The Darkest Page In Sports Began With This Pick At Number 3

June 17th, 1986. The first three picks of the NBA Draft. Pick #1: Brad Daugherty. Eight seasons. Five All-Stars. A career. Pick #2: Len Bias. Dead 48 hours later. Zero games. Pick #3: Chris Washburn. 72 games. Lifetime ban. That is the 1986 NBA Draft in its opening three selections. The most catastrophic start in draft history. But here is the detail nobody includes. During their sophomore year at NC State, Len Bias stopped by Chris Washburn's dormitory room one night and offered him crack cocaine. Washburn had never tried it. Bias was an All-American, the biggest name going into the draft. Washburn tried it. ""I didn't realize,"" Washburn said decades later, ""that one moment of pleasure would stick with me for the next fourteen years."" Two days after the 1986 NBA Draft, Len Bias died of cocaine intoxication. Washburn, his close friend, knew exactly what had happened. He understood the connection completely. He kept using anyway. He arrived in San Francisco with $1.25 million and no mentors. Most of his teammates were married and went home after practice. He was 20 years old, alone in an apartment, driving around the city at night introducing himself to strangers. ""Hey, I'm Chris Washburn, I play for the Warriors."" Eventually, when they saw his car, they flagged it down. Seven months into his NBA career, he checked into rehab. He came back. He was traded to Atlanta. He failed his second drug test. Suspended a season. Failed the third. Banned for life. June 1989. 72 games. 3.1 points per game. $1.25 million spent. His father's last image of him: a 6'11"" man sliding along the floor stealing money from his father's wallet. His mother kept her purse locked in a filing cabinet at church. She eventually wrote her name and address on a piece of paper and told him to keep it in his wallet. So that when the worst happened, someone would know who to call. He went homeless in Houston. Slept in abandoned buildings and crack houses. Ate from garbage containers. Watched a man get shot next to him by a drug dealer. He went to prison. He couldn't make the starting lineup on the prison basketball team. ""I left the NBA where the hardwood floors are polished. Now I'm on a prison bench. The guy beside me has army boots. Another guy has flip flops taped to his feet. We're playing on concrete. I have six cheerleaders that are men. I wasn't even starting in the penitentiary. I was coming off the bench."" He entered rehabilitation 14 times. The 15th held. ""Some of the excitement had worn off. Folks knew what I was doing. I had been banned from the NBA. I was homeless. I just got tired of waking up like that."" His son Julian made his NBA debut in 2019. 33 years after Madison Square Garden. CHAPTERS 00:00 — Three Picks: The Most Catastrophic Draft Opening In NBA History 06:30 — Hickory, North Carolina: Before The Hype 13:20 — NC State: SAT Below 500, Grades Altered, A Stereo Stolen 21:00 — The Night Len Bias Came To His Room 27:40 — Madison Square Garden: 48 Hours Apart 33:10 — San Francisco: $1.25M, No Mentors, Nobody Home After Practice 40:30 — Seven Months: From Draft Night To Rehab 46:00 — Atlanta, Three Tests, Lifetime Ban 50:20 — Houston: Abandoned Buildings And Garbage Cans 54:40 — The Prison Bench 58:10 — The 15th Attempt 1:01:30 — Julian Washburn, 2019 SOURCES & FURTHER READING Basketball Reference — career statistics, Golden State Warriors & Atlanta Hawks 1986 NBA Draft records — pick #3, Golden State Player Support Services — Chris Washburn interview, September 2025 Hickory Record — ""Fallen basketball star Chris Washburn is starting over in Hickory"" — 2012 Sportscasting — ""Golden State Warriors Bust Chris Washburn Gets Real About His NBA Journey: They Invested In a Million-Dollar Crackhead"" — June 2022 Sportscasting — ""NBA Bust Chris Washburn Fell So Far He Couldn't Even Start For His Prison Team"" — April 2020 Chris Washburn and Ron Chepesiuk, ""Out of Bounds: From Broken NBA Dreams to Redemption"" — memoir, June 2025 Peter Golenbock, ""Personal Fouls"" — NC State athletic program investigation, 1989 Sports Illustrated — ""Second-Biggest NBA Draft Bust Of All Time"" — 2005 WCNC Charlotte — Washburn profile, 2012 George Karl quote — Sports Illustrated, February 1987 Wake County District Court records — stereo theft case, NC State, 1984 This channel covers the untold stories of basketball — the careers history got wrong, the players the era wasn't ready for, and the systems that built legends and failed them. New documentary every week. #ChrisWashburn #NBA #1986NBADraft #LenBias #GoldenStateWarriors #BasketballHistory #NBADocumentary #BasketballDocumentary #ForgottenLegends #NBAHistory