GENEVA (Clean Game) – FIBA on Friday launched its new Clean Game video series, in which international stars from the men and women’s game share their views on a range of issues related to the fight for a clean sport.

Steering clear of the moralising and repressive tone sometimes used to combat doping, the new 10-part video mini-series takes the unique approach of sensitizing athletes on both the dangers and the responsibilities they face, basing itself on openness and debate.

“Sometimes, the temptations must be talked about for them to remain only temptations,” says Spanish international Rudy Fernandez.

“Basketball is my life, if I find that someone I have been competing against has an unfair advantage, I am going to be really upset about it. I think everyone needs to take that stance,” says Australia’s Lauren Jackson.

The 11 players discuss topics such as healthy physical conditioning, avoiding temptations, who to trust for advice, how to educate oneself about medicines and food supplements.

“People want to make it. You’ve got pressure, but you are always responsible, because you decide what you are doing with your body. You’ve got to be careful and listen to your body and come back only when you’re ready. Don’t try to rush it,” advises France’s Boris Diaw.

“Enhance your skills by practising daily and more intensively, gradually you become stronger as well,” says China’s Yi Jianlian.

The players, who all represented their countries in last summer’s FIBA World Championships, share key advice on how to stay clean by steering clear of the traps faced by sportsmen and women and protect them from possibly wrong advice by their entourage. These increasingly also involve the dangers resulting from presence of banned substances in supposedly clean products.

“You have to make sure that it is a legitimate product. Sometimes a company might push in something else under the label that actually is an illegal substance. Make sure the team doctor knows. You have to be 100% sure before you take something because if you get caught, you’ll be the one who gets suspended and not the company that sold you the drug or the guy who gave you the substance,” explains Russia’s Sasha Kaun.

“Hmm, Clean Game, what does that mean? It makes you want to do research to find out what it is. When you get the background of it you’re like ‘that’s kind of cool, I want to be a part of it too’, ” says USA’s World Championship gold medallist Tamika Catchings.

FIBA believes that this campaign – which also includes Robertas Javtokas (LTU), Ersan Ilyasova (TUR), Patrick Mills (AUS), Alessandra Oliveira (BRA) and Novika Velivkovic (SRB) – will build on the past successes of the Clean Game programme, that in 2010 saw 156 tests carried out in the FIBA World Championships for men and women, all of which returned negative results.

A systematic testing programme was also implemented at youth level, during the two U17 World Championships, while together with the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and National Anti-Doping Organisations (NADOs), FIBA was involved with an important number of out of competition controls.

FIBA Secretary General and IOC Member Patrick Baumann said:

“2010 was a good year in the fight against doping in basketball, but we want to build on this solid platform and this new campaign sends an important message in a tone that unites rather than just points the finger.”

“While doping control remains necessary, our aim is of course to avoid the use of prohibited substances altogether. I think these videos will help players protect themselves and wish to thank the players for their time. Their contributions show that there is a strong willingness from within basketball to keep it healthy and fair. In the name of a better sport, we all need to fight together for a Clean Game.”

The video campaign is available at cleangame.fiba.com, on FIBATV.COM and on FIBA’s youtube page youtube.com/fibaworld.

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About FIBA

FIBA (www.fiba.basketball) – the world governing body for basketball – is an independent association formed by 213 National Basketball Federations throughout the world. It is recognised as the sole competent authority in basketball by the International Olympic Committee (IOC). Global Partners
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