Late Boston Celtics draft pick Len Bias enshrined in Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame
Len Bias, who died just two days after being drafted by the Boston Celtics 35 years ago, is now enshrined in the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame.
Bias is among eight honorees in the Collegiate Hall of Fame's Class of 2021, who were all enshrined in Kansas City, Missouri, on Sunday.
The Maryland native played college basketball at the University of Maryland and became a dominant force in the Atlantic Coast Conference.
The 6-foot-8 forward scored 2,149 points over four seasons with the Terrapins, which still ranks third in school history, and averaged 5.7 rebounds per game throughout his collegiate career.
Bias was named the ACC Player of the Year in both his junior and senior seasons. He was a consensus second-team All-American as a junior in 1985 and a consensus first-team All-American as a senior in 1986.
The Celtics selected Bias with the No. 2 overall pick in the 1986 NBA draft, but the 22-year-old tragically died of a cocaine overdose two days after he was drafted.
"What I saw was my son. I saw my son Len Bias. But it wasn't until he died that I understood the magnitude of who this man was," his mother, Dr. Lonise Bias, told ABC News. "I can talk to men and women now and they have tears in their eyes about what happened 35 years ago in the death of this beautiful athlete, this beautiful man."
Sunday's enshrinement ceremony came just three days after what would have been Len Bias' 58th birthday.
More local connections in 2021 class
Celtics legend Paul Pierce was also enshrined as part of the Collegiate Hall of Fame's Class of 2021.
Pierce averaged double digits in scoring in each of his three seasons at Kansas University from 1995-98. He led the Jayhawks to 98 wins, three conference titles and two league tournament championships.
The Inglewood native finished his collegiate career with 1,768 points, including 777 in his junior season, as he was named a consensus first-team All-American and a finalist for the Wooden Award.
The Celtics selected Pierce 10th overall in the 1998 NBA draft. He is now a member of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame and his No. 34 jersey has been retired by Boston.
Tom Penders, who began his collegiate coaching career at Tufts University in 1971, is also a member of the Hall's Class of 2021.
Penders compiled a 54-18 record in three seasons with the Jumbos, and his 1972-73 team was inducted into the New England Basketball Hall of Fame.
After leaving Tufts, he took four different schools — University of Houston, George Washington University, University of Texas and University of Rhode Island — to the NCAA Tournament. He was named the 1987 Atlantic 10 CO-Coach of the Year after he led Rhode Island to 20 wins and a berth in the National Invitation Tournament in his first season in Kingston.
Other members of the Collegiate Hall of Fame's Class of 2021 include players David Greenwood (University of California Los Angeles), Hersey Hawkins (Bradley University), Jim Jackson (Ohio State University), Antawn Jamison (University of Carolina) and longtime Belmont University men's basketball coach Rick Byrd.