BioGenesis Whistleblower says players in NBA have used his service

[Admin]

I heard sometime in 2012 that LeBron's trainer signed for packages here with the name LBJ or something like that. I highly doubt the NBA will ever condemn one of their superstars and faces of the league, but I wish they would suspend everyone who's guilty of it.

http://espn.go.com/espn/otl/story/_/id/9508288/biogenesis-whistleblower-broke-open-scandal-says-ncaa-mma-nba-other-athletes-used-clinic-mlb-investigation

Whistle-blower: Not only MLB players

The man who turned the Biogenesis clinic from a quiet investigation in Miami into a national scandal says there are at least a dozen more athletes whose names haven't been exposed and that they come from across the sports world.Porter Fischer, the former Biogenesis of Miami clinic employee who turned boxes of documents over to the Miami New Times last year, declined to name the athletes. But in his first television interview, Fischer told "Outside the Lines" that numerous sports had at least one athlete who received performance-enhancing drugs from clinic founder Tony Bosch. "This isn't a 2013 thing or a 2012 thing; some of these people have been on the books since 2009," Fischer said. Fischer said he and associates have identified athletes from the NBA, NCAA, professional boxing, tennis and MMA, in addition to other professional baseball players who have not yet been identified. As far as he knows, Fischer said, Bosch had no clients from the NFL or NHL.He said the only sports entity he has heard from was Major League Baseball.The athletes not yet publicly named come from the documents Fischer took from the clinic, documents he said another employee asked him to take for safekeeping. The number of athletes involved with the clinic, based on what he saw and heard during his time with Biogenesis, is far more than people realize, he said."In just the four years that I know, it's got to be well over a hundred, easy," he said. "It's almost scary to think about how many people have gone through [bosch's treatments] and how long he's gotten away with this."Bosch has been cooperating with MLB for more than a month, providing what sources have said are extensive records of his connection to 20 to 25 players. The Milwaukee Brewers' Ryan Braun was already confronted with evidence, and he agreed to a season-ending 65-game suspension and forfeited his remaining salary for the year. Other suspensions, including for the New York Yankees' Alex Rodriguez, are expected within the next two weeks.In Fischer's interview with "Outside the Lines," he said he never expected the insanity that turned his life "upside down" after he released the documents.Fischer was a client of Bosch's for two years, believing the man known as "Dr. T" was a medical doctor. Bosch is not but has presented himself as one for years, treating patients like Fischer with weight-loss regimens of prescription drugs. Fischer, who worked in marketing for years, said he offered to start a marketing campaign for Biogenesis last year and that Bosch responded by asking him to invest in the company.Fischer said he gave Bosch $4,000 in September with the promise he would get $4,800 in return. Fischer was named the company's marketing director. After receiving $1,200, he said the payments stopped. Several former Bosch associates said they were also owed money. "When I would approach him for money, he'd be like, 'I don't have it. I don't have it.' And I was like, 'I want my money.' He was like, 'I'm Dr. Tony Bosch. What are you going to do about it?'" Fischer said. "So this is what I did about it."He took some of the Biogenesis documents in his possession to the New Times. His intention, he said, was to spark a federal investigation. After seeing the names of local police, attorneys and a judge in the documents, Fischer said he wasn't comfortable going to law enforcement."I was really, really counting on somebody from law enforcement to come up and take me under their wing and have me as a witness in a criminal investigation, but that never happened," he said.Fischer said he never asked the New Times for money and never went to any of the leagues for money.A few days before the article was set to run in January, Fischer said he was threatened by someone who he thought was a friend."I received that threat that, 'If you don't stop the article, if certain people are mentioned, you're going to be killed. This is not somebody to mess around with,' and so on and so forth. That freaked me out enough," he said.The friend said he would give Fischer the balance of the money owed him if Fischer would turn over documents. Fischer took $4,000 -- "I only wanted the $3,600 I was owed" -- and turned over some documents. He kept copies, however, and became one of the most wanted men in South Florida.Major League Baseball sent investigators to his mother's house, pounding on the door and saying they would offer money, according to Fischer's sister, Suzanne. "Outside the Lines" reporters found an MLB investigator's business card at the home that said, "Please call -- We know time = $. Call ASAP."Eventually, MLB investigators found him and asked for his cooperation, Fischer said. He said he was handed an envelope with $5,000 as a down payment and eventually was given another $500. Fisher said he was reluctant to turn over documents, that he would have to leave the Miami area to start a new life if he cooperated. Eventually, he said, MLB offered him $125,000, a figure confirmed by a source familiar with MLB's investigation, but he turned that down."Previously, I had been getting calls from them every day," he said. "Once I turned them down for the $125,000, two days later they wrote me a letter instructing me not to destroy any documents and to keep them around."On March 24, he said, while transporting the documents, his car was broken into and four of the seven boxes he had were stolen. The Boca Raton Police Department report of the incident states a handgun and a laptop were also stolen. One night, Fischer said, he was chased by three cars until a friend and police intervened. He said someone tried to poison one of his dogs and that several times he found feces on his car.Fischer said he is still willing to cooperate with Major League Baseball, although he felt harassed by investigators. What he can't believe, he said, is that law enforcement never took up the case and that the Florida Department of Health fined Bosch only $5,000."I don't have any friends anymore," Fischer said. "The people that I thought were my friends ended up abandoning me or they side with the things they've seen in the media and read that because I've tried to stay quiet."I don't go to the same locations I used to go to. My blinds are closed all the time. I have a concealed weapons permit, but now I continually carry a weapon. It's not what I expected. It's not what I got involved for."

