Does Pro Basketball Have a Drug Problem? 1975

[By the early 1970s, wire service stories popped up occasionally in American newspapers about a pro basketball players getting arrested for drugs. A memorable check-this-out was Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Lucius Allen getting busted in Denver for possession of a small, make that, minuscule, amount of marijuana. This story and others like it typically disappeared quickly from the headlines, as many franchises were quick to dispatch their lawyers to the city jail and bail out the arrestee(s) very much on the sly. 

However, it was only a matter of time before curious journalistic minds asked: Does pro basketball have a drug problem? What follows is one of the first stories in print to tackle the question. The story appeared on February 12, 1975 in the Louisville Times as a front-page, copyrighted exclusive penned by the newspaper’s team of investigative reporters. Because the sample size (16 interviews) was relatively small and the story ran in Kentucky, not New York, it didn’t quite morph into national news. But the story did inspire nasty rebuttals from the NBA and ABA, both of which argued indignantly that pro basketball does not have a drug problem. 

Time would tell that the Louisville Times was on to something. But time would also tell that the newspaper’s investigative team was mostly groping in the dark, not coming close to shedding the needed light on the problem’s true extent. Though the team did its investigative best at the time, its data seem pretty flimsy 50 years hence. Same with the team’s poor understanding of addiction. That’s why today, the story seems, well, a little lame in places. But it remains an important record of the times. The story documents just how unprepared the leaders of both leagues were at the time proactively to conceptualize and confront what, by the end of the decade, would became a huge problem for the NBA. So back to 1975 we go and the provocative question: Does pro basketball have a drug problem?]

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They are America’s biggest men—some seven-feet and taller. Strong and agile, they leap like cats, performing wonders with basketballs. Thousands cheer their names. 

They are the professional basketball players. Idolized by children, admired by adults who have never met them, they are paid salaries matched by few in the nation. Recently, however, a young St. Louis woman named Roxie Ann Rice told police that she had been hired to scout two professional basketball teams to find potential drug buyers. She said she had been furnishing drugs to football players, and her employers wanted to branch out into basketball. 

Last Friday, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration announced after an investigation that the statements made by Miss Rice were essentially groundless. 

Miss Rice, however, did not allege that drugs were being illicitly used by professional basketball players. But several sources close to professional basketball have told The Louisville Times that the illicit use of drugs, particularly marijuana, is widespread in the sport. Cocaine is said to be used to a lesser extent. 

Other sources inside basketball strongly disputed this. 

In an effort to explore the question of whether drugs are used by pro basketball players, The Times interviewed 16 persons—players, coaches, former players, and a former trainer. Half of those interviewed said drugs were a problem. Each of them asked that his name not be used for fear of jeopardizing his future in the sport. 

“How bad it it? Unbelievable, that’s how bad . . . Everybody’s into it,” one coach said, speaking of the drug problem in the National Basketball Association.

Several of The Times’ sources outlined a world of monied athletes who use drugs to escape the boredom of life on the road or to relax from the tension and excitement of a hard-fought game. They said drugs were usually used at parties after a game or in the privacy of a player’s apartment or a hotel room. But a few said drugs, particularly cocaine, were occasionally taken in locker rooms before or after games. 

None of the sources knew of any organized ring supplying drugs to athletes, such as Miss Rice claimed to have worked for. But several said a network of communications exists between teams, and that certain players often furnish drugs to other players.

“Everybody knows certain players in each city can easily lay their hands on whatever you might want,” said a player who left the American Basketball Association last season. 

At least two NBA players were released by their teams because they allegedly used drugs heavily, sources said. One was traded; the other was placed on waivers and eventually left the league. Both had reputations for associating with drug pushers. One was suspected of selling illegal drugs, sources said. 

Most of those who disputed the infiltration of basketball with illicit drugs also asked to remain anonymous, except Jerry Lucas, former star of the NBA’s New York Knickerbockers. Lucas retired after last season. “If drugs are used, I don’t know about it,” Lucas said. “I’ve never known anybody to do it or heard about it. My personal opinion is that it is really blown out of proportion.”

A current NBA star agreed with Lucas about the use of drugs. “The way I compete, and the other guys compete . . . I don’t see how the could [use drugs],” he said. 

Officials of both the NBA and ABA also denied the existence of any significant drug problems in their leagues. However, Mike Storen, former commissioner of the ABA, said that when he became commissioner, he was very concerned about the problem and acted to deal with it. But Storen said his actions were aimed at preventing a problem, not combating an existing one.

But eight persons interviewed said use of illegal drugs is a part of professional basketball today. “I think it is getting more and more prevalent as time goes on,” said one former ABA player. 

