American basketball player Donell ‘DJ’ Cooper has been banned from playing basketball for two years after a urine test found him to be pregnant.
The 28-year-old was suspended for two years by the International Basketball Federation (FIBA) after his urine sample was found to contain high levels of human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG), a hormone produced by the female placenta during pregnancy.
Instead of praising the finding as a divine miracle, FIBA assumed that Cooper had submitted a woman’s urine as his own, without knowing that she was pregnant at the time.
In June 2018, FIBA confirmed that Cooper was accused of fraud and banned on the spot in, which explains his leaving AS Monaco as well.
Slovenian media claims that Cooper submitted his girlfriend’s urine as his own, with neither of them knowing she was pregnant, but FIBA has refused to comment on the details of this case.
It did, however, clarify that Donnell Cooper will be allowed to play again on June 24, 2020.
