Everyone wants to see their team win, from players and coaches to spectators. Without a desire to win, it is not worth the coaches preparing the players for the game, the supporters spending their hard-earned cash on tickets or even the team attempting to play at all.
However, winning a game through sheer hard work and talent is one thing, winning by cheating is quite another. One of the worst forms of cheating in modern sport is a player taking performance enhancing drugs.
The NBA takes the use of drugs by basketball players extremely seriously. The game’s rules are stringent, whether the drugs are taken as performance enhancers or recreationally, and this has led to top stars who have transgressed being given fines, suspensions and bans.
Basketball stars hit with bans include the likes of Chris Andersen ‘The Birdman’, who was suspended for two years in 2006 for the use of amphetamines. Seven years earlier, Stanley Roberts had also picked up a ban for amphetamine use.
Despite these earlier sanctions the use of banned drugs in sport continues. There are various reasons why. Top sportsmen, including NBA players, earn millions and can easily afford a lavish lifestyle, including recreational drugs. The high physical demands on the top stars provide a temptation to take performance enhancing drugs, however, none of this makes it right to take drugs in sport.
Drugs also give basketball a bad name. Drug-taking players create a bad example to youngsters. When it comes to drug taking, the best advice about their use is: “Don’t!”
Players that are caught and suspended for drug abuse do themselves no good, losing millions as they are kept out of the game, as well as facing massive negative publicity in the media. They also do their teammates, coaches, owners and even the fans no favors as they deny them their talents in what is an extremely competitive game.
To prevent drug abuse in basketball and other sports, massive anti-drug education programs are essential. If you are a young talent coming through college, you should never be tempted to take performance enhancing or recreational drugs. They can wreck a promising career as well as your life.
A good way to deter young sports stars from drug taking is through educational programs where they are taught the effects that these substances can have on their bodies.
Those in sport who have been caught taking drugs need to be punished, but they also need to be helped. Specialist rehab facilities can provide treatment and counseling.
The key to preventing drug use in sport is testing. Any player should be aware that he can be tested for drugs at any time, either after a game, while training or even during his personal time. Drug testing has become increasingly sophisticated and less invasive thanks to the oral fluid lab test. Here the mouth is swabbed and drugs can be detected even if they were taken up to 48-hours earlier.
Whether you are a player or spectator, sanctions for those who contravene the drug regulations, and education programs to help keep the sport clean, will help to remove cheating from basketball and make it the game it should be.