Jeff Teague has defended his steroids comments about LA Lakers star LeBron James
The former Atlanta Hawk said during an episode of his Club 520 podcast, “Miami Heat Bron, he was on steroids, bro. They started testing for HGH, and he had to sit out. He said his back was hurting and he sat out for three weeks… then came back skinny”.
Those comments went viral, and afterwards Teague walked them back on Instagram, posting, “Y’all weird. I was joking about Bron. He was just that dominant, chill.”
Teague has since recorded another episode of Club 520 and defended his comments.
Jeff Teague said he wouldn’t have cared if LeBron James was on steroids, ‘Still gotta make the shots’
Teague re-emphasised in the latest episode of Club 520 that he was joking about James.
He said, “Listen, it was a joke. What did they miss? We were literally giving LeBron praise about how dominant he was. We were saying he was so dominant that at 280 running that fast, he had to be on steroids.
“But I was joking. People were asking, ‘How did you know he was on steroids?’ I didn’t know, I don’t know, I don’t care, because if I knew, I would have told that —– give me some. I would have been 6’3”, 285, running like a Mack truck,” Teague joked.
He said he wasn’t aware that his comments about the LA Lakers star would cause backlash until his dad texted him to say they went viral.
Teague continued, “My dad said, ‘You trying to get us killed?’ I literally didn’t know. I said, ‘What did I say about ‘Bron?’. He told me it was something about steroids, and I was like, ‘What? I just made a joke.’”
Controversy around steroids in sports goes far beyond basketball. One of the most infamous incidents in baseball was the case of seven-time MVP Barry Bonds, who was not inducted into the Hall of Fame after he was found to have used performance-enhancing substances in the early 2000s.
But Teague went on to state that even if James had taken them, it wouldn’t have guaranteed success.
He said, “If he was on steroids, I don’t care, you still gotta make the shots. You still gotta hit the baseball, you still gotta make the shots, you still gotta make the tackles.”
LeBron James is the world’s most scrutinised athlete
Rumours about James and steroid use have circulated for years, but there is no credible evidence or confirmed reports linking him to performance-enhancing drugs.
James is one of the most scrutinised athletes of all time, and that has been the case since he was on the cover of Sports Illustrated in high school.
Clips from Teague’s podcast frequently go viral, and his most popular segments involve him sharing insider information on the NBA as a former player. He often gives hilarious windows into the league.
But Teague’s comments, even if they were light-hearted, could be considered reckless. There are a host of people online who will jump at the opportunity to discredit the NBA’s all-time leading scorer’s Hall of Fame career.
If “it was a joke” is Teague’s defence, then in today’s world, he had to make that clearer at the time.