3. “One Time, I Was Gone” | What If? The Len Bias Story

Book of Basketball 2.0

The Ringer

Sports

4.8 • 5.7K Ratings

🗓️ 16 June 2021

⏱️ 33 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In this episode, we examine the life and career of Spencer Haywood, a basketball Hall of Famer and one of the sport’s biggest stars of the 1970s. Haywood spent the latter half of his career battling a cocaine addiction at a time when the league lacked both an understanding and a policy for how to deal with a growing drug problem. We explore the climate around cocaine in basketball in the lead-up to the mid-'80s, and how that climate informed the public’s reaction to Len Bias’s death. Host: Jordan Riter Conn Producers: Hannah Beal, Isaac Lee, Noah Malale, and Bobby Wagner Production Assistant: Isaiah Blakely Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	I want you to meet someone.
0:03.0	Well, I was born in 1949 in Silver City, Mississippi.
0:08.0	And let me remind you, there is no silver in any other city.
0:17.0	When I started playing basketball, my first basketball was a basketball that didn't bounce.
0:23.0	My mother made us a basketball out of cotton and old rags and everything and said, listen, we don't have enough money to get a real basketball.
0:33.0	You put yourself a barrel rim up and we had already created a barrel rim hanging onto a backboard.
0:39.0	And one beautiful thing about that barrel rim is that big so you don't miss.
0:45.0	This kid from Silver City, Mississippi, became a basketball player with size, athleticism and talent you couldn't help but notice.
0:54.0	Talent that could serve as a passport to another life.
0:57.0	All of a sudden, when it came time for the selection of the team, they call my name out.
1:04.0	Me, on the Olympic team.
1:07.0	Okay, I'm going to be on alternate. It's okay, I'm good.
1:10.0	No, you're going to be a starter, you idiot.
1:16.0	So I'm a starter.
1:19.0	Talent that can make you rich and famous.
1:22.0	I had 30 points per game, 19.5 rebounds, Brookie of the Year, leading score, leading rebound, MVP of the league, MVP of the All-Soy game.
1:33.0	Yeah, I'm the man. So give me a new contract.
1:37.0	So they said, oh yeah, sure, we got you covered.
1:40.0	We're going to take care of it and we said this would work.
1:43.0	So they gave me a contract for $1.9 million.
1:46.0	Obviously, this is not Lynn Bias.
1:55.0	This is Spencer Haywood.
	...

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