Date: 1996-09-30
Speaker: DE LA GARZA (democrat)
Chamber: H

Mr. Speaker. I rise to visit with my colleagues and especially to address the youngsters in our country. At home when I visit schools I tell the story of a young man named Len Bias. who lived in nearby Maryland here. Len Bias was a great basketball player when he was a kid. He could do anything with a basketball. He could make it sing a song. Six feet tall by the time he was 10. 12 years old. Went to high school. They won the championship. He won all of the medals. he won everything. High schools were looking for him all over. and then college. He went to the University of Maryland. although he had scholarships from 20 some colleges that had offered him a scholarship. Same thing in Maryland. Four years. Len Bias was a man of the hour in basketball. Not only in basketball. he was a leader in the church. a leader on the campus. He was a great individual. That year the Boston Celtics won the world championship. and they were looking at him. and he went to Boston and the word is that he signed a contract for I do not know how many millions. $8 million. $10 million. Came back and was met by some friends at National Airport. They went back to the campus. and they were disobeying the rules. but someone had some liq*uor. He was tired. but he had the world in the palm of his hands. I do not know how many millions of dollars he had signed with the Boston Celtics. and one of the friends. supposed friends. said. "Why arent you happy. why arent you excited." He said. "Well. I am just tired." He said. "Here. I will give you something that will help you. take a sniff of this and you will feel good. you will feel great." He says. "No. I dont do that." "I dont do that." Len Bias said. and they kept insisting and insisting and insisting. Finally. he said. "Okay. let me try it." and he went like that and he was dead before he hit the floor. He didnt know his body would not tolerate cocaine. This fine specimen of an individual. this hero. this now rich young man from the suburbs of Washington. he was dead because of one who professed to be his friend gave him a little cocaine. What I would like to leave you with is we do not want any more Len Biass. We do not want any of our youngsters to have to suffer with that. to have to suffer the family. And you know what happened? He was such a leader. when the word got out. it was past midnight. 1 oclock in the morning. .When the word got out on campus. people started coming out of the dorms and they were coming out in the square there. Some opened the gym and the gym started filling up and what happened. Len Bias died. Len Bias is dead. One of the students lit a candle. Someone started singing Negro spirituals. black spirituals. the whole college came up. What happened to Len Bias? A friend had given him a sniff of a little white powder and then there was no more Len Bias. We do not want any more of our youngsters to go that way. We want them to be Len Bias. the basketball player. the hero. the loader in the college. the leader in the church. the leader in the community. I do hope that those who remember Len Bias but those that may never have heard of him. if you remember nothing else of what I say today. remember that there was a young man with a future that would not quit but a friend led him astray and now there is no more Len Bias.