Compared to baseball, cycling, and more recently, mixed martial arts, the NBA has never suffered from the same stigma of performance-enhancing drugs as those other sports.
Still, the NBA has a strong interest in keeping its league clean and in preserving its sterling reputation, and today, the National Basketball Players Association announced that blood testing for Human Growth Hormone (HGH) will commence under the league's anti-drug program, effective with the 2015-16 NBA season.
As part of the collective bargaining negotiations in 2011, the NBA and the Players Association agreed to a process for determining how HGH blood testing would be implemented in the NBA.
With that process now completed, beginning with the start of 2015 NBA training camps, all NBA players will be subject to three random, unannounced HGH tests annually (two in-season, one off-season), and players will also be subject to reasonable cause testing for HGH.
If a player tests positive for HGH, he will be suspended 20 games for his first violation and 45 games for his second violation, and he will be dismissed and disqualified from the NBA for his third violation.
By Staff of TheDailySportsHerald.com and news services
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