There hasn’t been a performance-enhancing drugs scandal in basketball. It’s not as bad as, say, BALCO or Major League Baseball. The closest we got was when the NBA began testing players for HGH prior to the start of the 2015-16 NBA season. It was a popular online trend to compare the physiques of players to see who looked slimmer. Stranger things than being LeBron Jim Now, the biggest name in the NBA, if not professional sports, has had close confidants surface as part of unredacted federal documents that were part of the Biogenesis investigation.LeBron James’
To be clear — the
reporting from ESPN that unveiled Alexander and Mims’ names does not accuse James of taking performance-enhancing drugs, nor do any of the cited documents contain claims of
him using steroids. The fact that James’ name is being linked to the Biogenesis scandal on two separate occasions in the new wave of the scandal is not a good look. This scandal changed the names of Ryan Braun and Nelson Cruz forever, since the findings of the investigation led to 21 players being suspended from Major League Baseball. An original 200-plus-game suspension for Alex Rodriguez didn’t forever disgrace the former Texas Ranger and New York Yankee, but his chase to take down the sport’s all-time home-run record was disintegrated, and his career prior to his admission of using performance-enhancing drugs will always have an asterisk.Rodriguez’s reasoning for taking performance-enhancing drugs translates too easily to parts of James’ career. A-Rod predominantly cited overwhelming expectations for why he juiced. James has the highest expectations of any athlete in American sports. He was the most hyped-up high school athlete ever before high school recruiting became mainstream. James’ spectacle is unlike anything we will ever see . James was certainly influenced by the pressure of living up to Michael Jordan’s expectations. Whether that led to him using performance-enhancing drugs has never been confirmed and has merely been a rumor. It’s the first tangible indication that there may be more to this story. ESPN reports that Mims has never been charged with a criminal offense and she was not interviewed by federal authorities as part of this case. Alexander’s name is listed on federal documents as the Miami-based trainer of James’ wife. Alexander was also listed as an associate to a former Biogenesis colleague Anthony Bosch where he exchanged drugs for personal-training clients, one of which was Mims. A representative for James said that the Los Angeles Laker was unaware that he or his wife, or any of their associates, were mentioned in the Biogenesis probe until the media approached him last year. ESPN declined to interview James or Mims after the
provided James’ camp with relevant information to support their questions. ESPN’s reporting took an entire year to complete. And while this is the first needle-moving action involving the Biogenesis case in several years, it’s surely not going to be the last.Paul “The Big Show” Wight also namedWeeeellllllllllll, well it’s … being tied up in a federal investigation. I believe that was his entrance song. Anyway, the “World’s Largest Athlete” known as Paul “The Big Show” Wight — who wrestled as The Giant earlier in his career —might’ve had some help in beefing up to his announced 7-foot, 400-pound stature, as his name is directly mentioned with taking performance-enhancing drugs in ESPN’s reporting. Wight did not fail a drug screen with the WWE but Bosch is alleged to have used his services between 2009 and 2010. This would have been during Wight’s resurgence in the WWE. He fought Floyd Mayweather for WrestleMania a year before his first alleged encounter with Bosch. Wight’s return in WWE saw him lose weight from his reported over 500-pound weight. WWE’s main lineup is constantly on the move, with no downtime. They perform in smaller towns at weekends in addition to their weekly TV shows and premium events. Wight was never previously implicated in any wrongdoing. Wight, who is now 51 years old, is signed to All Elite Wrestling both as a wrestler and commentator.