Asked how many ABA players use drugs, he said: “At the time I was involved [in the ABA—1973], I would say about 50 to 60 would be a good number. That may be a little exaggerated.” (There were about 130 players in the ABA in 1973.)

The persons who said that illicit drugs were in general use agreed that:

–Cocaine sniffing, or “snorting,” is practiced by some players, though it is probably not widespread. 

–Marijuana is widely used. 

–Younger players are more involved in drug use than older players. 

–Coaches generally know about drug use, but turn their heads rather than confront it. 

One coach said drug dealers are attracted to professional athletes, because they are wealthy and mobile. “The thing you’ve got to understand is that these basketball players are natural for this,” he said. “They’re natural targets. Money is no problem, and they’re using only pure stuff [cocaine].”

When the coach read the allegations that Roxie Ann Rice had scouted basketball teams for potential drug buyers, he said he told his wife, “This is it. It’s all going to start coming out now.” The coach told the Timesreporter, “Hell, everybody’s been expecting it to happen for some time. Everybody thought it was only a matter of time.” Asked if league officials knew of drug use, the coach said, “You kidding, sure they do, and everybody’s scared to death of it.”

Officials of both the NBA and ABA, however, professed minimal knowledge of drug use in their leagues. John W. Joyce, director of security for the NBA, said his office meets twice each year with team doctors to discuss drugs. “It‘s their consensus, as well as mine, that we do not have a problem,” he said.

“I’m not telling you that there’s nobody in our league that uses drugs,” Joyce said. “We’ve had complaints . . . that a particular individual might be using them. In all such cases, we’ve investigated to determine if there is any truth to it . . . But we haven’t come up with any specific incidents where we have had the problem.” 

Rod Olsen, chief of security for the ABA and a former assistant coach of the Kentucky Colonels, said drug use is a problem in society generally. “To the best of my knowledge, there is no more of a problem in professional sports than there is in any other endeavor,” he said. 

Olsen declined to discuss specific incidents of drug abuse that may have come to his attention. “If it is proven that a person in the ABA is involved in illegal drug use, strict actions will be taken. The hardest thing is to prove it,” he said. 

But while the executives behind the office desks tell one story about drugs in basketball, some players, coaches, and trainers tell another story. “I’ve [haven’t] seen guys snorting cocaine before games, but I didn’t have to see it to know what’s happening,” said one former player who left the ABA in 1973.

“One guy had it (cocaine) so bad that he sneezed all the time. The coach didn’t realize it. He just dismissed it.” He said the coaches never actually see players snorting cocaine or smoking a joint, “but I’m sure they know it. I know they’re aware.”

The former player said he knew of five ABA teams on which some players used illegal drugs. He named the Virginia Squires, Memphis Sounds, San Diego Conquistadors, New York Nets, and Denver Rockets. He said he had “personal knowledge” of drug use among these teams’ players, but he refused to cite names. Spokesmen for all five teams denied that the teams either have or had drug problems. 

One source who said drugs were widespread on many ABA teams said that the Kentucky Colonels are not among them. “They’re sort of different. Maybe two guys are into it—that’s just my idea.”

Mrs. Ellie Brown, board chairman of the Colonels, said, “I’m convinced there is nothing on my team . . . If you had to keep up the schedule they do, you would know there is no way they could take drugs and keep up that kind of schedule.”

The former player who named the five teams said he had tried snorting cocaine and was approached by another player at least once “to go in half” on a purchase of cocaine. “It burned my head off,” he said. “Your nose runs for a long period of time. It makes you feel content. You’re more relaxed in the game. Nothing bothers you.”

He said the way players inhale cocaine is “real comical,” often snorted either from a spoon or a folded matchbook cover. He said some players had told of snorting cocaine over “a long period of time.” However, he said, “Nobody I knew of felt they were hooked.”

Another former player, who was in the NBA this season, said, “It would be unreal for me to say it doesn’t exist. Drugs are real prevalent in athletics.” He estimated that “15 to 20 percent” of NBA players—“maybe more”—use drugs. “The main thing that most use is marijuana . . . Cocaine would be used on a real small scale,” he said.

He said he never saw anyone on his own team use drugs. “Most on the team are like older guys . . . Older guys aren’t as much into it as younger guys,” he said.

The former player said the use of drugs was heavy at his team’s rookie camp where “guys would go along with whatever anybody else was doing.” He said he witnessed rookies using “speed (amphetamines), coke, and marijuana.”

A coach said that among some players “a big thing is water pipes”—which are typically used to smoke marijuana, hashish, and opium. “They go up to a hotel, and they put wet towels around the door and windows and all the openings. A whole bunch of them will get in there with a water pipe,” the coach said. 

