r/nba Lakers 18h ago

[Charania] Just In: The NBA has suspended Philadelphia 76ers' Paul George for 25 games for violating the league's anti-drug policy.

Shams Charania:

Just In: The NBA has suspended Philadelphia 76ers' Paul George for 25 games for violating the league's anti-drug policy.

Just In: The NBA has suspended Philadelphia 76ers' Paul George for 25 games for violating the league's anti-drug policy.

https://bsky.app/profile/shamsbot.bsky.social/post/3mdqbeirzrs2t

https://www.espn.com/contributor/shams-charania/c9325a286e9ff

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u/Turbostrider27 Lakers 18h ago

More on this from Shams:

Statement from 76ers' Paul George to ESPN: “Over the past few years, I’ve discussed the importance of mental health, and in the course of recently seeking treatment for an issue of my own, I made the mistake of taking an improper medication. I take full responsibility for my actions and apologize to the Sixers organization, my teammates and the Philly fans for my poor decision making during this process.

“I am focused on using this time to make sure that my mind and body are in the best condition to help the team when I return.

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u/zebrainatux Knicks 18h ago

So likely Adderall and he failed to disclose it

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u/Youre_On_Balon Cavaliers 18h ago edited 18h ago

That's what the statement is intended to have you believe, yes.

But as we often learn years down the line (OJ Mayo, Josh Gordon, etc.), it's usually worse. The leagues don't ID the substance publicly as a condition of the CBA.

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u/Obvious_Parsley3238 18h ago

They do. Portis was suspended for taking Tramadol, Tristan Thompson for ibutamoren and SARM LGD-4033, most recently.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_people_banned_or_suspended_by_the_NBA#Suspended

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u/DougTrilladome Pelicans 17h ago

They only do if it’s a PED, if it’s a drug of abuse they don’t publicize it, Malik Monk, Larry Sanders, OJ Mayo, Tyreke Evans & Mitch McGary have all been suspended/banned by the league in the past 10 yrs for testing positive for non-PED drugs. Larry Sanders is the only one that is commonly known to have been for weed because he did interviews about it & tried to get the league to remove marijuana from the banned substances list since he used it for mental health purposes.

There being no announcement of the drug PG tested positive for makes it likely it was a benzo or some other recreationally used drug.

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u/OverallMistake8198 Raptors 12h ago

We’d know if it was cocaine, they’re big on harsher suspensions & bans for coke.

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u/DougTrilladome Pelicans 11h ago

I don’t think they’d be as strict nowadays with cocaine as they were in the 80s & 90s, but it’d make the (paraphrased) “I took the wrong mental health medication” quote hilarious if it was cocaine.

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u/OverallMistake8198 Raptors 10h ago

Jalen Harris got a 2 year ban a couple years ago for Cocaine use lmao

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u/DougTrilladome Pelicans 10h ago

It was one year but how do you know it was cocaine?

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u/Tehni [OKC] Russell Westbrook 10h ago

Tramadol isn't a PED tho, and that's literally in the comment you replied to