http://probasketballtalk.nbcsports.com/2013/07/25/report-unnamed-nba-players-linked-to-biogenesis-clinic-scandal/Report: Unnamed NBA players linked to Biogenesis clinic scandal The performance enhancing drug scandal tied to the Florida Biogenesis clinic that has embroiled baseball and led to the suspension of MVP Ryan Braun could touch the NBA. Porter Fischer, the whistleblower who came forward to give the Miami New Times boxes of information that blew up Biogenesis into a scandal, told ESPN’s investigative show Outside The Lines that there are NBA players who used the clinic.

No names of those other athletes have been released.As anyone who has followed this story even casually knows, Fischer has plenty of credibility issues of his own. That said, the people at Biogenesis did a good job of keeping records, not only of who came to the clinics but of emails, texts and other correspondence.The NBA has a policy of testing for PEDs, although the people doing designer PEDs have always been one step (or more) ahead of enforcement efforts. The NBA does not have a blood test in place for Human Growth Hormones yet, with Commissioner David Stern saying at Summer League that has to be negotiated with the union, and those kinds of negotiations are on hold until they get a new full time executive director. The current NBA rules call for a 20-game suspension for the first offense of testing positive, a second violation earns 45 games off, a third means banishment from the league.Count me in the group that thinks there is more PED use in the NBA than people realize. I don’t think it’s as rampant as other sports, but the idea that a PED to help speed recoveries from workouts would not benefit a player in the off-season or during long road trips is naive at best. The fact is when millions of dollars are on the line people will cheat the rules, and that is the case with NBA contracts.But as of now there is no evidence of which — if any — NBA players were tied to the clinic and what they may have taken. (I know a bunch of you will end up speculating in the comments and name players you hate, everyone is innocent until proven guilty and as of right now there is no proof of anything here.)

[frosgrim]

Not surprising that NBA guys are using. The NFL is the real prize in all of this, but the league doesn't want to to catch anyone.

[Diesel]

I wonder how much effort will the league put fourth to protect Lebron??

He is the face of the NBA now.

[ATLSmith]

I think the NBA will slowly adopt a policy to catch future offenders but won't bother investigating past digressions.

This would allow stars who are currently using to save face while the NBA tries to clean up the league going forward.

[MaceCase]

Great time to have a "setback" to your recovery, Kobe. Don't want to be raising the wrong kind of eyebrows by starting on opening night.

