(The Sports Xchange) – The NBA will begin testing for human growth hormone next season, the league and National Basketball Players Association announced yesterday.
Beginning in 2015 training camps, NBA players will be subject to three random, unannounced HGH tests each year — two during the season and one in the offseason — and players also will be subject to reasonable-cause testing, the league and union said.
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Carmelo Anthony said Thursday that he briefly second-guessed returning to the New York Knicks in free agency last July, when he signed a five-year, $124 million deal, shunning offers from the Chicago Bulls and Los Angeles Lakers in the process.
Anthony said he is expected to be full strength for training camp in September. He missed the second half of the season following persistent knee issues he said began in the first or second game.
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Florida coach Billy Donovan made his interest in NBA positions known at the end of the college basketball season, and a good friend might just make room for him in Oklahoma City as the Thunder sit out the postseason.
Yahoo Sports first reported mutual interest existed between the two sides.
Donovan, 50, who signed a contract extension with the Gators in March, has only a $500,000 buyout clause and is a longtime friend of Thunder general manager Sam Presti.
Scott Brooks, current coach of the Thunder, just missed the playoffs for the first time in six seasons — most of which the team played without forward Kevin Durant — and has a guaranteed contract for next season with a team option for 2016-17.
“I expect to be the coach next season,” Brooks said Thursday.
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Nebraska guard Terran Petteway declared for the NBA draft, joining teammate Walter Pitchford and ending an emotion-filled week for one of the Big Ten’s top scorers the past two seasons.
A two-time All-Big Ten selection, Petteway started every game the past two seasons and averaged 18.1 points per game, second all-time at Nebraska, during his career with the Cornhuskers.
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The Minnesota Timberwolves were the worst team in the NBA in 2014-15, but the franchise has only a one in four chance of winding up with the No. 1 pick in the 2015 draft.
Minnesota nudged ahead of the New York Knicks, who won two of their final three games and now have less than a 20 percent chance of getting the No. 1 pick.
