George Karl insinuates NBA has major PED problem

Former NBA coach George Karl has generated a lot of social media buzz for some claims he made in his new book, Furious George.

It started with the passage about Carmelo Anthony, in which he called out the then-Nuggets forward for his lack of defense, and me-first attitude. But he wasn’t done there.

Karl then took a shot at the league as a whole, claiming that PED use by players is a big issue, even though he’s the first person to say that in a long time.

Here’s an excerpt from his book, per NBC Sports:

We’ve got a more thorough drug-testing program than the NFL or MLB, which we always brag about. But we’ve still got a drug issue, though a different one than thirty years ago. And this one bothers me more than the (people) who got in trouble with recreational drugs.

I’m talking about performance-enhancing drugs-like steroids, human growth hormone, and so on. It’s obvious some of our players are doping. How are some guys getting older-yet thinner and fitter? How are they recovering from injuries so fast? Why … are they going to Germany in the off-season? I doubt it’s for the sauerkraut.

More likely it’s for the newest, hard-to-detect blood boosters and PEDs they have in Europe. Unfortunately, drug testing always seems to be a couple steps behind drug hiding. Lance Armstrong never failed a drug test. I think we want the best athletes to succeed, not the biggest, richest cheaters employing the best scientists. But I don’t know what to do about it.

He’s right about more players going overseas during the offseason, but that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s for PED use. And as for players getting older but thinner, diet plays a big part in that as well. Karl was probably referencing LeBron James and a few others with that comment, but it’s a known fact that some athletes weren’t necessarily the healthiest eaters, especially when on the road. And players like James have drastically changed their diets to get in better shape.

Karl raises some good points here, but it doesn’t necessarily mean the dots connect like he claims them to. It just seems like this book was his attempt to sound off about players he didn’t get along with, and also play things up a bit for shock value.