There are no bridges left behind George Karl's NBA career. None. They are cinder and ash. You can't even recognize what structure was even originally there. Karl has burned them all with his new book "Furious George." After last week's excerpts claimed that the problem with Carmelo Anthony and Kenyon Martin's basketball maturity was rooted in the fact they grew up without fathers, which prompted widespread criticism from Martin and the NBA community at large, now another excerpt has made an even broader accusation, seemingly without merit.
In a section describing how the game has changed, Karl outright accuses modern NBA players of using performance-enhancing drugs (PEDs). Pro Basketball Talk happened upon the passage in a promotional copy of the book, out next month.
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 dumbasses 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 the hell 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.
This is a half-way accusation. Karl doesn't mention names, doesn't reference inside knowledge, doesn't say he's seen or heard anything. He just says it's "obvious." That's an opinion on a matter of fact, and while that's all the rage these days, it doesn't actually have any basis in reality. There's nothing tangible here. It's a suggestion trying to tarnish the reputation of hundreds of modern athletes who have taken their preparation and conditioning more seriously and with better technology than any generation that has come before.
There have been whispers, rumors, and innuendo about players using PEDs for years, with no substantive report or investigation having discovered anything tangible. If it came out tomorrow that a superstar player used PEDs, there would be outrage, but the conversation would be wildly different than in that of Major League Baseball because raw physical advantage doesn't translate to success in basketball the same way, and attitudes on the use of such measures is changing. There would be outcry, to be sure, and repercussions, but it would neither shock the world nor shake the NBA to its core.
But even if you believe it would be a big deal, this accusation should weigh even heavier. There's no actual claim here, just suggestion from Karl. And that's fine, he's been in the league 40 years and can have an opinion. To make this accusation without consideration of consequence or regard for actual evidence is reckless and judgmental, which, sadly, is how much of Karl's book comes across.
