The Fix Is In, page 5
Having learned a lesson from Bias’ untimely passing, both the NBA and the Celtics knew the questions and controversy that would have surrounded everyone involved had Reggie Lewis’ death been attributed to cocaine. If it became widely known that had Lewis allowed himself to be tested for drugs he may still be alive today; the NBA could’ve been seen as being almost an accomplice in Lewis’ death. Because the fact of the matter is, the NBA’s newly adopted drug-testing policy most likely scared Lewis into forbidding those crucial tests to be performed.
The NBA wasn’t always the highly-rated sport it is today. During the late 1970s and early 1980s, the league was struggling to get fans in the seats. Part of the reason is that the NBA had a perceived drug problem. Although there are no definitive numbers on drug use in the NBA at that time, a 1982 Los Angeles Times article claimed that 75 percent of the NBA’s players were on drugs. Tom McMillen, an NBA player at the time (and later a congressman), wrote in his book, “Our coach on the [Atlanta] Hawks was the hard-charging Hubie Brown, who was convinced that the performance of several players was suffering from drug use.”3 He wasn’t the only one. Greg Ballard, who played in the NBA from 1977-1989 and later worked as an assistant coach in the NBA, told the Minneapolis Star-Tribune in 2001 that the reported 75 percent of players on drugs statistic from the Los Angeles Times article was accurate in his opinion for at least one of the teams for which he played.4
The NBA’s only option to clean up their sport was to begin some sort of a drug policy. It had to have some teeth to prove to its potential fans that the league was tough on drugs. So beginning in 1984, the NBA became the first professional sport to implement a drug policy. Aimed at stopping the use of “hard” drugs, the league would suspend a player for a minimum of two years if they tested positive for these types of drugs. Clearly, the NBA sent the message it wasn’t fooling around anymore. At least, publicly it did.
Privately, the NBA’s policy was a bit of a joke. The league needed “reasonable cause” to test players. What constituted “reasonable cause”? Reggie Lewis’ doctors believed based on his test results that he had a cocaine habit, but this wasn’t “reasonable cause” enough for the NBA to test him. How does the NBA then define “reasonable cause”? Basically, the process is like this: If the league or the players’ association receives information regarding a player’s use, possession, or distribution of drugs, the NBA can request a hearing within 24 hours of obtaining this potentially damning information. In other words, someone—a coach, a teammate, an opposing player—has to rat out the offending player for this process to even begin. During this fact-finding hearing, an independent expert will determine whether reasonable cause actually exists based on all the evidence that can be gathered in that short period of time. If there is sufficient evidence, the expert will then authorize further testing of the player in question. As this shows, the NBA’s policy was created not to stop its players from using drugs, but simply to convince the public this was the case. It was simply a great public relations (PR) move.
In the first 10 years of its drug-testing policy, a grand total of six players were suspended by the NBA. This seems to belie the notion that 75 percent of the league was taking drugs. Of course, testing records were never made public, so who’s to say how many tests did come back positive for drugs and were covered up? The numbers could’ve been astronomical because there was one thing the NBA forgot to inform the public: It wasn’t testing for marijuana.
The NBA knew the drug of choice for most of its players was marijuana. They also were wise enough not to fight the players’ union over testing for the drug the first time they put drug testing into their collective bargaining agreement. The players simply would not have gone along with it. For all the testing the league was doing then, it overlooked the drug most likely to register a positive result.
For 15 years, the NBA’s policy was mocked for its lack of marijuana testing. But all that changed in the 1999-2000 season. A new league agreement allowed for testing not only the players, but coaches, trainers, and other team personnel as well for all illegal drugs, including marijuana. Every player would be tested once in the preseason. Rookies were then subjected to three more random tests during the regular season. But for veterans, that one time would be it, unless the NBA had “reasonable cause” to test the player again.
Charles Oakley, a 17-year veteran of the league, called the NBA’s testing policy “a joke.” He stated in 2001 that when he joined the NBA “there might have been one out of six” players using marijuana. “Now it’s six out of 12.”5 Oakley went on to explain that a veteran player with any brains to go along with his drug habit realized that the only time the NBA was going to test a player was during training camp. Players recognized the obvious loophole in the system and were exploiting it. At the same time, the NBA claimed the lack of positive tests indicated there was no longer a drug problem within the league. Everyone was off the hook.
