30 Years in 30 Days: Day 29- The Fall Guy

Cocaine supplier Brian Tribble, standing on his tiptoes to the left of Len Bias, to look taller than he was

Every complicated story has its villain.  When Len Bias overdosed on cocaine the fingers pointed at Brian Tribble.  He was the only one in the room in Washington Hall that wasn't a varsity athlete at Maryland.  He was the one who had purchased the cocaine that lab tests had as being 89% pure, or perhaps twice the limit normally found illegally on the street.

Although he was acquitted on charges of killing Bias, Tribble walked away from the incident feeling invincible.

He was a headliner at East Side, a now-defunct Southwest Washington club, where the taped telephone message said, "Every Tuesday, you're invited to a dance party with Brian Tribble."

He used Len's death as a fulcrum to success in the underworld:

"After the Len Bias case, Tribble really came up in the drug world," said Veronica Baker, a federal Drug Enforcement Administration agent.

Tribble's big break apparently came a year after the Bias verdict, when he went to Miami and made an important drug connection.  After that, he essentially was a wholesaler who sold cocaine in large quantities rather than packaging it for street sales, a federal law enforcement source said. It was an approach that lowered Tribble's profits somewhat, but also reduced his risks.



Personally I've despised Tribble forever but I'm going to give him the benefit of the doubt: he didn't put a gun to Len's head and tell him to ingest 5 grams of the stuff, which is 5 times above what many would consider an evening of recreational usage.  Despite making a name for himself in the drug game it seems as if Tribble has gotten his life in order as he now serves as a personal trainer.


29 Seasons Before: 1957-58, Celtics lose in the NBA finals
29 Seasons After: 2014-15, Celtics lose in opening round of playoffs