LeBron James has been the subject of multiple allegations and rumors surrounding the use of performance-enhancing drugs (PEDs). While these claims have never been substantiated by hard evidence, they continue to persist.
Dan Le Batard Speculates About LeBron James’ PED Use: Amin Elhassan Strikes Back
Things got heated on the Dan Le Batard Show when Dan suggested that age-defying LeBron James’ $2M per year expenditure to preserve his body is not the only thing that is keeping him drinking from the fountain of youth.
Co-host Amin Elhassan argued that such a suggestion is dangerous and it’s not newsworthy.
“You are creating something, slash, giving voice or gas to something no matter how unfounded it is,” Elhassan accused.
Le Batard had a response for that as well.
“It’s a timeliness question? We’re living in the age of skepticism, and so if I just make it hypothetical athlete X and I just don’t make it LeBron and everything you know I simply say to you, ‘What do you think is more likely? That an athlete would try to defy age through science at the end of his career. Or that one athlete had a career that defied the limits of the human body, unlike any we have ever seen in terms of mileage and how his body holds up for 20 straight years.'”
“Did Kareem have more minutes? I’m assuming Lebron James has played more minutes than anyone else. Which do you think is more likely?”
Amin responded: “If you frame it exactly as you framed it there. There are people who can say you know who you’re hinting at… But I think you stay on this side of the line of, ‘Ok you can have that conversation.'”
Le Batard, who has always been a huge LeBron fan said: “If I’m prefacing it with all that you know about me and my admiration for LeBron combined with hey, I’m not accusing anyone of anything here I’m trying to have the macro conversation around America’s giant, biggest athlete for the last two decades, using him as a vehicle…as we talk about (baseball player) Mo Vaughn over here and Eklblad over there…”
Dan Le Batard Says Most Iconic Athletes In History Have Been Rule Skirters
Mo Vaughn is a former MVP MLB player who recently admitted to using performance enhancers for injury recovery during his career. Florida Panthers defenseman Aaron Ekblad has been suspended 20 games without pay for violating the NHL and NHL Players’ Association’s policy on performance-enhancing drugs
“If right now the news came down, that the oldest player in the NBA, who is still doing things that is UNPRECEDENTED for his age, was using HGH. Would anyone be surprised by that?” — Dan Le Batard on LeBron James 🧐
Le Batard says the LeBron James phenomenon is too unprecedented not to be studied deeper.
“Can someone explain to me America why this is the line too far in your skepticism? I’m not accusing him of anything” Le Batard insisted.
Amin Elhassan Wants No Part Of Dan Le Batard LeBron PED Speculation
“I’m offended because you said it,” Amin shot back. “You think it absolves you. What it does is put more credence into what you’re throwing out as a question.
I know you’re not sending it out that way, but the message is being received that way because of who you are…
If I said that, given who I am to that person, it allows people to say, ‘Wait a second I thought this was just a barbershop conversation, but this guy who has all the credibility, is bringing it and giving it credence.'”
“Yes, it’s right to be skeptical, but also, we live in an age where cockamamie statements have been given credence by people, we deem credible,” Elhassan said.
Le Batard stayed on course.
“We are witnessing something that has no precedent for the human body. And I’m not even questioning it, I’m asking why there are no questions about it?
I’m super interested in the reaction and the macro conversation and I can change it by the decades. It doesn’t matter whether or not it’s Lebron. I remember the way people behaved when we turned McGwire and Sosa into the people, we turned them into. Then, over the last 20 years everyone from Lance Armstrong to Barry Bonds to everyone else has been some form of a lie.
Dan Le Batard Says LeBron’s Longevity Can Be Questioned Based On History
“So, this guy who has managed over 20 years to be a pillar…that I’ve never seen in my journalism career,” Le Batard continued. “An international icon that has done almost everything the right way and also has a scientific fact behind him, the fact that his body has held up better than any human body has ever under these conditions. So, I ask America, not Lebron, why don’t you ask why…All this stuff that allows players to age ten years beyond previous facts.”
LeBron fans, including Amin in this instance, don’t seem to like what Le Batard is suggesting, but it wouldn’t be the first time a legend was using science to prolong his career. Nobody wants to have this conversation and honestly the younger generation could probably care less if LeBron was using PEDs.
There hasn’t been a performance-enhancing drugs scandal in basketball. There’s only been a few PED suspensions, and the league doesn’t seem too concerned with it. Not like Major League Baseball, who had the BALCO incident. The NBA just started testing players for HGH before the beginning of the 2015-16 season.
LeBron Associates Named In Biogenesis Report
The expression, “where there’s smoke, there’s fire,” picked up steam when LeBron James’ longtime friend and business manager Ernest Mims, as well as trainer David Alexander, who has worked with James in the past, were named in bombshell documents as clients of Biogenesis.
The ESPN story 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. However, Le Batard’s questions don’t fall on def ears. And the history of possible PED use that he refers too isn’t out of the blue.
UFC Fighter Chael Sonnen Accuses LeBron Of Doing PEDs
In 2022, former UFC fighter Chael Sonnen made a direct accusation of PED use against King James. Sonnen, who has admitted to using PEDs during his fighting career, claimed in an interview that both he and LeBron shared the same “drug guy.”
RELATED: “We Have The Same Drug Guy” | MMA Analyst Chael Sonnen Accuses LeBron James Of Blood Doping
More specifically, Sonnen alleged that LeBron was taking EPO, a performance-enhancing drug that boosts endurance by increasing red blood cell production, also claiming “It’s the reason LeBron takes it. EPO increases your red blood cells, which gives you endurance so you can play all game long.”
Now that Le Batard has put himself out there, let’s see if LeBron, who has been on a hiatus for a supposed “groin injury” responds or not. He has no problems stepping to reporters about how they portray him to the public.
