Reminder: Len Bias Documentary Premieres Tonight

The Len Bias documentary, “Without Bias,” airs tonight from 8 p.m.-9.p.m on ESPN. From an early Globe review: 

[Director Kirk] Fraser does a compelling job convincing viewers that Bias’s death triggered a national debate on drug use. And he aggressively questions the long-held belief that the 22-year old Bias was not, as has long been held, a naive athlete succumbing for the first time to the temptations that came with his stardom. The cocaine Bias took was so pure that whoever obtained it was no amateur.

But the documentary relies too heavily on Brian Tribble, Bias’s friend and a Maryland dropout, who was with the player when he overdosed. Though Tribble was acquitted of being Bias’s drug source, he later was sentenced to 10 years for cocaine distribution. He was the one who, with slurred words, called 911 on June 19, 1986. “This is Len Bias,’’ Tribble told the 911 operator in describing his friend having seizures. “You have to get him back to life. There’s no way he can die.’’

I was eight when Len Bias died. And yet somehow I literally have no memory of it—no memory of where I was when I heard the news, how I reacted, whether I watched news stories about it. Nothing. And I remember playoff games from 1984. But nothing about Len Bias’ death. I remember being aware of the name and the fact that the C’s used some front office wizardry to be in position to draft someone so good. You would think I would remember my Dad trying to explain to me that Len Bias, this guy I had been hearing all about as the C’s future, was suddenly dead. 

But I don’t. I’m DVRing the movie tonight and watching it at some point this week. We’ll have a review up sometime. It will be depressing.

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