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Thirty five years later, Len Bias’ masterpiece in the Dean Dome remains his valedictory statement

He rises without hesitation to sink a clutch jumper from 20 feet. As the camera focuses on the ensuing inbounds pass, he roars from off-screen to rip the ball away from a future NBA point guard and in a continuous motion, reverse dunks it in the face of a 6-foot-11 center. With the rim still shuddering, the crowd at the Dean E. Smith Student Activities Center exhales in awe as if it has just witnessed a heavyweight knockout punch.

In the 35 years since Bias painted this Chapel Hill masterpiece, his name has become shorthand for so many things — drug tragedy, lost potential, the temporary fall of Maryland athletics.