Clearly, there were drug users within the NBA slipping through the system. The most obvious example was of Damon Stoudamire. Between 2002 and 2003, Stoudamire was arrested three times for marijuana. The first would come after police officers searched his home in response to a burglar alarm that went off while Stoudamire’s Portland Trailblazers were on a road trip and officers stumbled across a bag filled with 150 grams of marijuana. Stoudamire was released from these charges as the search was later deemed “illegal.” About nine months later, Stoudamire and teammate Rasheed Wallace were pulled over and arrested for marijuana possession, but again the charges were dropped. Stoudamire was arrested yet again for marijuana in July 2003 when he attempted to sneak about an ounce of marijuana through airport security wrapped in aluminum foil. Based on these arrests, Stoudamire was obviously a user, yet the NBA never caught him with their supposedly stringent testing policy. It wasn’t until Stoudamire’s third arrest that the NBA decided to punish him, handing out a three-month suspension and fining him $250,000.
Another example of the strength of the NBA’s drug policy in action involved Shawn Kemp. Kemp missed the last eight games of the 2000-01 season after voluntarily entering the substance abuse program for an admitted cocaine addiction. Because Kemp did this of his own accord and seemingly hadn’t failed a NBA test, the league could/would not punish him in any way. Upon returning in 2002, Kemp was suspended “indefinitely” and without pay by the NBA for violating its substance abuse policy. Just five games later, Kemp was back in the Orlando Magic’s lineup. The very next season, Kemp was suspended yet again for violating the NBA’s substance abuse policy even though testing positive for cocaine was supposed to mean an instant two-year banishment from the NBA. Kemp instead retired, but attempted a comeback for the 2006-2007 season. This was allowed despite the fact that Kemp was arrested on marijuana and cocaine possession charges while out of the league in April 2005.
Since Stanley Roberts in 1999, only one player, Chris “The Birdman” Andersen in 2006, has ever been given a two-year suspension for violating the NBA’s substance abuse policy.
Despite its poor history, during his “state of the NBA” address given during the league’s All-Star break in 2009, NBA Commissioner David Stern felt the league’s testing policy was fine as implemented. Stern was quoted as saying, “Could we improve it? Sure…You could hound your players completely, but you do something that you think is rational compared to where you are, and I think we’re almost at the right place. There may be ways we can improve it and we’ll talk to Billy [Hunter, the NBA Players’ Union Director] and the union about it, but we’re pretty comfortable that our system is working.”6
While the NBA has had its fair share of players with drug problems, they aren’t alone. Major League Baseball has its own history of players using illegal drugs. One that’s older, longer, and much richer than the NBA’s recent trials and tribulations.
If there ever was a poster boy for how many times a player can get busted for drugs and still have a major league career, it’s Steve Howe. Howe stitched together a 12-year major league career in a 16-year span, the gaps brought on by suspensions and perhaps even a hint of blackballing.
Howe broke into the bigs in 1980 with the L.A. Dodgers already having a taste for cocaine dating back to his college days. He was named the National League (NL) Rookie of the Year in 1980, despite later admitting to getting high two or three times a week. During the off-season, he would sometimes go missing for days while out on a binge. After the 1982 season, Howe entered rehab. The day after he was released, he found the stash of cocaine he hid in his home and was right back at it. He entered rehab again midway through the 1983 season, and was required to pay a record-setting fine of over $50,000 based on the time he was unavailable to the Dodgers. After that month-long stint, Howe was back out on the mound, posting an incredible 1.44 ERA in 33 total appearances in 1983. His habit was still uncontrollable and something he couldn’t hide.
Baseball had reached its breaking point and suspended Howe in December of 1983 for the entire 1984 season. The Dodgers were also fed up with Howe and refused to bring him back in 1985. In fact, no team would bring Howe back for the ’85 season, leading him to believe he was being blackballed by the league spurred on by MLB commissioner Peter Ueberroth. The fact was, Howe could still pitch and spent time in the minors, in the Mexican League, and in Japan. In 1987, the Texas Rangers brought Howe back to the majors even though the team incurred a $250,000 fine because Commissioner Ueberroth didn’t approve Howe’s return. For once, a commissioner may have been right. Howe failed a drug test early in 1988 and was suspended yet again.
