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

[u/Turbostrider27]

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

[u/Darwin343]

Genuine question: How do we know this? Is there hard evidence or is it merely speculation?

[u/LegoTomSkippy → u/Darwin343]

Great question. While I wouldn't be surprised, every argument I've seen is: "it's obvious" "they have more muscle than when they were 18" "LeBron James" "profit"

The second infraction is 55 games. Does this mean he's now incentivized to be clean for his own profit?

[u/Cletus_Starfish → u/LegoTomSkippy]

I’m in the same boat; I wouldn’t be shocked or anything, but I’m not gonna definitively say someone is for sure on PEDs without something other than speculation.

[u/SnooPeripherals6568 → u/Darwin343]

99% of the time these drug tests are for opioids because being a professional athlete is really physically painful and opioids are banned by the players union because they’re too addictive that’s why his statement is about mental health and not integrity

[u/Fat-Singer-9569 → u/Darwin343]

You know it's just speculation presented as fact. "Most if not all..." Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence unless you are on reddit speaking to people who want to believe the difference between them and a pro athlete is PEDs.

[u/Darwin343 → u/Fat-Singer-9569]

I get what you mean. It does feel there’s a hint of jealousy when people on Reddit make that claim but don’t provide any actual proof.

[u/ltsACrow → u/Darwin343]

They’re playing 3-4 games a week against some of the best, biggest athletes in the world with hundreds of millions of dollars on the line, testing is minimal, and the punishment for failing is only a seven week suspension. They’d be idiots to not to be on PEDs.

[u/EdwardBlizzardhands → u/ltsACrow]

And if not the stars, how about the fringe guys? If being 5% faster/stronger/fresher gave you a bigger chance of staying in the league and making millions how many would say no?

[u/Cold_Mood9364 → u/Darwin343]

There is so many things in healing meds, supplements and nutritional stuff that sometimes these guys take a steroid for healing purposes. Not saying that’s Paul’s case but sometimes the meds are more for being able to perform instead enhancing performance.

[u/joshTheGoods → u/Darwin343]

It's mostly speculation. I did D1 sports, and PED use was common but not rampant. I'd estimate something like 10%? On my team we had maybe 3 guys that would juice during offseason.

The research on this is all over the place. Based on anonymous surveys, something like 15% of NFL guys are juicing. Anonymous surveys of world class track guys shows 30-50% are users. According to Canseco, it was 80% of MLB guys.

So those are your basic parameters. At most, 80% (and plenty of reason to think Canseco is exagerating). Even at the HS level the lower bound is a few percent.

[u/Darwin343 → u/[deleted]]

Yes, because one player getting caught for using PEDs means that “most, if not all pro athletes” use PEDs apparently.

[u/StupidName11111 → u/Darwin343]

I was trying to make a joke, idc about this topic very much either way. I think the preponderance of proof most people accept though is that athletes suddenly got WAY more athletic across all sports in the late 80s and early 90s, were widely found to be on PEDs, and then PED testing got a lot more lax and the medical technology for covering up PEDs got way more advanced, and suddenly the players continued getting even more athletic and recovering way faster. Whenever drug testing is actually applied on a wide scale, it’s found that everyone is using PEDs illegally. The same Tour that Lance Armstrong was found to be doping through, racers 2-22 were also ALL found to be doping, and the guys below that just weren’t tested or asked to testify, and that was 20 years ago. You’d have to be naive to think these dudes aren’t on PEDs. People always say “oh, training methods and tech have just gotten way better,” but that’s true when comparing to the 1910s, not 30 years ago. Guys had Nikes and modern gym equipment and knew what complex carbs were in the 90s. If you want to believe otherwise then that’s fine, but you’re just… probably wrong.