Each week The Examiner sits down with a Comcast SportsNet personality to get their take on the issues of the day. With the upcoming 20th anniversary of the death of formerMaryland men’s basketball star Len Bias, Chick Hernandez, a Maryland graduate, hosts “The Death of Len Bias: 20 Years Later,” a piece that runs during Comcast SportsNite at 10 p.m. on Monday.
Examiner: Len Bias died of a heart attack brought on by cocaine use on June 19, 1986, just days after being drafted second overall by the Boston Celtics. Has that day become a defining moment for anyone who lived in the Washington, D.C. area at the time?
Chick Hernandez: It was something nobody around that day could ever forget. I think the first thing everyone who grew up in this area thinks about when they remember the day of Lenny’s death is “Where was I when I found out”? It’s mind-blowing even now to think back to it. In our piece we interview Lenny’s mother, Lonise, his coach, Lefty Driesell, and some of his friends and teammates. Being a Maryland kid, it was a nerve-racking experience to sit down with them and report on such a sad occasion.
EX: Len Bias’ death became a national story that emphasized the harm drugs can bring to young people with so much promise. Did it also change the culture, both athletically and socially, at the University of Maryland?
CH: It was an eye-opener for everybody at the time. I know even for myself I was partying a lot in those days and it really made you take a step back. So in that sense it did change the culture of the school. And the administration reacted to it by increasing the academic standards it held athletes to. In our interview, Lefty Driesell says he blames himself for Bias failing out of school that spring semester.
EX: Bias’ mother, Lonise, lost another son, Jay, in 1990 when he was murdered. How has she coped with so much tragedy?
CH: I think it’s comforting for her that people still come up to her almost every day and want to talk about Lenny. But she and Lefty Driesell both are people of faith.She really looks forward to the day when she sees her sons again. That, more than anything, is what got her through such ungodly tragedy.
EX: The day Bias died was really the beginning of your own broadcast career.
CH: I was an intern at Channel 9 with the sports department and spent the afternoon gathering interviews with James Brown, the former DeMatha basketball star who everyone knows from his NFL work at Fox. I spoke with Jeff Baxter, Bias’ teammate and his suite-mate and was there when Keith Gatlin, another teammate, told JB that Lenny’s death was drug-related. I feel a whole lot older now, but when I think about June 19, 1986 it really doesn’t feel like 20 years have passed.
