It’s fun and mind boggling to set up “what if” scenarios. What if Bill Walton was healthy his whole career? What if Grant Hill never got injured? What if MJ never returned to the game after his first retirement? These are all interesting questions and we’ll never really know for sure what the answer to these questions are. Here’s another mind boggling question for you: What if Len Bias never died?

Who’s Len Bias you say? Well I understand if you don’t know him because he never got to play pro ball. I first got to know about him when I read the book Drive: The Story Of My Life by Larry Bird about 5 years ago. In the book Larry Bird talks about his life on and off the court since childhood. You see, Len Bias was drafted by the Boston Celtics with the no. 2 pick in the 1986 draft and was regarded as one of the unstoppable players in the league of His Airness.

“When I think about Len Bias now, I think of how hard he competed and how tremendously talented he was,” Krzyzewski said. “Other than Michael Jordan, he is the player that no teams had the answer for. He was that good.” Source

Unfortunately, Len Bias died just two days after draft night due to cocaine intoxication. Drugs claimed the life of a player who might have kept the Celtics dynasty alive longer. Imagine playing a game against Larry Bird, Kevin Mchale, Robert Parish and Len Bias. Assuming he really was that unstoppable, I say Isiah and his Pistons wouldn’t have won those two championships, the Lakers might not have won those two championships in 87 and 88. I say even the Bulls wouldn’t have won as many rings as they did. But alas, now we’ll never know if he was that good.

Mind boggling isn’t it?