Jason Whitlock: “How big of a problem is doping, PEDs, and EPO, in the four major professional leagues today?”
Victor Conte: “It’s a massive problem, it’s a huge problem. The reason is because those who receive the majority of the financial gain -- meaning the owners -- do not have a genuine interest in catching those who are using the PEDs. The programs that they have designed are in essence designed to enable them and harbor them for using PEDs. None of the professional sports have effective drug testing programs no matter what they say. Because of the lack of sincerity, where they do not have a genuine interest in catching these athletes, the ‘use or lose’ mentality is developed. If you as a player knows that the competitor is using it, then you gotta do what you’ve got to do in order to be competitive, and that’s why they step over the line. Would a lot of these players like to compete naturally? I’m sure that they would. But it’s the organizational lack of interest, and it’s all the way to the Olympic Games as well. The testing is very weak there as well. It’s all about the winning, it’s all about the money."
Whitlock: “Can the problems be fixed and solved?”
Conte: "Sure, put me in charge. Put me in charge, I’ll clean it up in a heartbeat. The rules are designed to enable, harbor, and promote elite athletes’ use of drugs. There was a survey done in 2004 after BALCO in Sports Illustrated where they said the most coveted of all gold medals is the ‘world’s fastest human’ title, the 100-meters. They asked 2,500 people ‘would you rather see a pedestrian 10.2 in the 100-meters knowing that the gold medalist was squeaky clean, or would you rather see a new world record knowing that the athlete was juiced to the gills?’ Seventy percent (70%) said ‘give me the world record on juice!’ This is the mentality that you have of the fans as well.”
Whitlock: “It feels like in football and basketball there are more injuries and more missed games than in previous eras. A lot of us attribute to just ‘oh, the athletes are just lazy, and they’re looking for reasons to skip games’, but I’m wondering if some of it could be attributed to they’re taking more drugs and supplements that are making them susceptible to injuries than previous era.”
Conte: “I believe you’re correct. People are not using anabolic steroids in professional sports these days. The granddaddy of all is testosterone. Anabolic steroids are just similar in structure to testosterone. Testosterone makes your muscles bigger, and stronger, and faster, but simultaneously they weaken your connective tissues, ligaments, and tendons. So yes, the use of synthetic testosterone can make you more prone to injury.”
Whitlock: “What do you think of all the conversation around LeBron James? Kevin Garnett makes a statement during a podcast that LeBron is ‘on that new BALCO’, blah, blah, blah, and there’s been a lot of rumors and speculation to that whole Biogenesis DEA investigation. People attached to LeBron were connected to that. Should we be suspicious of the longevity of LeBron’s career?”
Conte: “Yes, there’s reason for suspicion. I want to be fair to LeBron, there is no evidence that I know of that’s conclusive. We have to factor in the standard. You have the ‘beyond a reasonable doubt’ in criminal court. You have the ‘preponderance of evidence’ in civil court. Then you have what they call ‘comfortable satisfaction’ that arbitrators use in the world of sports. These things that you just mentioned -- his manager, his agent, his wife, his trainer, all being connected to the Biogenenis clinic, as well as another drug dealer at a gym, so it wasn’t just Biogenenis. There was another connection as well. Then some of this testimony that his agent on a monthly basis was going by the Biogenesis clinic and picking up a package of PEDs with the initials of ‘L.J.’ on them.
I’m just adding all these things that bring this cloud of suspicion. ‘Should they be suspicious’ and the answer is ‘Yes'. When Chael Sonnen, the UFC/MMA fighter who works for ESPN said ‘I’LL TELL YOU EXACTLY WHAT HE’S TAKING. HE’S USING EPO, AND HOW DO I KNOW? BECAUSE I’M USING THE EXACT SAME SUPPLIER TO GET EPO.’ Why have you or other journalists not went to Chael, got him on your show, and asked him to ‘please explain who this guy is, and how he knows that LeBron James is using it?’ I have not heard LeBron James dispute that. Not a peep. Have you?
Right before I got on this program, I called and talked with a writer, there’s a lot of articles out there. This writer was on this case [Biogenesis] and this investigation for six and a half years. The word that he used was that ESPN basically ‘blocked’ him from saying certain things in his articles and his reporting. He was blocked. He said there was much in terms of information and innuendo, but they were unwilling to allow him to print this in his articles. He said ‘there’s more to this than you know.’ Whatever that means, is that enough to say LeBron James is guilty of using PEDs? Certainly not, but I believe this needs to be followed up and more questions need to be asked by people like yourself.”
Victor Conte, the founder of the infamous and now-defunct California sports nutrition center BALCO, joined Blaze TV’s Fearless with Jason Whitlock to discuss recent off-color comments made by former NBA superstar Kevin Garnett regarding LeBron James, who went viral for making a snide remark about LeBron being ‘on that BALCO’, and ‘on that new juice.’
Even though Garnett's scathing implication could be glossed over as perhaps a tongue-in-cheek exaggeration, it wouldn’t be the first time James’ name has been linked to performance-enhancing drugs.
James’ former trainer was implicated in the infamous Biogenesis doping scandal in 2013, and just last year former MMA star and admitted PED user Chael Sonnen said he and LeBron share the same ‘drug doctor’. Sonnen went so far to say that LeBron is taking EPO, a performance-enhancing drug that disgraced former cyclist Lance Armstrong notoriously took to win seven Tour De France titles before later being stripped of all them when it was revealed he had taken the illegal drug. EPO greatly boosts red blood production and allows athletes to produce at peak performance levels for long periods of time without much drop-off.
Conte's was at one time one of the most well known villains in athletics, as 'BALCO' become synonymous with steroids in the mid-2000s. Conte's BALCO labs were supplying performance-enhancing drugs to some of the most famous athletes of the era, with the operation finally going up in smoke in the late 2000s, and Conte even serving prison time for conspiracy to distribute steroids, and money laundering.
Conte told Whitlock that performance-enhancing drugs are still a ‘massive problem’ in the four major ball sports, saying that the owners of those franchises don’t have any general interest in catching athletes who are cheating, and says the all the four major league including the Olympics, have lax testing polices that are meant to ‘enable, harbor, and promote' cheating, adding that it’s all about the money, and getting the best performances from their highest-earning employees.
Check out the interview above as Conte details to Whitlock how EPO, human growth hormone, and synthetic testosterone operate when it comes to taking athletes to the next level, and explains why the suspicions around LeBron potentially using PEDs are justified, and potentially being compromised by mainstream sports media trying to protect him.
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