Austrian basketball star Kevin Payton has ben sanctioned with a three year ban, after making his urine available to a team mate in order to dupe an anti-doping test. ‘During an in-competition control conducted on 18 May 2017 in Wels during the course of an Austrian Basketball Bundesliga match, he made his urine available to a team mate for the purpose of giving the wrong sample during doping control’, read a statement from the Austrian anti-doping organisation (ÖADR – click here to download).

At the time of the test, Payton played for WBC Wels. On 28 August last year his team mate, Lorenzo Sebastian O’Neal, was sanctioned with a four year ban for ‘delivering a urine sample in an in-competition control (ICC) conduct on 18 May 2017 in Wels during the course of an Austrian Basketball Bundesliga match which did not originate from himself’ (click here to download statement).

Neither the Austrian Basketball Bundesliga, WBC Wels (now Raiffeisen Flyers Wels) or Payton’s latest club, Arkadia Traiskirchen Lions, have issued statements about the case. Payton’s ban expires on 18 May 2020, whereas O’Neal’s ban expires a year later.