The NBA has specific protocols to keep its players in check. One such example is drug testing, which ensures that players aren't taking any drugs or medication that could give them a leg up on the competition.
Occasionally, a player fails a drug test and gets disciplined, but for the most part, these guys know what they need to avoid. However, according to Sebastian Telfair , at least 80 percent of NBA players have failed at least one drug test before.
Telfair's drug test claim
While the tests used to be scheduled, they are now done randomly in order to ensure that players can't stop taking banned substances before the check-ups.
Recently, the NBA removed marijuana from their banned substance list, as it wasn't perceived to give players an advantage on the court. After the ban was put into effect, Telfair claims it resulted in tons of failed drug tests that the league did not let the public know about.
"I would say 80 percent of players failed a drug test before, for sure," the former NBA guard said on VladTV . "Bud, marijuana…Steroids, nah. I was in the NBA, so I was in the room. There's another curtain that you gotta get behind; they ain't letting me behind that other curtain. So I don't know."
When asked about the use of drugs other than marijuana, Telfair said, "Some conversations I don't wanna be in the middle of." He then mentioned George Karl, who was very vocal about the use of performance-enhancing drugs in the NBA , hinting there might be more layers to this problem.
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Is there some truth to it?
Could the NBA have covered up the fact that a massive portion of its players were failing drug tests because of marijuana? Maybe. But if so many guys were failing drug tests in this manner, why was marijuana recently removed from the banned substances list in 2023?
Beyond that, the league didn't hand out any repercussions for these failed drug tests. Chances are some tests that were positive for marijuana were swept under the rug, but to say that four out of every five players in the league failed a drug test seems hard to believe.
Now that marijuana isn't a banned substance, it's not something that guys around the Association have to worry about. Telfair's claim likely doesn't have much truth to it, but as he notes, there's another curtain we aren't allowed to see behind, so we'll never truly know whether he's exaggerating or not.
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