American basketball player banned after doping test showed positive pregnancy result

BCM Gravelines’ new player of US DJ Cooper attends a training session at the Sortica sports complex in Gravelines, northern France, on September 29, 2017. (Photo by DENIS CHARLET / AFP)

An American basketball player was banned by Fiba for fraud after submitting a urine sample that produced a positive pregnancy result for a doping test.

DJ Cooper, a former Ohio University standout who is plying his trade in Europe, was suspended by the sport’s world governing body for two years until June 24, 2020 for trying to cheat a drug test, according to reports.

Cooper was trying to make it to the Bosnian national team as a naturalized player and needed to undergo a drug test.

According to a report from RTV Slovenija, the urine sample Cooper had submitted was from his girlfriend, who may not have known that she was pregnant at that time. It contained human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG), a hormone produced during pregnancy.

After not making it to the NBA, Cooper has played in Greece, Russia and France for the last six years.