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Showing posts with the label 1986 NBA draft

Early death of two-consecutive first-round Celtics draftees hurt immeasurably

The pain of losing both Len Bias and Reggie Lewis will forever go down in Celtics history as a near-disaster that helped put The Green in a 22-year Championship drought. What could've been....sigh pic.twitter.com/ILDngfoBFW — Frosty Bias (@frostybias) January 15, 2021 Shortly after being taken second-overall in the 1986 NBA draft, Bias died of an apparent cocaine overdose. Boston had acquired the draft pick by means of trading Gerald Henderson to Seattle, and I not-so-fondly recall a cruel written comment indicating "the Celtics traded Henderson for a corpse."   Red Auerbach knew NBA talent, and Len had it big time. The 6'8" forward would have been a superstar in the League. The next year, Boston took 6'7" Reggie Lewis with the 22nd pick in the first round of the 1987 draft. If rival GMs could have a redoing of that draft, Reggie would have been snagged much sooner. He turned out to be that good.  But death intervened once again for Red and his team. Lew...