Newsday (Suffolk Edition) from Melville, New York • 84

Pro Basketball Drug Usage league Whan I first he said "you could get uppers from trainers Now you anymore Maybe all the warnings They bring in FBI guys police and tell you that going to be checking I knew a couple of people who used to be in the league who dealt cocaine But I guess they got scared off by someone or someone found out about them Anyway not around anymore and better players than some of the guys still hanging on today But I just imagine anyone taking cocaine and trying to play on it happens in a social life after a game or before I know for sure a lot of guys around all different kinds of people The climate of the whole nation is more open and objective getting to the point where the whole thing legalization of marijuana is pretty strong But you start cocaine or the real hard drugs and I think a basketball player that stuff in his private life is to stay around the league very The Bill Melchionni sees amphetamine and marijuana usage in professional basketball as an answer basically to the scheduling problems The he said to be more prevalent now than when I first broke in Philadelphia 1966 I know when I first oame into pro basketball the trainers had them Then I missed one season (68-69) and I know that when I came back it was really a shock to me to see how things had changed with the pills Now different You get them from trainers is more prevalent now too sort of like wine used to be around some playground games You know the guys would take some wine and get nice and relaxed Well you play a pro basketball game with wine sloshing around your stomach So a couple of hours before a game a guy might take some marijuana and get relaxed This is a tense job and the schedule make things One coach in the ABA a former professional player is so worried about possible drug usage on his team that he 'admitted having the trainer check the luggage without their knowledge Richie Guerin is the general manager of the Atlanta Hawks He was a player for many years and coached the Hawks until the end of last season at the later stage of my playing he said took dexedrines sometimes Not very often Maybe about 15 times in all I talked to a 1 lot of doctors about it and I was told that used sparingly they oould not be harmful At one time it was my responsibility to be in charge of giving them out on our team That way I could regulate it But I think the players are using them much today And I think I know my players pretty Dr Lawrence Golding Kent State exercise physiologist who has studied the effect of amphetamine usage on athletes said several sports people such as Guerin have been misled about amphetamine danger Dr Golding said to encourage the use of amphetamines by telling athletes that they are harmless in normal doses But the danger with athletes whether taking five 10 or 15 mg is what happens to them under circumstances of high performance and heal stress Given under normal conditions amphetamines increase pulse rates and blood pressure But playing a hard sporting event a normal circumstance why a danger involved that we just know that much about Larry Costello coach of the Milwaukee Bucks said policing amphetamine or any type of drug usage is extremely difficult From everything happened this year I guess have to assume a problem But how do you check it? Costello asked players get anything from our trainer Who do you watch? The people in the lob- bies? Have you ever seen the number of people who hang around a basketball team in the hotel lobbies? How do you know who they all are? This has been a very difficult year for me: My most In the exhibition season the Lucius Allen who had two previous arrests on marijuana charges and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar were arrested' in Denver Police said they found small substances of marijuana amphetamines and LSD in the car in which Jabbar and Allen were passengers The By Sandy Padwe Season Disappeared lor Jones IKox Second of a series The warning primarily by phone went to all the player representatives in the National Basketball Association I told said Larry Fleisher attorney for the NBA Players Association there was too much at stake that worked too hard too long to suffer any That was mid-season a difficult time for people like Fleisher who had been hearing rumors about the level of drug usage both for performance and in private among professional basketball players In one West Coast city the narcotics bureau of the police department had been investigating an NBA player suspected of dealing cocaine The investigation ended Also there woe two cases on desk The Milwaukee Bucks had dropped Wali Jones and his healthy contract claiming that Jones had lost weight and stamina and therefore could not physically play in the NBA jmy longer That immediately was translated around the league to mean that Wali Jones had a serious drug problem The matter went to arbitration within the NBA Fleisher also had another case on his desk Harold Fox a rookie guard for the Buffalo Braves and teammate Dick Garrett had been arrested in suburban Buffalo They were in an apartment where marijuana was found The authorities later dropped the case due to insufficient evidence Garrett remained with the Braves but Fox was dropped and did not play again for any professional team even though coach Jack Ramsay last spring described him as an The Fox case also went to arbitration in the NBA since the Braves according to Herb Rudoy of Chicago lawyer stopped payment on the contract Drug usage in basketball appears to be of a different character than in football Much of it results from the gruelling schedule in both professional basketball leagues A lot of said Nate Archibald of the Kansas City Kings the leading scorer in the NBA if they can get high it will relax them I Bay a problem with hard drugs among basketball players But a lot of smoking marijuana going on and I think getting out of hand You be at your best if that before a Archibald said the players are aware of the same rumors that had reached' office he said there have been investigations Things got pretty tight for a couple of weeks after those guys Fox and Garrett got arrested in Buffalo a pretty good network of communication between the players and there are guys in and out of basketball you can buy stuff from For basketball players easy because they have the money to get what they want You get into a certain city and Warren Jabali who has played five seasons in the ABA said there has been a change in drug usage patterns since he came into the It was all very vague And the vagueness led to a lot of damaging innuendo and rumor The Milwaukee Bucks of the National Basketball Association suspended guard Wali Jones without pay The Bucks contended Jones had lost weight and stamina Technically it was a medical suspension After the club physician reportedly determined he find a cause for the loss of weight and stamina- the medical suspension was lifted Then Richard Phillips Philadelphia attorney said on Jan 9 that the Bucks had placed his client on disciplinary suspension for "alleged curfew violations and other conduct detrimental Jones remained on suspension Phillips said without pay for the rest of the season Meanwhile the case was under arbitration within the NBA office But rumors do not wait for arbitration and the vagueness and the innuendo were damaging the credibility or an athlete who had worked long and hard with ghetto youngsters in Philadelphia and 'Milwaukee warning them about the hazards of drugs (The Bucks meanwhile were refusing all -comment on the case) Oddly Jones' one of the better guards in basketball -for several years could not find employ-' ment with any other team in either league Bob Briner general manager of the Dallas Chaparrals die ABA team with the negotiating rights to Jones said we agree on contract But he also admitted there were subtle comments innuendo about a drug-related -problem but we really know there was a cloud over him Jones felt it too have to fight my own bat he said There have been all sorts of rumors about me there have been ever since I got involved in the programs with the kids I think a lot of this is political Why would I want to ruin my own Jones the only NBA player who spent much of the past season in a strange form of limbo Last fall Harold Fox a rookie and Dick Garrett a fourth-year man were arrested in suburban Buffalo Police in Amherst NY said the two Buffalo Braves players were in an apartment where marijuana was found The charges were dropped against the two players Garrett remained on the Braves roster But Fox found himself cut from the team his four-year contract suspended His attorney Herb Rudoy' of Chicago said last week that NBA commissioner Walter Kennedy had ruled the Braves had the right to suspend Fox but they have to renew payments on his contract next October Rudoy says he will appeal the ruling within the league sure we will he said no proof at all that Fox used it marijuana If the team feels Harold is of bad 1 morale character then why Garrett -suspended Maybe they thought Garrett was more Garrett very sure of his future either contract's up and the way doing Harold I know I know what will hap-- pen I know if the team is trying to make an example of him or trying to get rid of a big con- tract Ever since I was arrested Fm trying to il'J stay out of trouble Stay away from places that are suspect But drugs are everywhere all over in society Sandy Padwe vin 84 21 1 nr e-er i SJI.