Len Bias: The Greatest What If in NBA History?

There are a lot of “what ifs” in NBA history.

What if Michael Jordan had never retired? What if the Lakers had kept Shaq and Kobe together? What if Chris Paul had actually been traded to the Lakers?

But there is one What If that feels different from all the others.

Because with Len Bias, we are not talking about a player whose career went in the wrong direction, or someone who retired too early. We are talking about a player who never even got the chance to play an NBA game.

And somehow, before he ever stepped onto an NBA court, people were already talking about him as if he could become one of the greatest players ever.

The next Michael Jordan?

At the University of Maryland, Len Bias was a monster.

He was an incredibly athletic forward, explosive, powerful and capable of taking over games. His combination of size and athleticism made him extremely difficult to guard, and by the time he entered the 1986 NBA Draft, he was considered one of the best prospects in the country.

The comparisons to Michael Jordan were inevitable.

But what makes Bias's story even crazier is that some people didn't believe the comparison stopped at “the next Jordan.”

There were people who genuinely believed Bias could eventually be better than Jordan.

Obviously, we have to be careful with that kind of statement today. Bias never played an NBA game, so we can never know whether that potential would have actually translated.

But that was the level of hype surrounding him.

And then the Boston Celtics selected him with the second overall pick.

That was basically the worst possible news for the rest of the NBA.

Boston had just won the 1986 NBA championship. They already had Larry Bird, Kevin McHale and Robert Parish. They were one of the greatest teams basketball had ever seen.

And now they were adding Len Bias.

Imagine being an NBA team in 1986 and looking at that.

The Celtics were already a dynasty, and they had just added a player who was supposed to become a superstar.

If Bias had developed into the player many expected him to become, Boston could have been almost impossible to stop.

And then everything changed

Len Bias was selected on June 17, 1986.

Two days later, he was dead.

He was only 22 years old.

Bias died after suffering an acute cocaine intoxication. He had never played an NBA game. He had never played a single minute alongside Larry Bird. He never wore the Celtics uniform in an official game.

He went from being one of the most promising young athletes in America to being a tragedy that shocked the entire country in the space of just a few days.

And this is where the story becomes much more complicated than basketball.

Because Bias wasn't some stereotypical rich kid who had been handed everything in life.

He was a young Black athlete who had worked his way toward the dream of reaching the NBA.

He had finally made it.

He had just been drafted by one of the greatest franchises in basketball history.

And then, almost immediately, his life was gone.

That is part of what makes his story so difficult to process even decades later.

You can understand why people have continued to ask questions about that night.

What exactly happened?

Who was with him?

What happened between the moment he used cocaine and the moment emergency services were called?

What did the people around him know?

And why did a 22-year-old who had just reached the biggest moment of his life end up losing everything almost immediately?

There is an official explanation for his death, and we shouldn't turn speculation into fact.

But over the years, different stories, questions and theories surrounding the circumstances of his death have kept the case alive in people's minds.

And honestly, that is the part of the story I find most fascinating.

Not because we should sensationalize his death, but because behind all the basketball mythology there was a real person, a real family and a real tragedy.

But what if Len Bias had lived?

This is where the basketball side of the story comes back.

If Bias had survived, there is a very real possibility that the NBA landscape of the late 1980s and early 1990s would have looked completely different.

Boston could have dominated the league for even longer.

Imagine a young Len Bias developing next to Larry Bird, Kevin McHale and Robert Parish. He wouldn't have needed to become the number one option immediately. He could have learned from one of the greatest teams ever assembled while gradually becoming the face of the franchise.

And eventually, as Bird got older, Bias could have taken over.

That could have completely changed the balance of power in the Eastern Conference.

Because at the same time, Michael Jordan was beginning to build his own legacy in Chicago.

Jordan was already special, but the Celtics were one of the biggest obstacles between him and championships.

Now imagine adding Bias to that rivalry.

Maybe Jordan still becomes the greatest player ever.

Maybe he wins fewer championships.

Maybe Boston and Chicago become the defining rivalry of the early 1990s.

Or maybe Bias becomes something even bigger.

Maybe he becomes Jordan's greatest rival.

Maybe he becomes better than Jordan.

And there is another possibility that I think is really interesting.

Maybe Bias would have been to Jordan what Kevin Durant eventually became to LeBron James.

Not necessarily better overall, but another generational talent who was good enough to challenge the best player in the world and create an entirely different NBA hierarchy.

That might actually be the most realistic way to look at it.

We don't know if Bias would have been better than Jordan.

We don't even know if he would have become a Hall of Famer.

But the talent and hype were real enough that imagining him as one of the defining players of the late 1980s and 1990s isn't crazy.

And that's what makes the What If so painful.

There wasn't a bad NBA season.

There wasn't a disappointing career.

There wasn't even a rookie season.

There was nothing.

Just potential.

The career we will never know

Maybe Len Bias would have become one of the greatest players ever.

Maybe he would have won multiple championships with Boston.

Maybe he would have changed Michael Jordan's career.

Maybe he would have become the face of the NBA after Larry Bird.

Or maybe the enormous expectations would have been too much.

We will never know.

And that's the thing about Len Bias.

When we talk about most NBA What Ifs, we are changing one event in a career that already happened.

With Bias, we're imagining an entire career that never existed.

We can create the statistics.

We can imagine the championships.

We can debate Bias vs. Jordan.

We can imagine Boston dominating the NBA.

But none of those things ever happened.

Because Len Bias died before he had the chance to become whatever he was going to become.

And maybe that's why, almost forty years later, his name still feels different.

Len Bias wasn't a failed superstar.

He wasn't an overrated prospect.

He wasn't a player who never lived up to expectations.

He was simply a 22-year-old who never got the chance to find out how good he could have been.

And that might make him the greatest What If in NBA history.