It was just a few minutes after Bulls coach Jim Boylan had accused some of his players of going ''into their own little worlds, acting kind of childish at times'' in an 83-67 loss Wednesday to the NBA basement-dwelling Minnesota Timberwolves. In the locker room, a few Bulls were sharing a hearty laugh over a teammate's supposed style when it came to street clothes.

While good-natured teasing is a healthy staple of any team, these yuks seemed only to serve as Exhibit A in Boylan's case.

...

Given those numbers, one reporter skipped the postgame softball toss and asked captain Kirk Hinrich, ''What was that all about?''

At least one of the chucklers was heard to mimic the question. Imagine if he had heard what some fans were saying after the supposed effort.

The only players he says or implies it wasn't are Wallace & Kirk.  Any guesses?  Think this will become a story like the Noah/Wallace altercation?

http://www.suntimes.com/sports/basketball/bulls/770804,CST-SPT-bull01.article

Bit off the cycling topic, but I was reading the ESPN article this afternoon about former NFL player Dana Stubblefield pleading guilty to lying to investigators in the BALCO case.  What caught my eye was this section:

'The records state Stubblefield lied when he said:

• He had neither seen nor ingested the designer steroid known in the case as "the clear."
• He had neither seen nor injected the oxygen-boosting drug EPO.
• He had never received either item through BALCO.

Stubblefield was suspended by the NFL in 2003 while playing for the Oakland Raiders, after testing positive for THG, also known as "the clear." Also, according to the documents, he tested positive in 2002 for EPO, as part of BALCO's screening process to research whether performance-enhancing substances would be detected. The NFL, which has come through the past several years largely unscathed by a stream of steroid scandals in other sports, did not test for EPO at the time.

This year, the league announced it was adding EPO to its list of banned substances.'

Maybe I've missed some, but this is one of the first times I've seen EPO connected to any of the major american pro sports.

Do the leagues test for EPO?  If not, this could be the tip of the iceberg.  If a defensive lineman is using it, who else is?

http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=3202950