Despite serving six suspensions for drugs in less than 10 years, Howe made yet another comeback, this time with the Yankees in 1991 at the age of 31. However, just a year later, Howe was again suspended. This time, Howe was “banned for life” by the league for testing positive for drugs. I guess in this instance, though, “banned for life” simply meant the rest of the year as an arbitrator reinstated Howe for the 1993 season. Howe continued his career completely uninterrupted by suspensions until the Yankees tired of his 6.45 ERA in 1996 and released him.
Steve Howe died in 2006 in a single-car crash with methamphetamine in his system. Upon his passing, MLB commissioner Bud Selig said, “In the ‘80s, this sport had a very serious cocaine problem—and that was a pretty consistent pattern.”7 Selig knew of what he spoke.
The 1980s started off with a bang for baseball when Ferguson Jenkins of the Texas Rangers was busted in Canada for possession of marijuana, hashish, and cocaine. Just 14 days later, Jenkins would be the first baseball player “banned for life” for drugs by the league. Not one month later, an arbitrator would let Jenkins back into baseball. He would be elected to the Hall of Fame in 1991.
Three years later, four members of the Kansas City Royals served time for drug charges. Willie Aikens, Vida Blue, Jerry Martin, and the 1982 American League (AL) batting champion Willie Wilson were all arrested in 1983 for attempting to purchase cocaine. All four pleaded guilty to misdemeanor charges and were sentenced to one year in jail. Of course, since they were athletes, nine of the 12 months they were supposed to serve were suspended. As for the other three months, the players were allowed to wait until the off-season before entering jail.
But all of this was nothing compared to what happened in 1985. In the early part of that year, Philadelphia Phillies catcher Curtis Strong was indicted along with six other drug dealers by a federal grand jury for various cocaine dealing charges. All of the dealing, it seems, was done with various professional baseball players and many times inside Pittsburgh’s Three Rivers Stadium itself. The “Pittsburgh Drug Trial” brought in a slew of major leaguers to testify under grants of immunity. What fans got an earful of then is almost hard to believe.
Tim Raines, who would put together a 23-year-long career, testified that he was a habitual cocaine user (though he did go through rehab in 1982, prompting the Montreal Expos president John McHale to tell the New York Times that he believed “at least eight of the Expos” at the time were on cocaine). Raines would claim that he took cocaine before, after, and even during games, keeping a small vial in the back pocket of his uniform. He even said that his patented head-first slide was performed not to get to the base faster, but to protect the cocaine stashed in the seat of his pants. But by the time of the trial, Raines was a reformed user. Others were not.
Some believe that Keith Hernandez’s trade from the St. Louis Cardinals to the New York Mets in 1983 was based in part on his cocaine habit. Hernandez threatened to sue a member of the Players Association over the allegations, but changed his tune when he took the stand in 1985. Hernandez admitted to a having a huge cocaine habit that led him to losing 10 pounds, waking up with nosebleeds, and having the shakes. He testified that it was his belief that 40 percent of the players in baseball were cocaine users.
Several other players also testified during the trail. Two of the Royals who served time in 1983, Willie Aikens and Vida Blue, testified along with Jeffrey Leonard, Lonnie Smith, Lee Mazzilli, and Dave Parker. Names were named and fingers were pointed. Parker supposedly bragged about smuggling drugs into the U.S. in a catcher’s mitt and sold some of it to the Astros’ J.R. Richard. Dusty Baker, Bernie Carbo, Gary Matthews, and even the Pittsburgh Pirates’ mascot were implicated during the trial as being cocaine users .
