ESPN’s Len Bias Documentary Offers Few Answers

↵When Len Bias died, I was but a mere toddler. A sports blogging prodigy-to-be, just learning to string together poorly constructed fart jokes. Therefore, I have no memories of Bias. I know he was a great college player, who was drafted by the Celtics and died shortly thereafter of a cocaine overdose. That’s about it.

↵So I went into last night’s 30-for-30 documentary “Without Bias” with high hopes that I’d learn more about the man, and his tragic passing. Unfortunately, I did not.

↵Chris Littmann at The Sporting Blog has a fine review of the film, as does our own Searching for Billy Edelin, both of which share the same opinion as me: The doc answered nothing. Essentially, it was an hour-long play-by-play of the night Bias died, with a dash of politics thrown in (about a five minute tangent on how Bias’ death led to ridiculous mandatory minimum drug convictions, which may be true, but seemed awkwardly patched into the storyline).

↵We certainly didn’t learn whether or not this was Bias’ first time experimenting with coke, or if he was a regular user, which seemed to be the big breakthrough the film was searching to accomplish. Because it definitely wasn’t meant to be about Bias, the basketball player. This film was about Bias, the possible, but maybe not, although maybe he was, drug abuser. And if that was the focus, it failed to paint any sort of definitive picture. There were conflicting opinions from every angle — friends, family, teammates, journalists — none of which seemed to corroborate one another.

↵But what do I know? Watch for yourself at 10 p.m. ET tonight on ESPN2 when they re-air “Without Bias.” And if you already saw it, feel free to share your thoughts in the comments.