1986 was indeed a Year of Triumph and Sadness for the Celtics…
The year was 1986 and our team was flying high; we had won the NBA championship that year and the icing on the cake was the fact that we had the number two pick in the upcoming draft.
The consensus number two pick that year was Leonard Kevin Bias who played for the Maryland Terrapins.
During his four years playing for Maryland, he was named a consensus first-team All-American and showed every sign of being a future NBA star.
Though still great players, our Big Three were beginning to show signs of aging, and fans were psyched at the team acquiring the talented young small forward who many of us thought had the star talent to keep us competitive for years, especially against the young Michael Jordan who was already showing signs of his future dominance of the league.
In 1986 I was still single and slept with a clock radio tuned to a Boston jazz radio station.
You know how sometimes you have a dream and is convinced it was real, only to awake and find out that you were dreaming?
Well, the NBA draft was held on June 17th that year, and two nights later on the 19th the opposite happened to me.
That night I had this dream; while asleep I heard on the clock radio that our new NBA draftee Lenny Bias had died of a cocaine overdose.
I awoke, but the radio had timed off and I thought, What a dream and went back to sleep.
When I awoke next day however I found that it was not a dream but indeed a nightmare for myself, the Celtics organization, fans and of course for the family and friends of the deceased basketball player.
A nightmare that may have had a profound effect on the Celtics future championship aspirations for years!
Len Bias was 22 years old when he died.
May he be Resting in Eternal Peace!
G R JOSEPH 