NBA to begin testing for HGH in 2015-2016 season
NBA players will be subject to blood-testing for human growth hormone starting next season.
Beginning next season, NBA players will be subject to blood tests to see if they are using human growth hormones (HGH) as the league will use blood-testing for the first time in league history.
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The NBA and NBAPA collectively bargained to determine a process to begin testing for HGH during the negotiations in 2011 and beginning with training camp next year players will be subject to three random tests per year to see if they are using the performance enhancing drug.
Professional sports leagues have tried to crackdown on HGH and other performance-enhancing drugs and the NFL just finished their first year testing and no one tested positive for the human growth hormone.
If no one is using HGH in the NFL, what are the chances that someone would use the growth hormone in the NBA where physical strength and power isn’t as vital as the NFL?
Regardless if anyone is actively using HGH or not, it is a good sign from the NBA and NBAPA to incorporate the blood-testing into the equation to make sure that everyone is playing on a level playing field.
Should someone test positive for HGH they would be suspended 20 games for the first offense, 45 games for a second violation and a third failed test results in a disqualification from the NBA and is essentially a lifetime ban.
The penalties are similar to the NFL’s where players are suspended for four games for testing positive for banned substances, which is 25 percent of the regular season, so 20 games out of an 82-game schedule is basically the same part of the schedule they’ll miss. In MLB, a player tests positive for steroids they are suspended for 80 games, a second offense is a season-long suspension and a third offense is a lifetime ban.
MLB has harsher penalties than either the NBA or NFL, but their league was also under a steroid cloud for more than a decade that severely damaged the credibility of the league and how serious they take performance-enhancing drug use by its players.
I don’t think the NBA is going to pop anyone for HGH use, so while they’re discussing penalties for illegal drug use, maybe they can amend the policy on marijuana use, because that’s the drug of choice in the Association and has been for a longer time than steroids were used in baseball. Yet somehow you don’t see anyone getting popped for testing positive for weed.
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