len bias

We continue our NBA Draft coverage with looking back at the infamous 1986 NBA Draft with special guest Thomas Sena. Deremy and Thomas look at this draft and talk about why this draft had so much tragedy and disappointment. The guys talk about Brad Daugherty vs Len Bias. The impact of Len Bias death on the Celtics, league and our society at the time. The impact of the Sixers trading away the first pick of the draft. The impact this draft had on international players and also the teams who had legendary drafts in 1986! All this and more on Bigger Than The Game with Deremy and Jose!! Also check out Thomas’s podcast the SNL Hall of Fame!! 

Have you learned from someone else's mistake? What did you learn?

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What does it mean to say the NBA had a drug problem in the 1970s and 1980s?

In this episode of "Binge Sesh," hosts Matt Brennan and Kareem Maddox examine recreational drug use in professional basketball in the Showtime era. Zooming in on the depiction of Spencer Haywood in HBO's "Winning Time" and zooming out to the U.S. government's war on drugs, we deconstruct the rhetoric — from politicians, the press, even players — that shaped perceptions of the NBA and explain how systemic racism turned a health crisis into a moral panic. 

For the podcast transcript, production stills, real-life photos and links to much more, visit the episode page on latimes.com. 

Broadcasting and ESPN legend Mike Patrick spent over thirty years at the World Wide Leader and helped usher in the era of non-traditional NFL game times while serving as the first host of Sunday Night Football. He discusses growing up in West Virginia and how he stumbled into broadcasting, his life’s work, while in college. Get to know one of the best ever play by play announcers in his own words, including his open heart surgery that nearly derailed it all while he was at a pinnacle in his career.

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On this week’s edition of “That’s Your Opinion with ChickNSmoot" our guest is Tony Massenburg. We’re not sure how many seasons he played in the NBA or how many teams he played for (it’s more than 10) but he will straighten it all out for us. He chats about the who won the John Wall for Russell Westbrook trade, who was that one player he hated to face in the league, and we share a poignant conversation about the book he co-authored with his friend Walt Williams titled “Lessons for Lenny” about his college teammate Len Bias who died in 1986 from a cocaine overdose. Plus, we couldn't NOT talk about how Chick and Tony went to school together!

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Join me for a brief history of cocaine, an overview of the biopharmacology, and roadmap for how to undo the damage done by the war on drugs. 

Crack cocaine is just cocaine. The only difference is it can be smoked, which means it kicks in harder and wears off faster. And because of that, it can also be sold in small doses. These differences, which aren't differences, have been used to defend a racist war on drugs. More than 80% of Reagan-era crack sentences were given to black men, even though black folks don't use or sell drugs at rates any higher than white folks. 

In this episode I cover the history of crack in the United States from the late 1970s up to the present, including Richard Pryor's accident, Len Bias's (alleged) overdose, Freeway Ricky Ross, the Iran-Contra Scandal, Oliver North, the Rampart Scandal, and stereotypes about crack.

University of Maryland legend and NBA veteran Walt "The Wizard" Williams joins the show to talk about staying the course at Maryland during difficult times, appearing in Kevin Durant's new documentary Basketball County: In The Water, playing against Michael Jordan and Bulls, the influence that Len Bias had on him which prompted him to write the book Lessons from Lenny, and this past season's Maryland team.

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