NBA players OK drug testing plan

NEW YORK — NBA players have agreed to additional drug testing, adding offseason screening for performance-enhancing drugs only.

Union executive director Billy Hunter sent a memo Wednesday to players detailing these and other changes of a new labor deal and recommended they ratify the agreement.

Less clear is a provision for human growth hormone testing.

According to the memo, an NBA-NBPA joint committee would study the "possibility of an HGH testing program." NBA spokesman Mike Bass, however, insisted both sides agreed to HGH blood testing, subject to the process being validated by a "neutral committee of experts."

It wasn't immediately clear who would be on that panel.

Major League Baseball and its players recently agreed to start HGH testing in spring training. The NFL's new labor contract included a provision for HGH testing as soon as this season — but only once the NFLPA approved the process. That hasn't happened, in part because the NFLPA says it needs more information about the test itself.

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