The Olympic Games and the myth of anti-doping in the NBA: the confession of the star of the Dream Team and the truth revealed

With six wins in a row, the A dream team send to United States at the top of the podium Paris 2024 Olympic Gamesbut some of their players could not have the dream of celebrating the victory with their partners in the locker room as they would have liked. Minutes after they became Olympic champions, the anti-drug authorities came knocking on their door and stopped the party.

That’s how he told Anthony Edwardsstar of the wolves from Minnesota, who was one of the players to be tested for drugs after his incredible performance in the final against France. It was the other two players who were called up for testing instead of celebrating the United States’ fifth consecutive victory in the Olympic Games. Kevin Durant y Stephen Curry.

Edwards and Durant were guests on the Fanatic Fest podcast hosted by the former player Jalen Roseand it was Anthony who presented the program that the three of them were A dream team victoria post

“After the gold medal – I’m not going to lie – he (Durant) and I were, what do you say, drug tested,” he admitted.We couldn’t even celebrate in the locker room. because he, Steph, and I had to control them.”

Rose immediately confirmed that it is not surprising that they asked him for an anti-doping test. Curry after his performance in the last game against France where he scored 24 of the winning 98 points. The comment reminded Edwards that Durant had already passed a test at the Games.

“He’s supposed to have one after the first game against Serbia,” he said as Durant laughed.

Although this type of controls is not new in these competitions, since both the International Olympic Committee (COI) and la World Anti-Doping Agency (AMA) responsible for testing all participants in the Olympic Games, there were always rumors that accused the big stars of the NBA not subject to these controls. The journalism reported by Edwards dispelled those rumours.

Of course, this is not the first time that a player cannot be part of a victory celebration because he has an upcoming drug test. Such was the case at Damian Lillard in 2023 when he played for the Games on the way Blazers from Portlandhad a scoring explosion that year, and was surprised to have to take a post-game analysis for the first time in his 11-year NBA career.

A number of players questioned the reason behind these random checks, but they seem to correspond to times of certain performances. The same thing happened to the Cleveland defender, Donovan Mitchellafter scoring 71 points in one game. Immediately, one of the anti-doping control health authorities was waiting for him in the locker room.

After a good game, one often wonders: “How do they do that? How do they play so well?”, and it seems that the authorities are asking the same thing. However, the debate on anti-doping in the Olympic Games seems to have been settled.