NBA commissioner David Stern believes the league could begin testing its players for Human Growth Hormone as early as the 2013-14 season. In fact, he told WCCO radio in Minnesota that it was expected.
David Stern ‘expects’ to have HGH blood testing by next season
The NBA could begin testing its players for HGH by the 2013-14 season, commissioner David Stern said on a radio show this week.
Kim Klement-US PRESSWIRE
The league has been looking into testing for HGH for at least the last few years, and Stern said there has yet to be a plan implemented because the league was coming into an understanding of what testing methods worked the best, the commissioner told the radio station.
What has caused some uncertainty is the stigma and the amount of use of HGH and other banned substances in the NBA. In a recent case two years ago, Chicago Bulls guard Derrick Rose told ESPN The Magazine that he believed performance enhancing drugs were a huge issue in the league.
Stern has gone on the record multiple times in the past decade saying he doesn’t believe performance enhancing drugs are a problem in the NBA.
“If I say I don’t have a concern, everyone says I’m a Pollyanna,” Stern told the radio station. “I don’t have any reason to know one way or another. My guess is and my hope is that it’s not widely used in the NBA.”
HGH is listed as a banned substance in the NBA.
The comments from Stern soon after the other major professional sports leagues have been first to make moves to combat the use of HGH. Lance Armstrong’s admissions of using performance enhancers most recently has dusted up the issue once again.
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