College Basketball Star Len Bias Dies : Heart Failure Is Cited Amid Reports of Cocaine Use

Len Bias, All-American basketball forward at the University of Maryland who two days earlier had been chosen second in the National Basketball Assn. draft by the Boston Celtics, died of heart failure early Thursday morning amid reports that he and some friends had used cocaine shortly before.

Spokesmen at Leland Memorial Hospital would neither confirm nor deny reports quoting hospital and police sources as saying that traces of cocaine had been found in Bias’ urine, nor would they confirm whether a reported urinalysis had been performed or would routinely be performed in a case like this.

After attending a party and taking a drive by himself Bias, 22, returned to his dormitory in the early-morning hours and began having seizures at about 6:30 a.m., prompting teammates Terry Long and David Gregg to attempt resuscitation and to call an ambulance.

Bias was taken to the hospital by a mobile intensive care unit staffed by paramedics who kept his heart beating by artificial means. When he arrived at the hospital at 6:50 a.m., Bias was in full cardiac-respiratory arrest and in critical condition.

For two hours, doctors attempted to revive Bias by administering shots of adrenaline and electrical jolts and by implanting a pacemaker.

“There was never any kind of response at all,” hospital spokeswoman Lynelle Quinnam said. “He was never conscious.”

Edward Wilson, director of the hospital’s emergency department and the doctor who worked on Bias, talked with Bias’ friends and said that Bias “apparently had no idea it was coming and there were apparently no chest pains preceding it.”

Bias was pronounced dead at 8:50 a.m., and his body was transferred to the state medical examiner’s office in Baltimore for an autopsy. Dr. John Smialek, the chief state medical examiner, said preliminary findings would not be released, and it was estimated that a complete report would take from several days to a week.

Homicide detectives of the Prince Georges County Police Dept. are investigating the death, a standard procedure here for deaths that occur in an emergency room.

“There’s no suspicion of foul play,” said police spokesman Bob Law, who also refused to comment on the reports of drug use.

Maryland officials spoke of Bias as a very religious, unselfish person of high character who had realized his dream by being drafted by the Boston Celtics. But shortly after Maryland Coach Charles G. (Lefty) Driesell had tearfully said at a press conference that he would look forward to seeing Bias “in heaven one day,” WDVM-TV in Washington quoted unnamed members of the Maryland basketball team as saying that Bias and some of his teammates had used cocaine in the hours before his death.

Players also reportedly said that rather than celebrating his dream come true, Bias had seemed irritated by all the attention that had been focused on him in the previous days in New York at the NBA draft, and in Boston, where Bias met with officials from the Celtics and the Reebok shoe company. Bias had not yet signed his Celtic contract.

“Everybody was asking him questions, maybe for two hours,” said football player Keeta Covington, one of the students who had been with Bias. “He said he’d gotten tired of that and told us, ‘Look here, fellas, I’m trying to get away from this rut. I want to be alone.’

“I walked out to his car with him, and that was it. He ran to his car, that’s how good he was feeling (physically). That was 2 or 2:15 a.m. He seemed perfectly well to me.”

A friend of Bias’, David Driggers, reportedly said he saw Bias shortly thereafter at a small gathering in a parking lot just off the campus and added that there was no alcohol or drugs at the gathering. “Just soda,” Driggers was reported as saying. “We were sitting around drinking sodas. . . . He stopped by and said how excited he was and talked for a while.”

Covington later said that Bias returned to the campus at about 3 a.m.

Shortly after Bias’ death, several of the teammates and other students who had been with him gathered at Driesell’s house and prayed, Driesell said. They could not be found or reached in their dormitories for further comment.

Dick Dull, Maryland athletic director, said he would be “shocked” if drugs turned out to be the reason for the heart attack. Other Maryland officials echoed that thought.

But everything about the tragedy seemed to defy reason. Not only was Bias young and in excellent health, as confirmed by recent physicals conducted by both the Celtics and Golden State Warriors, but he also was an exceptional physical specimen--strong, graceful and elegantly proportioned almost beyond human standards. The pre-draft physicals, in late May, also revealed no trace of drug usage, the teams said.

The idea of Bias overdosing on drugs also stands in contradiction of every impression that most people had of the young man who grew up in nearby Landover and used to sell snacks at Maryland’s basketball arena as a youth, as well as attend Driesell’s basketball camps. Driesell, noting that he had known Bias since sixth grade and thought of him “like a son,” said: “Len was a ‘born-again’ Christian. He turned his life over to the Lord.

“I don’t care what caused this, because that can’t bring him back. All I know is I love Len Bias. I miss him. And I’ll see him in heaven one day.”

At that point Driesell’s voice completely choked off, tears slid from his eyes and he left the microphone.

Dull said that Maryland has a random drug-testing program, and a spokesman for Bias’ financial management company, Gordon Wangersheim, said that Bias had undergone at least two drug urinalyses last season, one of them with no advance warning, and had passed both of them.

“To our knowledge he was a clean kid,” Wangersheim said.

Dull said that the drug testing never had turned up any drug users on the team.

Bias and two other players were suspended for one game by Driesell in February for missing curfew after a road victory. Driesell and Dull both said, however, that there had been no drugs or alcohol involved in the incident.

Bias said at the time that they had gone to the room of a North Carolina State player to watch a video replay of the game they had just played that evening.

News of Bias’ death brought reminders of the sudden death of another Maryland player, Chris Patton, who collapsed and died during a pickup game in 1976, just two months after a former Maryland player, Owen Brown, had died of a rare heart ailment.

Patton’s autopsy revealed that he had suffered from Marfan’s syndrome, the same heart ailment that suddenly killed Olympic volleyball star Flo Hyman last January. Brown died of a different heart ailment.

The deaths of Patton and Brown devastated Driesell and prompted the university to become very watchful for the symptoms of Marfan’s, which occurs most frequently in tall people. Officials said that Bias did not have Marfan’s syndrome.

The 6-8 forward was Maryland’s all-time leading scorer with 2,149 points and was Atlantic Coast Conference Player of the Year for the second straight year, beating out the one player who was picked ahead of him in the NBA draft, North Carolina’s Brad Daugherty.

Bias was perhaps the best of Maryland’s great players, who include the likes of Buck Williams, Albert King, Tom McMillen and John Lucas.

Driesell took it a step further. “I think he’s the greatest basketball player who ever played in the ACC,” the coach said, ranking Bias above such players as Ralph Sampson, Michael Jordan, James Worthy, Phil Ford and David Thompson.

Bias is survived by his parents, James and Lonice Bias, and by two younger brothers and a younger sister. His family is requesting donations to the Len Bias Scholarship Fund, c/o the University of Maryland, instead of flowers.