In the end, Strong and the other six dealers were found guilty on 11 counts of distributing cocaine. In February of 1986, seven players—Keith Hernandez, Dave Parker, Joaquin Andujar, Dale Berra (Yogi Berra’s son), Enos Cabell, Lonnie Smith, and Jeffrey Leonard—each received a one-year suspension from the league while four others—Lee Lacy, Claudell Washington, Lary Sorensen and Al Holland—received 60-day suspensions. Though the commissioner seemingly came down hard, none of the 11 players missed a single game. Each of the seven facing a year-long ban agreed to donate 10 percent of their 1986 salary to various drug causes and to serve 100 hours of community service, while the other four agreed to donate 5 percent of their salary and serve 50 hours of community service. One of the suspended players, Lonnie Smith, claimed that the league’s punishment was nothing more than “a joke” and that he never paid the entire fine or served any of the community service time because no one bothered to check on him.
Not long after that scandal, the New York Mets would field a team with not one but two troubled athletes who had drug problems. Dwight “Doc” Gooden had a live fastball and a livelier cocaine habit. Even so, Gooden himself insisted on a drug testing clause in his contract and even filmed a “Just Say No to drugs” commercial. In 1987, before the start of his fourth season, Gooden tested positive for cocaine. He entered rehab for 28 days, and then returned to the Mets. But he wasn’t clean. In 1994, Gooden would again test positive and be suspended for the entire 1995 season.
Gooden’s teammate in those early seasons was Darryl Strawberry. Early on, Strawberry had problems with alcohol and entered rehab for a drinking problem in 1990. After the stint in rehab, Strawberry moved to Los Angeles to join the Dodgers. In 1994, Strawberry was placed on the disabled list by the team while again undergoing rehab. Then in 1995, he was suspended 60 days for testing positive for cocaine. Four years later, Strawberry was arrested for cocaine possession and soliciting a prostitute. The next year, MLB suspended him a third time for drugs, this time for the entire season, effectively ending his career.
Something akin to the NBA’s amazing ability to make drug problems disappear on their rosters, MLB hasn’t had much of a public drug problem since these heydays in the 1980s. Why? Most likely, baseball had a few other problems—like strikes, lockouts, Pete Rose, and drugs of another sort (steroids)—to deal with, therefore they turned a blind eye to the issue, masking it with PR-ready drug testing programs designed to find potential troublemakers before they made more negative headlines. In this way, the league could control any potential embarrassment before it got out of hand, as it had in the past.
The NHL isn’t as clean as the ice they skate on either. One of the first NHL drug suspensions occurred in 1983, when Montreal Canadiens defenseman Ric Nattress received a year-long suspension for possession of marijuana and hashish. In reality, it amounted to only 40 games as he was reinstated before season’s end. Three years later, Toronto Maple Leafs forward Borje Salming was suspended for the season for admitting to using cocaine “five, six years ago” in a newspaper article. He missed eight games and was later inducted into the Hall of Fame. Skip ahead to 1989, and the NHL suspends its first player “for life” when Detroit Red Wings goon Bob Probert was arrested for smuggling about 14 grams of cocaine into the U.S. Probert was back in the league the following year. Probert’s troubles weren’t over, though, because as a member of the Chicago Blackhawks, he was suspended again for drugs and entered rehab. In 2000, New York Rangers forward Kevin Stevens was arrested for possession of crack cocaine while in the company of a prostitute. He admitted to having only an alcohol problem, and was sent through the NHL’s substance abuse program. He was not suspended.
The NHL has a standing drug policy which suspends a player for 20 games for the first offense, 60 games for a second, and a lifetime ban for a third. Of course, should someone actually “strike out” in the NHL, like the NBA, there’s a chance for reinstatement after two years. A penalty of this nature has yet to occur.
In June 2009, a question of whether an athlete was taking illegal drugs surfaced in an unlikely sport—The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR). Driver Jeremy Mayfield reportedly tested positive for methamphetamine and was suspended by the circuit. However, Mayfield vehemently denied ever using the substance and sued NASCAR to keep racing. Mayfield claimed the positive result was from a mixture of the allergy medication Claritin-D and another prescribed medication, Adderall XR, used to combat attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Mayfield went as far as claiming NASCAR tampered with his test results, stating, “I don’t trust anything NASCAR does…never have, never will.”8 His lawyers added in writing, “NASCAR is absolutely corrupted by power.”9 As of this writing, the battle between NASCAR and its driver continues.
