Tom E. Curran • E-mail

BOSTON - I couldn’t help thinking of Len Bias on Tuesday night.

As the parquet floor of the “new” Boston Garden disappeared under a layer of green and white confetti and the staging was assembled for the trophy presentation, I didn’t think back to the June night in 1986 when the Celtics won their last title.

Instead, I thought back to the morning of June 19, 1986 when I was working at my summer job in a lumber yard on Cape Cod. It must have been about 8 a.m. when one of our truck drivers wheeled into the parking lot and announced, “That kid the Celtics drafted died last night.”

It was the end of an era in Boston sports. Four months later, a ground ball by Mookie Wilson eluded Bill Buckner in a World Series game at Shea Stadium. The Patriots, rocked by a drug scandal that broke after their embarrassing Super Bowl loss to the Bears in January 1986, would soon descend to mediocrity and then laughingstock.

I was 18 and just weeks removed from my freshman year in college. Whatever remained of my sports innocence was extinguished in the lumberyard that day. Dead? Len Bias? The player that was going to make sure the Celtics remained the NBA’s pre-eminent franchise for another decade? At 22? From cocaine? How? Why?

The answers filtered forth in the coming weeks. None of them ever made anybody understand fully. Believe this, though: Len Bias’ death was not in vain. Cocaine wasn’t everywhere in the company I kept but it was around.I don’t think I would have ever tried it, but after Bias’ death I was terrified by the thought of it. And I was scared for friends of mine who did. Bias’ death did more to help kids my age “Just Say No” to drugs than Nancy Reagan did.

And now it’s 22 years later. I’ve worked in lumber yards, lawn care, security system sales and, for the last 16 years, sportswriting. I’ve graduated, gotten married and now have three sons of my own ages 12, 10 and 9. We live in Massachusetts and, thanks to that geographical blessing, their experience as sports fans is much like mine was when I was their age. Very good teams. Great players whose jerseys they can wear with a swagger.

They’ve enjoyed almost uninterrupted success from the teams they watch. Heights of success I didn’t get to experience in the 70s and 80s. The Patriots have won three Super Bowls since the oldest has been sports cognizant. The Red Sox have won two World Series. The Celtics have now won an NBA title.

Slide show   NBA Finals Images from historic matchup of Lakers, Celtics more photos

Those teams and the players on them have afforded them with heroes and teaching points. From Tom Brady and Tedy Bruschi to David Ortiz and Derek Jeter (there’s a Yankees fan in the brood), they’ve learned that if you want to succeed at something that’s not easy, you have to work really hard. They’ve seen that you have to trust and respect your teammates. They’ve come to appreciate that you can feel really good or really bad when a game ends but that there’s always another game. Through the prism of professional sports, they have been able to learn life lessons and apply them to themselves as they grow up.

NBA Finals: Celtics vs. Lakers Boston wins series 4-2 Green Machine! Celtics roll to 17th title Curran: Big Three sacrifice to win Big One Ventre: Lakers must improve defense   Slide show: Images from the NBA Finals Vote: Will Celtics repeat?  |  MVP? Jones: Not so fast on a Celtics-Lakers rematch Participate! Share your thoughts  |  Send photos Look at each Celtics title  |  How they were built

And they will also learn through the prism of professional sports that bad things happen. That balls roll through your legs and you blow a game. That, sometimes, no matter how hard you work, there’s no reward. That people make bad decisions in their personal lives. And that those bad decisions can have consequences that go long past the split second when you make them. That sometimes those decisions have long-term consequences. Or, as I realized on June 19, 1986, permanent ones.

Len Bias would have been two days from his 44th birthday Tuesday night. There’s no telling how things would have been different if he lived but it was hard not to imagine him, a little thicker in the face and belly, wearing a sharp suit and standing along with Jo Jo White, Bill Russell, Tommy Heinsohn and John Havlicek watching approvingly as the confetti fell.

Instead, whatever remains of Len Bias spent Tuesday night buried in a coffin in Lincoln Memorial Cemetery in Suitland, Md. Bias is long gone. But neither his death nor the lesson it left are forgotten. 

MORE FROM NBA

NBA Section Front

Rasheed to join Celtics   Kidd reportedly will re-sign with Mavericks Getting Randolph another Memphis mistake Pistons talking to Avery Johnson for coach job Ventre: Artest puts everything in jeopardy for Lakers Vote: Will Artest be a distraction to Lakers? Hill: Herculean Shaq ready to deliver for Cavs SN Radio: Granger picks up the pace Rumors: 76ers, Miller at odds on contract NBA players who became free agents on July 1 NBA Section Front   Add NBA headlines to your news reader: