Was Christian Burns trying to break Shaq’s records?
This was the first question that came into my mind when I so the news that Christian Burns failed the anti-doping test. If not why a player like him needs Clostebol? Cause anyway with or without this synthetic steroid, the power forward had an average of 3 minutes spent on the court per game for Olimpia Milano this season in Euroleague.
In 14 encounters in the continental competition, Burns never started the game, scored 1 point per game, grabbed 0.8 rebounds, received a total of 4 fouls and committed 16. Not huge numbers even using illegal substances. So what was the meaning of it? Do you need doping to score 1 point per game? I probably understood better if it was about a player like Mike James who already scored a lot, but Burns?
If you score 20 per game and you are a top player in Europe, maybe you try to improve your average at 24 points. It would be a mistake too, no doubt, but Burns case is not a mistake, is a ridiculous situation. For him and for Olimpia Milano who took at the beginning of the season a lot of national players (Simone Fontecchio, Amedeo Della Valle) and naturalized Italians (Jeff Brooks, Christian Burns) and misused them in the Euroleague campaign. Even in Legabasket many of the Milano’s Italians saw just a couple of minutes. Maybe this could be the explanation. You try to dope to catch more minutes on the court, to prove that you can still play in a team full of foreigners but missing her goals.
There are many ways to cope with the situation of being misused on the court. Della Valle, for instance, will go to play and shine for Alba Berlin next season. Maybe Fontecchio will leave too, searching for a team where he can play decent minutes. Burns tried to improve by Clostebol. There are also other solutions?
Gratian Cormos, info@brainbasketball.net
