Derrick Rose either did or did not say performance-enhancing drugs are a "huge" problem in the NBA. And we're fine with either contention. You have to define "PEDs," "huge" and "problem," of course, but that's just another of those eye-of-the-beholder things.
But the part of the Rose story (see Comrade Berger for further edification) that's fascinating is the response by Dwyane Wade.
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| Rashard Lewis, when he played in Orlando, is just one NBA player who's tested positive for PEDs. (Getty Images) | |
"Haven't seen nothing, haven't heard nothing," Wade said. "No. I just don't think there is [a doping problem]. It's nothing I've ever experienced in basketball. Never seen it. It's nothing that I think takes place."
Well, that's exactly the response baseball players had until they started getting caught, and cyclists until they started getting caught, and football players until they started getting caught. "Sure, it's a problem somewhere, but not my sport. It's too specialized, too graceful, too blah-blah-blah-de-blah-blah."
In other words, the NBA is like every other sport. It has skills that drugs can enhance. You just have to find the right drugs.
And just as Charles Barkley said about gays in sports, drugs are there too. They don't avoid the NBA. It's foolish to think otherwise.
And why, you ask? Because not every performance-enhancer makes you musclebound. Some merely restore you to health quicker. Some help enhance your eyesight. Some help with the intricacies of blood doping. There are lots of ways to perform, and lots of ways to enhance those ways.
The myth here, the one Wade is either subscribing to or relying upon for his denial, is that you can spot a drug user a mile away. Well, you can't.
Oh, there's the back acne test, and the enlarged skull test, and the sudden-weight-gain test, and the right-after-retirement weight-loss test, and the hit-the-ball-father-throw-it-faster test, and all the other eyeball tests that sportswriters in particular like to employ to mask the fact that almost none of them are chemists.
But performance enhancing is not an eyeball test sort of thing. Just as there are lots of ways to do it, there are lots of ways to mask it, both internally and externally.
In short, Dwyane Wade's analysis is not all that helpful because: a) he is protecting the logo like any company man would; b) because he isn't up on everything with every team, because nobody can be, and; c) because the best way to suspect PED use is to hear someone deny it.
