Drug testing for HGH or human growth hormone in the NBA is getting closer and closer to implementation. The league is nearing a deal to start testing players for the drug according to Henry Abbott of ESPN.com:

The NBA and National Basketball Players Association are close to an agreement to test players’ blood for human growth hormone (HGH), according to sources with direct knowledge of the talks. Testing could begin as soon as the 2013-14 season.

Although HGH is already a banned substance in the NBA, the league hasn’t been testing players for the drug. With HGH running rampant throughout the MLB, the NBA has begun increasingly concerned the players in the league have also been using to get a competitive edge.

Fortunately, NBA commissioner David Stern hasn’t had to deal with the problem of performance-enhancing drugs like baseball’s Bud Selig. Major League Baseball has battled numerous players from big-names and up-and-comers using these performance-enhancing over the last few decades. Steroids and HGH have tainted baseball and made many frown upon the sport and certain players in the Major League Baseball.

As for the NBA, it’ll be interesting to see if the league will deal with similar issues in comparison to the problems the MLB has struggled to fight through over the years. The league hasn’t been able to implement testing for the performance-enhancing drug due to the fact that blood needs to be drawn for testing.

Although drawing blood has been a problem in getting testing done, the NBA is inching closer and closer to getting an agreement done to start testing for the drug sooner rather than later. It’s only a matter of time before HGH testing in the NBA will become a common occurrence; hopefully it won’t become a common problem with players testing positive on a regular basis and being suspended for a considerable amount of time as a result.