Stern Thinks NBA Will Test For HGH Next Season
CBS SPORTS.COM - As performance-enhancing drugs have become more prevalant in other sports and also better prevented in other sports, the NBA has been keeping an eye on the developments in drug testing among the various professional leagues. There are already plenty of tests in the NBA through checking urine samples with NBA players, but blood testing isn't something the NBA currently has at its disposal.
However, commissioner David Stern is optimistic that blood testing for Human Growth Hormone will be added to the league's testing policy in time for the 2013-14 NBA season. He talked to WCCO radio in Minneapolis about it Wednesday, as he's in town to take in the Wolves-Spurs game tonight. Via The Point Forward:
"We watch what's going on in baseball, we watch the negotiations that are going on with football, and it is my expectation that by next season [we] will be doing blood testing for HGH," Stern told WCCO radio in Minnesota. "Our players have been terrific. They lead this in some ways, saying, ' We do not want to have anything less than the best.' That's been the way it's been since 1983."
With steroids and HGH being phased out with stricter drug testing in Major League Baseball and the NFL, the NBA is the other major sports league that needs to be able to monitor the use of HGH among its players. It's not a big concern that players are currently using it in the NBA, but to not have the test in place anyway seems to be ignoring the possibility and living behind the times.
As the clock on David Stern's reign as commissioner of the NBA ticks toward the buzzer, something like this is sure to be implemented before he gives way to deputy commissioner Adam Silver. During the lockout in 2011, this was an issue the commissioner wanted worked into the current drug testing policy but there wasn't a test that seemed acceptable for the NBA standards.
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