Brian Tribble, Friend of Len Bias, Works to Rehabilitate His Image

One of the fascinating things about Without Bias, the ESPN documentary about Len Bias that debuts Tuesday night (review here), is the frank, matter-of-fact way that Bias's friend Brian Tribble talks about the night that Bias died. Some people said Tribble killed Bias by providing him with the cocaine that he overdosed on, but Tribble was acquitted when he went on trial for charges relating to Bias's death. Now, nearly a quarter of a century later, later, Tribble talks openly about that night.

Tribble did a live chat on ESPN.com Tuesday in which he said he shouldn't be in any way blamed for Bias's death. Tribble's comments included:

You always have to live with being accused of supplying (the) cocaine that killed him. Still to this day, that stigma is attached to me. ...

I felt like it was just (tragic) and I didn't have a lot of time to grieve, because I was going through an attack of not just the justice system, but the media. It was a terrible time to go through in my life. I couldn't imagine what his family was going through.

Several years after Bias died, Tribble was sentenced to 10 years in prison for dealing cocaine, but he now says he's a changed person who has put his drug-related mistakes behind him and gotten a second chance in life. How sad that Len Bias never got that second chance.