The MAMBA

Len Bias in college, was about as COLD as they come. Many projected him to be as good as Mike, with just as much athleticism, but with an even better jumper. Those young kats around here may not know about him, but to the people here who saw him play...how do you think he would've stacked up? That Celts/Bulls rivalry would have been intense with Jordan v.s. Bias. It's an unfortunate occurance that he died, but how would you have saw him panning out if he ever got to compete in the NBA?

ralaw

In my opinion Bias was a good player. I also believe much of his legend has been overrated since his death. Yes, he had all of the attributes that we associate with greatness, but who is to say he would have improved any more from where he already was? What was his ceiling? How would he have developed? What kind of work ethic did he have? How would he have responed to the money?

The problem with the argument of Jordan vs. Bias is in one argument you are arguing fact and in the other you are arguing fiction. Not to mention the argument is flawed as well due to the fact that you would be using the standard set by Jordan to argue Bias being greater. Having seen what Jordan accomplished it is too easy to assume Bias would have accomplished more. In my opinion there is too many variables that go unanswered before we could even consider a Michael vs. Bias discussion.

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Diable

Actually MJ is vastly overrated as a college player by people who assume that he was MJ back then.He played for some really outstanding teams,but he wasn't even the best player on two of the three teams he played for.He was extremely good,but nothing resembling the dominant player that he became.As a college player he probably just barely gets into the top ten in ACC history.Bias was absolutely amazing.He was doing all the things that Jordan did in the NBA at UMd(including the part where neither of them showed up for classes).In ACC history I would rate him just behind David Thompson,Phil Ford and maybe Johnny Dawkins.After that it's silly to compare the greatest of all time to a guy who killed himself freebasing cocaine before he ever stepped onto an NBA court.

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kflo

if people thought he was going to be the best ever, don't you think he would have been drafted ahead of brad daugherty?

he was an awesome player, but lets not assume he was on THAT level. he was a different type of player.

jordan even had the better college career.

kflo

he (jordan) was a consensus college player of the year and 2 time 1st team all-american (2 time sporting news poty) , bias a 1 time 1st team all-american (who didn't win poty).

HKF

Bias is dead. Who knows how he would have done as a pro. Heck David Thompson was supposed to be better than Julius Erving, but he was a drug addict till he cleaned himself up.

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My favorite NBA players: Kobe Bryant * Carmelo Anthony * Ben Gordon * Deron Williams * Joe Johnson * Kevin Martin * Tim Duncan * Kyle Lowry * Thad Young * Amare Stoudemire * Dwight Howard * Josh Smith * Brandon Roy * LaMarcus Aldridge * Rudy Gay * Al Horford * Brandan Wright * Craig Smith * Renaldo Balkman

2008-09 Favorite Rookies: Jerryd Bayless (POR), Roy Hibbert (IND), Greg Oden (POR), Jamont Gordon (undrafted), Chris Douglas-Roberts (NJN), Joe Alexander (MIL), Patrick Ewing, Jr. (SAC)

College Basketball: "Where 7-Foot Bigs Foul Out Happen"

Diable

I saw all the guys I mentioned.What I said is the consenus among people who have actually watched ACC basketball over the period.There have been a very good number of ACC players who were demonstrably better than Jordan in college.As college players Phil Ford and David Thompson both made Jordan look mediocre and that is just the to beginning of the list.Jordan was a very good college player and nothing more.

Hakeem Olajuwon went first in the draft and then Sam Bowie was drafted.Do you think the immortal MJ would have been passed over for a guy like Sam Bowie?No...He wasn't anything of the sort coming out of college and absolutely noone knew what he would become at that point.Below the neck Len Bias was every bit as good a player as Jordan and he played like a superstar in college.Noone has any clue whether or not Bias could have approached him because he poisoned himself with cocaine,but anyone who watched both would know who was the better college player.

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jmk

The sad thing about Bias is that he wasn't that type of person. He was a good kid who made one bad mistake and paid the ultimate price for it. It was without a doubt one of the most shocking moments in the history of sports. He is one of the few players, though, that can reasonably compared to a Michael Jordan. It's very possible if he hadn't died that nowadays we would be asking, "Is so-and-so the next Len Bias?" It's a big shame that we never got to see what he could have become.

"From Tragedy to Triumph" (YouTube)

Short Tribute (YouTube)

Another Short Tribute (YouTube)

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kflo

i saw the guys you mentioned as well, and jordan was the better college player. he was the leading player on the #1 team in the country, and he was national player of the year. bias wasn't. bias wasn't consensus 2nd team as a soph, and was only consensus 1st team as a junior. jordan was sporting news poty 2 times, and consensus 2x 1st team all-american.

The ACC's 50th Anniversary Top 10 Male Athletes are listed below:


ACC Top 10 Male Athletes

1. Michael Jordan............ North Carolina
2. David Thompson......... NC State
3. Charlie Ward................ Florida State
4. Arnold Palmer.............. Wake Forest
5. Randy White................. Maryland
6. Ralph Sampson........... Virginia
7. Lawrence Taylor........... North Carolina
8. Tim Duncan................... Wake Forest
9. Phil Ford......................... North Carolina
10. Renaldo Nehemiah... Maryland

that was voted by the acc.

you're just wrong about a list of guys who made him look mediocre.

there was another list, top 100 ncaa players ever and jordan was 13, bias 39, ford 25 and thompson 7.

link

the point on bias getting drafted behind daugherty was that the expectations weren't that he was potentially going to be the best ever. we know what jordan became, so it's irrelevant what he was projected to be (and obviously he was expected to be very good). with bias, all we have is his projection. we're talking about whether he could have been greater than jordan was, not whether he was expected to be better than jordan was expected to be at the time.

and spare me the "anyone who watched..." stuff.

bias was a different player. he wasn't a guard. he was a forward. he didn't have jordan's quickness or ballhandling. he was like dominique wilkins combined with terry cummings.

kflo

i loved bias as a college player. one of my favorites ever.

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