He added that several cities are known among NBA players as drug pickup points. The cities are Los Angeles, Milwaukee, Baltimore, and Washington, he said. Phoenix is a “pretty active place”  because a large volume of drugs comes through Tucson, he said. 

The players, coaches, and a former trainer who alleged that drugs are illegally used said a variety of pressures might lead some players into use. Drugs are common in society generally, they said, and traveling leaves players with long stretches of unoccupied time. 

Olsen, the ABA security director, said the immaturity of young players would make them susceptible to drugs. “And because some of these guys are getting really high salaries, they become targets for the drug traffic,” Olsen said. 

Several ex-players said the tensions built up during a game are also a factor. “Players consume a lot of beer after games just so they can wind down. The smokers smoke grass (marijuana) just to wind down,” said a former player for an ABA team on the East Coast. 

The ex-player discounted reports from others, however, that 50 to 60 ABA players were involved in drugs. “Sure there are 60 players in the league using marijuana, but as far as cocaine goes, maybe there are two players [using it] in the whole league—that is how much it is blown out of proportion,” he said. 

Whether drug abuse is small, large, or nonexistent in professional basketball, both leagues have taken steps to combat it, The Times learned. Storen, the former commissioner of the ABA, said, “When I became commissioner, I was very concerned about the problem. That is why I instituted a full-time director of security.

“His job was to go into each ABA city and talk to the FBI and local law enforcement people and find out places and persons who should be off-limits to ABA players. But these steps were more preventive medicine than a countering measure. I wanted to have somebody working in this area before we had a problem. I recognized drugs as a problem affecting all of society today,” said Storen, who is now president-trustee of the Memphis Sounds and earlier was an executive with the Colonels and the Indiana Pacers.

Another anti-drug measure that the ABA takes is having police officers from each city talk to the teams, informing players of the effects of drug abuse and its penalties, according to a league official. 

Similar measures have been taken by the NBA, which employs a physician from Johns Hopkins University Medical School to combat drug abuse. The physician, Dr. Terry Brown, said he has talked to all NBA teams about drug abuse, and that a player can talk to him in confidence if he has a drug problem. But no player has come to him with such a problem during the two years he’s worked for the NBA, he said. 

Brown, who also is associate director of a drug-abuse center in Baltimore, said he doubts that reports of cocaine use are true, because any player who used it regularly “would be incapable of playing basketball responsibly for any length of time.”

Brown said cocaine, a derivative of heroin [Ed. Note: not true], “would make a player high.” In all likelihood, he said, a player under its influence would believe he could play better than he actually could.

However, a Louisville physician said cocaine may increase a person’s ability to endure rigorous activity, and that it might be hard to tell whether certain people are high on it. Dr. James G. Bland, medical director of River Region’s drug-abuse center, added that he feels that “snorting” cocaine is addictive, but there is some disagreement among physicians on this.  

Cocaine is often sniffed through the nose, he said, because that seems to give the “most pleasant” high. It is quickly absorbed into the bloodstream through blood vessels in the nose, he said. Use of cocaine constitutes a felony, while use of marijuana is considered a misdemeanor in most states, according to Brown. 

What view does the NBA take on the use of marijuana? No different than it does of the use of any other drug, Brown said. “Illegal things are illegal, and we are not of a mind to do anything on behalf of anyone who does anything illegal,” he said.

Brown said he has heard rumors that marijuana is used by players, but said, “I’ve had no reports with the names (of players) associated with it.” 

Another measure taken by the NBA to fight drugs is to have a security agent in each city to keep in touch with local law enforcement agencies. The agent reports any drug problems involving basketball players to the NBA headquarters in New York. Also, careful records are kept of legal drugs dispensed to players by team physicians or trainers, according to Brown. 

Despite the leagues’ precautions, however, the problem apparently has not abated but has grown in recent years, according to players, coaches, and others interviewed. A former player who was in the ABA when the league began in 1967 said the use of cocaine has increased over the years “because there’s more money being made now.”

A former trainer in the ABA said, “I’d never be able to walk into a court of law and state that members of (my) team were taking drugs. But I do feel that drugs are more prominent than when I first started in the league in 1968.”

The former trainer cited greater availability and added that four years ago he was told by an FBI agent that some ABA players were under surveillance for suspected use of illicit drugs. 

One former NBA star said, “You hear a lot of things. I couldn’t outright say ‘yes,’ and I couldn’t say ‘no.’

“I never encountered use of cocaine,” he said. “I’m from the old school. This is a new generation coming along. When we were in college, it was a hip thing to get a bottle of whiskey. I always had a hang-up about drugs because I felt it would tear your body down,” he said. 

“Times have changed.”