Author Topic: What If: Bias Had Said No to Drugs  (Read 3579 times)

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What If: Bias Had Said No to Drugs
« on: June 06, 2016, 09:58:56 PM »

Offline meangreenmachine

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In honor of almost thirty years passing since his tragic death: Discuss how Celtics history could have been altered had Bias lived and played as expected.

Re: What If: Bias Had Said No to Drugs
« Reply #1 on: June 21, 2016, 04:08:18 PM »

Offline budMovin

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This is the greatest "What-if" in sports history. I think Bias would have challenged Bird and Russell as the greatest Celtic ever if he became who he was supposed to become. With that being said, the 1980s Celtics would have won a few more championships and the transition into the 1990s would have been smooth when Bird started to get long at the tooth. That awful ML Carr season would have never happened and Rick Pitino would not have to be the anointed savior of the franchise because it would not have needed to be saved.

Bias was supposed to be an even bigger and more athletic Jordan who shared that same killer instinct that made Jordan so great. It hurts just thinking about how much we missed out on being able to watch Lenny Bias the Boston Celtic.
"What we do in life echoes in eternity"
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Re: What If: Bias Had Said No to Drugs
« Reply #2 on: June 21, 2016, 04:11:59 PM »

Offline LGC88

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What if :
Noah never build the Ark...

Re: What If: Bias Had Said No to Drugs
« Reply #3 on: July 20, 2016, 02:15:08 PM »

Offline Eric_Suede

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Not to disrespect him or his family in any way but I remember seeing the 30 for 30 about him and also another documentary about the situation that is escaping me but many of his old teammates said that was NOT his first time doing drugs. So a big part of me feel like even if he had not died. Once that monkey was on his back and he became addicted to coke. Career would've went downhill and he would've been a disappointment in the league. Chris Herren, Roy Tarpley, etc. Just my gut feeling.

Re: What If: Bias Had Said No to Drugs
« Reply #4 on: July 20, 2016, 02:33:13 PM »

Offline manl_lui

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if Bias never died from overdose or Reggie Lewis never passed away, my assumption is Bird will probably play for another year or two.

Also I would think the dark years of the Celtics in the late 90s wouldn't exist either, meaning we do not draft Walker or Pierce since Bias and Lewis will probably keep us relatively competitive throughout the 90s. No Pierce, god knows what happens in the 2000s once Bias and Lewis retires. KG/Ray Allen probably would not be in Boston as well.

Re: What If: Bias Had Said No to Drugs
« Reply #5 on: July 20, 2016, 02:48:28 PM »

Offline fairweatherfan

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if Bias never died from overdose or Reggie Lewis never passed away, my assumption is Bird will probably play for another year or two.

Also I would think the dark years of the Celtics in the late 90s wouldn't exist either, meaning we do not draft Walker or Pierce since Bias and Lewis will probably keep us relatively competitive throughout the 90s. No Pierce, god knows what happens in the 2000s once Bias and Lewis retires. KG/Ray Allen probably would not be in Boston as well.

Well remember Reggie died years after Bird retired.  And given reports of how much pain Bird was in his last year or two I don't know if Bias would've made much difference - seemed like playing basketball at all was a bigger problem than the number of minutes or workload.  If anything he might've been more willing to retire with the next generation in place.

Agree on the last part though - the ripple effect probably means the franchise bottoms out later on, and isn't positioned to build the KG/Ray/Pierce team.  We probably aren't in a position to even draft Pierce as you say.

Re: What If: Bias Had Said No to Drugs
« Reply #6 on: July 20, 2016, 03:05:37 PM »

Offline manl_lui

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if Bias never died from overdose or Reggie Lewis never passed away, my assumption is Bird will probably play for another year or two.

Also I would think the dark years of the Celtics in the late 90s wouldn't exist either, meaning we do not draft Walker or Pierce since Bias and Lewis will probably keep us relatively competitive throughout the 90s. No Pierce, god knows what happens in the 2000s once Bias and Lewis retires. KG/Ray Allen probably would not be in Boston as well.

Well remember Reggie died years after Bird retired.  And given reports of how much pain Bird was in his last year or two I don't know if Bias would've made much difference - seemed like playing basketball at all was a bigger problem than the number of minutes or workload.  If anything he might've been more willing to retire with the next generation in place.

Agree on the last part though - the ripple effect probably means the franchise bottoms out later on, and isn't positioned to build the KG/Ray/Pierce team.  We probably aren't in a position to even draft Pierce as you say.

here's another thing, if that is really the case, I wonder if Pitino will still happen or if Danny/Doc will still happen? Cuz I somehow still blame Pitino for majority of our dark years.

So if Pitino doesn't happen, and Danny was bought on earlier than expected, when Bias/Lewis retires, how would our down years look like?

Bias and Lewis were both drafted in 86/87 respectively so on average let's say they both last about 15-18 years.

that puts the Celtics competing until probably the end of their careers between 1999 to 2001. Therefore I don't think we will be in the lottery in any of those years, we will miss out on Pierce, Walker, and quite possibly, Billups, Joe Johnson.

So say when they retire around that time our real tanking/down years will be the first few years in the 2000s. Do we get in on that 2003 Draft lotto?

Re: What If: Bias Had Said No to Drugs
« Reply #7 on: July 20, 2016, 03:07:19 PM »

Offline dannyboy35

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What if :
Noah never build the Ark...


Pretty sure there wasn't one. Those penguins never would have made the trek. Lol. Sorry couldn't help it.

Re: What If: Bias Had Said No to Drugs
« Reply #8 on: July 20, 2016, 03:10:53 PM »

Offline dannyboy35

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The what if it all worked out for a year healthy team: Best ever
 bird, Mchale, Parrish, dj, Danny,
 Daye, bias, Walton, sichting .

                         

Re: What If: Bias Had Said No to Drugs
« Reply #9 on: July 20, 2016, 03:11:44 PM »

Offline dannyboy35

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Can mix and match the heck out of those 9 guys

Re: What If: Bias Had Said No to Drugs
« Reply #10 on: July 20, 2016, 03:13:17 PM »

Offline dannyboy35

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I think so many games would have been over by the start of the 4th qtr

Re: What If: Bias Had Said No to Drugs
« Reply #11 on: July 20, 2016, 03:29:38 PM »

Offline Granath

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Well remember Reggie died years after Bird retired.  And given reports of how much pain Bird was in his last year or two I don't know if Bias would've made much difference - seemed like playing basketball at all was a bigger problem than the number of minutes or workload.  If anything he might've been more willing to retire with the next generation in place.

I think it would have made a tremendous difference.

Bird played OVER 40 minutes per game in '86 and almost that many in '87. If Bias had been as advertised - and remember Bias could have easily played SF as well as PF in that era - Bird probably would have rested considerably more those seasons. With someone to take a bit of the load off, Bird may have opted for minor surgery before his back and Achilles problems manifested themselves in 1988. He originally hurt it in '85 and there's little doubt that fewer minutes and/or more recovery and treatment would have helped him before things came to a head in 1988.

After the 1987 season Bird played in only 186 games - pretty much two seasons' worth. I think Bias on the team doubles that number as Bird misses fewer games each season and probably extends his career a year or two. McHale probably extends his as well since Bias would also play minutes at PF.

But he didn't say no to drugs and that's the day the leprechaun died.
Jaylen Brown will be an All Star in the next 5 years.