With Congress poised to move forward on legislation to standardize steroid testing in professional sports, lawmakers at a House committee hearing Thursday lashed out at the National Basketball Association's steroid-testing policy, calling the league's program the weakest of the four major professional sports leagues.
In their second straight day on Capitol Hill, NBA Commissioner David Stern and Billy Hunter, the executive director of the NBA players union, appeared before the House Committee on government Reform.
On Wednesday, in testimony before the consumer protection subcommittee of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, Stern told the panel that during recent negotiations with the players union, he had proposed tougher sanctions for players who test positive for steroids.
But lawmakers heaped scorn on the NBA's testing program, calling it inadequate and a joke.
"It is, in my opinion, rather pathetic," said Representative Stephen F. Lynch, D-Massachusets.
The most heated exchange occurred after Lynch suggested that last November's melee in a game between the Detroit Pistons and the Indiana Pacers might have been fueled by players who were hyper-aggressive because they had used steroids.
"You don't know -- you don't test the players," Lynch said of the NBA's failure to test those involved in the brawl.
Hunter called Lynch's assertion "a quantum leap," but Stern told Lynch that just because the league did not know for sure if the players involved in the brawl had used steroids, that did not mean that they were guilty of taking them.
"And the reality is," Stern added, "it worries me greatly if the absence of testing for anybody -- including the members of Congress -- would somehow be used to say, `Well, if you don't have it, that's proof that it must exist,' and then referring to a policy as pathetic.
"On behalf of the players of the National Basketball Association, I would like to say that the guilt you seek to attribute to them on the basis of this policy is ill-taken and very unfair."
Stern and Hunter said that while the testing program would be addressed in negotiations for a new collective-bargaining agreement -- the current one expires June 30 -- Stern also said Thursday that he had lost confidence that an agreement could be reached anytime soon, after talks broke down Wednesday.
Stern said that he had thought the sides were close to an agreement last month, but he described his mood Thursday as "despairing."
The legislation being proposed in Congress reflects intense interest in drug-testing policies in professional sports since lawmakers first heard testimony from baseball officials two months ago.
On Thursday, Representative Tom Davis, R-Virginia, and the government reform committee's chairman, said that a bill he was co-sponsoring with Representative Henry A. Waxman, D-California, and Senator John McCain, R-Arizona, would be ready for introduction next week.
That measure would join proposals like the one co-sponsored by Representative Cliff Stearns, R-Florida, and another introduced Thursday by Representative Tom Sweeney, R-New York.
At the same time Stern appeared before the committee, the commissioner of the NFL, Paul Tagliabue, appeared before the consumer protection subcommittee and urged its members, including Stearns, the chairman, to reconsider proposed provisions that would uniformly punish athletes who test positive. In particular, Tagliabuecalled a two-year ban for first-time offenders too harsh.
Four-time NBA all-star DeMarcus Cousins arrived in Taiwan with his family early yesterday to finish his renewed contract with the Taiwan Beer Leopards in the T1 League. Cousins initially played a four-game contract with the Leopards in January. On March 18, the Taoyuan-based team announced that Cousins had renewed his contract. “Hi what’s up Leopard fans, I’m back. I’m excited to be back and can’t wait to join the team,” Cousins said in a video posted on the Leopard’s Facebook page. “Most of all, can’t wait to see you guys, the fans, next weekend. So make sure you come out and support the Beer
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
Rafael Nadal on Wednesday said the upcoming French Open would be the moment to “give everything and die” on the court after his comeback from injury in Barcelona was curtailed by Alex de Minaur. The 22-time Grand Slam title winner, back playing this week after three months on the sidelines, battled well, but eventually crumbled 7-5, 6-1 against the world No. 11 from Australia in the second round. Nadal, 37, who missed virtually all of last season, is hoping to compete at the French Open next month where he is the record 14-time champion. The Spaniard said the clash with De Minaur was