Are we being naive about steroids all over again?

One more thing---basketball remains the one marquee sport relatively untouched by the steroid/HGH/doping scandals in other sports.

Trust me, high school hoopsters are using them, college players to an extent are, and NBA players definitely are.

The sport at the NBA level has turned into one growing 'roid rage party. It's become a game where you get one ballhog and four thugs all hacking on one another and trying to get ESPN highlights. These guys playing the game today make Ivan Drago look like Gilligan.

Believe it.

 

He doesn't look any bigger to me.
The NBA tests for steroids, regularly.
He's playing one minute more per game than he did last season.
He was known to eat popcorn and chicken fingers before games, in the locker room, so it is possible that he finally got into shape.
Steroids and fast-twitch fibers? Good luck trying to marry those opposites.

 

"Thugs."

 

It's not just athletes. Actors and musicians (rappers), too. Stallone, 50 Cent, etc. So many of these people don't even look real anymore. Stay-at-home moms are taking HGH. It's leaked into every level of society.

I still think a big part of it is that Jackson is finally taking care of himself. But he very well could be juicing. We have to remember that not everyone uses steriods to get bigger. Some use it to recover quicker.

 

so we should give athletes a free pass?

 

Ever hear of sprinters juicing? Only all the time. That's 100 percent fast-twitch.

Every sport tests for steroids. Many of the biggest juicers don't test positive. Marion Jones and Tim Montgomery never did.

Just because someone doesn't test positive that is no proof whatsoever they are not taking PEDs.

 

Yeah, truth to that. Cyclists, some of the leanest athletes on the planet, have been pioneers in the doping world for decades. It was only when the sport's governing bodies got serious about developing better tests for newer forms of drugs and using better methods, and stopped relying on riders' buffoonish slip-ups, that it started to catch up to the dopers a bit. A couple riders last year were busted for using a new generation of EPO, probably to their surprise.
Luckily, they developed a test for that, but who knows what the latest undetectable drug might be?

 

Clutch, I have no doubt there might be PED use in the NBA, but the one ballhog and four thugs comment sounds like someone whose only exposure to the NBA in the last five years comes from message boards. And what would steroids have to do with ballhogging? The first ballhog in basketball history probably appeared about seven minutes after Naismith put up his basket.

 

Everyone is a suspect.

From LeBron to Nate Robinson.

From Serena Williams to Lance Armstrong.

From Hulk Hogan to Ken Patera.

 

I don't think "thugs" in his context was racially tinged but instead related to the NBA style of play, i.e., a bunch of bruisers slowing down the game.

 

Uh, hello.

Ben Johnson. Marion Jones. Dwain Chambers. Florence Griffith-Joyner perhaps?? Maurice Green??

This is the same kind of naivete that used to accompany the guffaws I'd hear from other sportswriters 10-15 years ago when subject of steroids and baseball was broached. "No way baseball players use them. It would make them too musclebound to swing the bat. Too thick. Not limber enough.""

Wake up, folks.

 

No, I didn't think thugs was racial at all, sorry if it sounded like I thought that. I'm saying the idea that the NBA is a league full of slowdown, pound it inside ball is more about the game in, say, 1999 than today. Lakers have one of the best halfcourt offenses you could ever hope to see, ball movement, inside, outside, etc. Suns, hornets, Blazers, Spurs, Nuggets, Celtics, etc., all have pretty fun to watch offenses. Cleveland's can get a bit boring, but that's more with Mike Brown's lack of creativity than a bruiser pounding away down low. LeBron (PED, ahem) has the body of a bruiser but flies around like a 6-1 point guard. Even a bad team like the Pacers have a fun offense.

the Pistons? Still boring.