Derrick Rose: P.E.D. Problem in the NBA is "Huge"

The story emerged after Bulls players were available at Sunday morning's shootaround. ESPN The Magazine took a survey of PED use in various sports for its May 16 issue.

In it, Rose is quoted as allegedly saying this when asked to rank the problem on a scale of 1-10: "Seven. It's huge and I think we need a level playing field, where nobody has that advantage over the next person."

Though the issue has been out for over a week, it is just entering mainstream media.
First thing's first it's very important to note that Derrick Rose has vehemently denied making the quote.

Rose had the following to say:
Derrick Rose denied through a team spokesperson that he made claims the NBA has an issue with performance enhancing drugs.

Rose later issued a statement: "Regarding the quote attributed to me in ESPN The Magazine, I do not recall making the statement nor do I recall the question being asked. If that was my response to any question, I clearly misunderstood what was asked of me. But, let me be clear, I do not believe there is a performance enhancing drug problem in the NBA."

Rose expanded on his statement in the pregame locker room.

"I don't even remember saying that," Rose told a large group of reporters. "That's something I didn't say. I don't know where he got it from. That's why I released the statement to clarify things. I definitely wouldn't say that. I guess he misunderstood at the time. There's definitely not a drug problem in the NBA. If there was, we get tested four times, so it would definitely show up. You definitely don't want to go through this. But things like this happen. I clarified things. It's in the past now. On to the game."
While my first inclination is to say that Rose is an honest guy and I believe him that he didn't say that line, you really never know. Isn't Rose the guy who they say had someone else take his SAT exam? Well we will never really know if Rose said the line or not, because the denial is going to be the story he sticks with. Just like KG stuck with, "What I said was... He's a cancer to his team and the league. Yeah that's what I said."

People love to point out that it's unfair to ever raise doubts whether an athlete is clean or not. When people would accuse Barry Bonds, Mark McGwire, Roger Clemens, Jason Giambi, Manny Ramirez,  and AROD, you'd always see someone jump up on their soap box saying how wrong it is to accuse these guys with no proof (more sensible people used their eyes as proof). I feel bad that those guys got accused of wrongdoing. It's not like any of those accusations were ever proven correct... Oh wait.

If you think no one in the NBA is using P.E.D.'s you're more of an ostrich than Chris Bosh with your head in the sand. So far only O.J. Mayo and Rashard Lewis have been busted (Lewis was busted shortly after the Magic beat the Celtics in 7 games 2 years ago and hasn't been the same player since.), but you must keep in mind that basketball players are told when their tests are coming up. This gives them plenty of time to mask the drugs or get off them temporarily to receive a negative test result.

Sorry but steroids and HGH do make an athlete perform better and the NBA should a real random drug test policy. Rashard Lewis went from a guy who would give you 20 a night to an injured guy who can barely crack double digits after his suspension. If P.E.D's could have this effect for a decent player like Rashard, what could they do (or be doing) for a superstar?