Michael Jordan has recently been accused of abusing performance-enhancing drugs by Gilbert Arenas when talking about how well LeBron James has been playing at 39 years old. Gil felt as though he needed to bring this up given his loyalty to the Los Angeles Lakers but Kwame Brown is having none of it as he meticulously disproves what Arenas insinuates about MJ.
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Gil took to Gil’s Arena to defend LeBron’s otherworldly productivity by heavily insinuating that Jordan was playing at a similar level in his late 30s and at age 40 as well. His argument was that there are 6 tests done on athletes now when back in those days, there was only 1. The fact that MJ was bald at such a young age was also brought up.
Kwame Brown, someone who played alongside MJ during his Washington Wizards days, has called “cap” on this premise having even a sliver of validity to it. He took to his YouTube channel to call out the former All-Star for his ‘accusations’.
“I can say 100% that that’s cap. MJ wasn’t on anything at 38, at 39. 40 year old MJ wasn’t out running any of the young guys. MJ used to have to get his knee drained almost after every game. He had to take cold baths. He had to stay out of practice. We had to limit his minutes in practice. We had to limit his minutes on the court. We had to limit his minutes on everything because any time he could potentially get hurt.”
Jordan’s numbers in his final season most certainly didn’t look anything close to what they were when he was in his prime. His first step was considerably slower, getting back on defense looked like a hassle, his vertical decreased, and his lateral movement looked hampered.
Jordan even suffered from a slew of knee ailments, most famously his knee soreness after the 2002 All-Star break that ended his season early. For all accounts, Kwame’s take on the matter does seem to be on point and the fact that he was teammates with him and saw him up close brings in more validity to his point of view.
LeBron James was ‘confirmed’ to be using steroids by Chael Sonnen
Michael Jordan and his potential steroid use were brought into question because of what LeBron James is doing out on the court in year 21. James is averaging numbers that are similar to 22-year-old Anthony Edwards who is hailed as being the next ‘face of the NBA’. This isn’t to discredit Ant as it’s more so to put into perspective just how incredible James is when it comes to his endurance and lasting impact on the game.
Of course, with this longevity comes accusations of PED use. UFC legend, Chael Sonnon, not only accused LeBron of PED use but confirmed it on the Flagrant podcast, claiming the Lakers star was using EPO, a drug that enhances the flow of red blood cells to have more oxygenated blood flow across the circulatory system, leading to more stamina. Sonnen even claimed him and James have the same guy who supplies them with the enhancement.
James has never come out and spoken about these accusations and likely never will as it is a subject that, if brought up, likely won’t go away for a very long time.
