Caught!
Now Stern seems to be really pushing this and I really like it!
But I'm confused about this:
"While I was back home in Turkey this past summer, I was given a medication by my trainer to help recover more quickly from a shoulder injury. I didn't know that this was a bannen substance and didn't check before taking it.
So he was tested positive last summer or is he dumb enough still using it?
BTW there is absolutely no one else to blame in cases like this than the player himself. He is responsible for his actions and needs to know what he can take and what is off. Very poor excuse if you ask me.
I know Handball players who play 2nd league here in Germany and this the definition of semi pro cause they all have 'real' jobs but everyone of them knows what's allowed and what's not. And we are like 10 times as strikt as the pro leagues in the US.
Everyone who's taking substances like that has lost my support. If I ever get convinced that guys like MJ or Kobe have ever played while beeing doped that will change everything for me.
Still confused about the timeline of this Hedo incident.
It may be traceable in your system for a long period of time. Many substances can show up as long as six months after ingestion, while others cannot be traced (with current testing) after 6-8 hours of ingestion.
Or, it's possible that they took a blood/urine sample near the time of the incident and the process of getting the results and deciding on a punishment took a few months.
I was expecting a harsher punishment, the NBA needs to come down like a ton of bricks on users. But, according to the outlines of the program, a 20 game suspension is pretty severe for testing positive for steroids. The ban that has been imposed on Turkoglu is in the category of those who have unknowingly taken the drug, anyone who would admit outright that they took any form of steroids will be banished from the league but why would they do that? There seems to be a lot of sportspeople who have "accidentally" consumed a substance that happens to be banned.
Well, considering that Hedo Turkoglu hasn't been playing at the level that his contract would suggest, I doubt this lost money is going to hinder any rehab or what not, he'll have money lying around. I agree that 3 million is a great amount of money and I don't expect any player to be idiotic enough to try to cover those kind of costs during an unpaid period, borrowing, accessing savings and current bank balance would suffice in the real world.
This is supposed to be a punishment, a player that has been suspended for 20 games deserves to suffer throughout the process. I'm quite underwhelmed by the guidelines and result to be honest.
Hedo Turkoglu has been suspended 20 games for using a banned substance http://www.cbssports.com/nba/blog/eye-on-basketball/21697342/hedo-turkog...