[Diesel]

I think the NBA will slowly adopt a policy to catch future offenders but won't bother investigating past digressions.

This would allow stars who are currently using to save face while the NBA tries to clean up the league going forward.

You can't say that the League doesn't know. The league refuses to test for HGH.

Just based on looking, I would say: Lebron, Josh Smith, Dwight Howard, Westbrook, D-Wade, Shaq in Miami, Bynum and Wall all use something. The NBA can't afford to look into this right now. Stern is moving on, but I agree with you. They will put in place something but right now, the players Union nor the owners are barking about Steroids.

[bird_dirt]

No worries with Bebe yet

[nitte]

I thought NBA players have those bodies with brown rice and grilled chicken only. I'm shocked.

[NBASupes]

NBA uses this for their injuries. MLB to improve performance.

[kerrypack]

given the importance of explosiveness and the advantages that roids can give a person in becoming more explosive, I would be simply amazed if a number of people in the nba weren't using.

[Admin]

NBA uses this for their injuries. MLB to improve performance.

Both false generalizations.

[Admin]

Great time to have a "setback" to your recovery, Kobe. Don't want to be raising the wrong kind of eyebrows by starting on opening night.

Didn't Kobe's trainer or someone close to him say they'd be shocked if he wasn't ready by game 1?

[benhillboy]

I don't think basketball players use. I would think it compromises shooting and passing. Besides, I think a tell tale sign of use is your body breaking down and being oft-injured after a period of non-use. The main payoff and best application of juice from my knowledge is greatly increasing NFL defensive players' hitting power and ridiculous bat speed for otherwise poor players like A-Rod.

Edited July 26, 2013 by benhillboy

[ag82]

They said yesterday that there were no "big names" in the nba.

[Randy]

Read a really interesting article recently (I'll see if I can track it down) saying that the big jump in knee injuries in recent years was due to the fact that while players muscles are getting stronger, ligaments aren't. So what happens is they put more stress on the ACL for ex, cause they are just that much stronger. Its sort of an engineering principle that when you make one part of a system a lot stronger, it makes another part break.

So, wondering aloud if this problem may be related to steroid use?

[Admin]

Read a really interesting article recently (I'll see if I can track it down) saying that the big jump in knee injuries in recent years was due to the fact that while players muscles are getting stronger, ligaments aren't. So what happens is they put more stress on the ACL for ex, cause they are just that much stronger. Its sort of an engineering principle that when you make one part of a system a lot stronger, it makes another part break.

So, wondering aloud if this problem may be related to steroid use?

That's the whole point to taking HGH, to strengthen the ligaments and tendons to support the bigger muscles that they get from steroid use. I'm sure a lot of these guys aren't taking HGH and are just taking Roids though.

They said yesterday that there were no "big names" in the nba.

Yeah and Ryan Braun has no idea how these illegal substances got in his body...

[IheartVolt]

That's the whole point to taking HGH, to strengthen the ligaments and tendons to support the bigger muscles that they get from steroid use. I'm sure a lot of these guys aren't taking HGH and are just taking Roids though. Yeah and Ryan Braun has no idea how these illegal substances got in his body...

if you are on hgh you do not need roids.. HGH is like a super steroid that occurs in the body during puberty.. Anyone who thinks that NBA players likeLBJ would not benefit they need to educate themselves on the issue.. not only does it improve strength and healing it also gives the cardiovascular system a supercharge.. fact

[IheartVolt]

Test is like hgh's weak little brother..both do similar things in terms of muscle growth , but hgh does alot more in terms of athletic advantage..It is also helluva expensive

[supermariowest]

How many times have we heard about athletes being "quick healers"?

I'm reminded of Ron Artest's "I'm too sexy for my cat" interview.

Reporter: How were you able to come back after that surgery in just 12 days?

Artest: Um, well, you know, just too sexy for my cat. I'm too sexy for my cat.

[tonegully]

Who cares honestly. Let them use it. I want some too

Edited July 26, 2013 by tonegully