The contentious playoff series between the Mavericks and Nuggets may have ended on Wednesday, but the off-court drama surrounding it continues. Yesterday, Nuggets coach George Karl stoked the flames surrounding Carmelo Anthony’s fiancee’s fight club video, keeping that brouhaha brewing long past its expiration date. Today, the original Nugs-Mavs offcourt drama, the feud between Mark Cuban and Kenyon Martin’s mom got another jolt, keeping it out ahead of the pack.

Cuban may have thought that a crummy blogpology (buzzword!) would be enough to end the tiff between himself and Kenyon Martin’s mom, but almighty NBA commish David Stern has decreed otherwise.

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Baseball players are vilified for using performance-enhancing drugs. Football players are at least lightly admonished. But the NBA has thus far escaped all scrutiny associated with PEDs. But why? Aren’t NBA players ballooning in size the way baseball and football players have over the last two decades?

(Portrait of a dominant power forward, taken 25 years apart)

Could you imagine teams from the ’70s and even the ’80s trying to compete athletically and physically with the players of today? Are we supposed to believe that this is just a natural progression of athletic ability and the result of nothing but hard work? We were fooled into thinking that was the case in baseball, when we chalked up the achievements of guys like McGwire and Sosa to dedication and time in the weight room. Some aren’t ready to give the NBA a free pass in all of this.

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