sense. Both Bird and McHale were only at the halfway points in their careers. Bird would play for 6 more seasons and McHale for 7 more. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 206.253.186.24 (talk) 13:22, 25 May 2008 (UTC)