and focused his work on reforming sentencing guidelines. >> ipted the population was 36,000 when len biasied. it was over 200,000. billions spent as a consequence of the tragedy of len biases death. >> now, nearly 30 years later, congress and the white house poised to make an overhaul of trying crime law. men fans mark the anniversary of len biases death with a round of what ifs, how he might have changed the n.b.a. had he lived. and others wonder how len bias's deaths comms to change the lives of other black men. >> the miscarriage of justice. the iron yip. len bias, the hero, is avenged by getting the people that looked up to him. the hernia, the cocaine, is still coming in. the guns are flowing, you know. the would-be len biases, you know, are still dying. this time, before they get to that point, so you lose it all, the potential, and people don't get it >>> had he lived today, len bias would be a man in his 50s. >> next we consider the men doing their time. and what comes after. in a moment, we consider ageing out of the system, and what comes next. comes next. >>> a debt paid to soc

len bias, twice the a.c.c. player of the year, twice an all-american. the one guy that might outplay michael jordan. a hard-core hero, growing up minutes away from the university of marylands. >> lo and behold here is a 6 foot 8, 220 pound basketball player from this neighbourhood, who could hang in the air for 3, 4 seconds. he looked like a kid, but when he took the ball, went up to the hoop and hung for a second saying "do i have your attention everyone", and delivered what they called the neutron slam dunk >>> in the mid-1980s, cortland malloy was a rock star, writing for "the washington post," his finger on the pulse of urban life. in a rapidly changing city. >> we came out, blinded by the glitter ball turning. the sky seemed like the limit. you may call it a false sense of success. people thought we had it made. but it wouldn't take long before apparent. down. >> cocaine came to town. >> reporter: crack came to town. it caught up a lot of people, including the mayor. >> yes, lots of people. >> reporter: it caught you, too. >> well it caught me - i

this is what len bias' death produced. >> that's right. this is the public log that president reagan signed income october. >> reporter: in 1986, eric sterling was a young lawyer, serving the house judiciary committee. when democratic speaker, tip o'neil, returned to boston, demanding an immediate overhaul of drug crime law. >> this is four weeks, completely. >> could you have slowed the train down? >> absolutely not. no one was slowing this thing down. we would have not had the mandatory minimum had it not been for len bias, because it changed the whole equation. >> sterling insists that there was not a deliberate attempt to target minorities, but the rush legislation made it easier for the police and prosecutors to go after the little guys. >> that's what led to the fury of the american people. that the law used for high level traffickers is used against the low level offenders, who are overwhelmingly black. >> len bias, the hero, is avenged by getting the people who looked up to him, the would-be len biases are still dying, but this tim

. >> with plenty to celebrate, len bias got caught up, too. in june of 1986, he was the first round draft pick of the national champions. he picked up his celtics jersey one day, the a million dollars shoe deal underway the next and then headed back to campus to celebrate. by the next morning, len bias was dead of a cocaine overdose. >> this is a look at the history. >> yes. >> this is what len bias's death produced. >> that's right. this is the public law to president reagan signed in october. >> in 1986, eric sterling was a young lawyer serving the house judiciary committee. when tip o'neill returned from a trip to boston demanding an immediate overhaul of drug crime law. >> this was produced in four weeks. >> this was a russia job. >> completely. >> could you have slowed the train down? >> absolutely not, no one was slowing this train down. we would not have the mandatory minimum if not for len bias because that changed the whole equation. >> he insists there wasn't an attempt to target mines, but it made it easier for police and prosecutor

is there a point where you start seeing everything through the lens of bias?mean i can't speak specifically to the ithaca situation. what i think is kind of interesting here is that, you know, at what point do we say perhaps there is a "there" there. at what point do we grant credibility? what we tend to do is talk about one isolated instance. so this is one particular thing that happens at ithaca. and i'm much more concerned with context. i'm a historian. i say well there is one isolated incidence and this is contrary to the general climate of this campus. then i think the incident won't go anywhere. but if that incident winds up speaking to a broader reality that taps into something people relate to, then sometimes it is just one small situation that sparks a much greater response because things have been building up long before that. so i don't know about that about ithaca. but i do know in other circumstances this is the narrative that we've heard from students again and again. i've been teaching for almost 20 years at this point. and this has ban consiste

bias on that front. there is so many other reasons for winter blahs. olessa: we are not seeing too much volume. that is good news. you can see the raindrops on the lens, it is not the most pleasant commute. 490 five southbound, an accident cleared by route 97. a cross cleared on the northbound side of 93 involving a fuel spill, but that is out of the way. route 1 northbound, and issued by route 16, that has cleared. the pike is in good shape. 15 from braintree into boston. the green line is seeing minor westbound lanes on the d branch, everything else is on schedule. cindy: you can see the weather is not the nicest. a rainy start. it is raw, dropping to 46 in the last few minutes. a northerly wind is sustained. it is gusting close to 40 in boston. you get the idea. it is wet and windy. the wind could gust up to 50-miles-per-hour along the coastline. up the water. at high tide, at 11:00 this morning, there could be a splash over and minor coastal flooding. 46, boston. some lower 50' s on the cape. temperatures hold steady and fall a of degrees is into the afternoon. mis t and drizzle in the afternoon. low pressure is tracking toward us. the rain will