And, though not as critical, Celtics fans still wonder what might have been had Bias lived to play on the parquet.
Says Ryan: “I will go to my grave saying there isn’t any doubt in my mind that, as good as the Lakers were in ’87, if the Celtics had Bias. . . . I mean, they took them to six games without Bias! With McHale’s broken foot and the battered guys and all the minutes they were playing and they didn’t have any extra oomph and the bench consisted of guys like Darren Daye and Fred Roberts. Are you shittin’ me? If they had Len Bias? C’mon. It would’ve changed everything.”
Mike Miliard can be reached at mmiliard@thephoenix.com.
Related:
Year in pictures, Irish, but not Celtic, Injustice department, More 
- Year in pictures
Imagery 2008
- Irish, but not Celtic
With the Boston Celtic Music Festival taking over a host of venues January 9 and 10 it can be easy to forget that not all Irish music is . . . Celtic music.
- Injustice department
Thank you Harvey Silverglate for shining a light on our criminal-injustice system with your new book Three Felonies a Day. And thank you Peter Kadzis for a great interview.
- NBA shoot-around
Sometimes, even superstar athletes just wear out their welcome. When Gilbert Arenas came into the league back in 2001, and especially after he moved to the Wizards in '03, "Agent Zero" was poised to be the next big thing in basketball.
- How weird is Stephon Marbury?
In 1994's The Last Shot: City Streets, Basketball Dreams , author Darcy Frey offers potent evidence that the matchlessly bizarre Celtic Stephon Marbury dates back at least to early adolescence.
- Ten years of great sports
Moments after Adam Vinatieri's field goal split the uprights as the clock expired in the Louisiana Superdome on February 3, 2002, the streets of Boston were in bedlam. Drunk people dangled from trees and hung off lampposts. Motorists leaned on their horns. I saw a guy hug a cop
- Throwback shame
Well, another year in sports crime has come and gone.
- Goal rush!
Get two journalists in a room these days, and before the conversation is five minutes old they'll probably be kvetching about the grim state of the news business. Unless, that is, they happen to be sports journalists, in which case the conversation will likely focus on how absurdly bright the future looks. Especially here in Boston.
- The wild bunch
Stephon Marbury is just the latest in a long and illustrious line of Boston athletes whose tenure here was marked by kooky, flamboyant, inscrutable, or bad behavior.
- Celtic crossed
It was nice knowing ya, Gabe Pruitt.
- Review: Rebound!
According to Boston Herald writer Michael Connelly, the deep racial wounds opened up by the Boston busing crisis of the mid '70s first began to heal when whites and blacks came together to support the Boston Celtics' championship team of 1981.
- Less
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