Basketball: Drugs cloud rocks Webster

Harbour Heat and Breakers star Corey Webster is awaiting his fate, after a positive drugs test. Photo / Kenny Rodger

Tall Black Corey Webster's chances of playing at the world basketball championships in Turkey are in doubt due to drug use.

The 21-year-old and his Harbour Heat team-mate Kavossy Franklin failed random tests last week - they are believed to have smoked cannabis. Both were dropped for the Heat's National Basketball League quarter-final loss last Wednesday to the Hawke's Bay Hawks.

While the situation is also serious for 34-year-old US import Franklin, it will have a bigger impact on Webster as one of New Zealand's rising stars. Under the International Basketball Association doping code, athletes issued with a first violation are normally banned for two years. However, special exemptions can be made for the likes of cannabis, provided the player can demonstrate he did not intend to enhance performance. Sanctions range from a warning to a year ban.

A precedent to Webster's case was fellow Tall Black Mark Dickel's suspension for cannabis use ahead of the 2006 world championships. Basketball New Zealand ruled him out for two warm-up games against Qatar but FIBA decided to add 10 days to that ban once the competition started, meaning he missed three more games.

However Dickel's ban came after he tested positive following an international match. Basketballers found guilty of cannabis use in the NBL in the past have been subject to blanket bans of just six weeks to two months. So it is possible any suspension Webster receives will be over by the time of the world championships, given New Zealand has nine internationals across Turkey, Slovenia and Croatia in the month preceding the August 28-September 12 tournament. Tall Blacks trials take place from July 23-25 in Auckland.

Basketball New Zealand chief executive Tim Hamilton says a further decision is likely to be made next week.

North Harbour Basketball Association CEO Steve Dally says the pair broke team rules: "The players were suspended Wednesday pending further investigation. We should know more tomorrow (Monday).

"It was a difficult day for us on Wednesday ahead of that quarter-final play-off. It was a serious infraction and the two of them fronted up to their team-mates and told them what happened. It was emotional before the game because we had worked hard to get to that point in the season."

Neither CEO would confirm the substance in question was cannabis but other sources did. The breach could also affect both players' chances in the Australian National Basketball League (ANBL). Webster has just signed a new three-year contract with the New Zealand Breakers. He is understood to be regretful but the club intends to sit down with him next week to discuss his future.

While it is unlikely he will be dropped from the franchise, sources close to the club say Breakers' management intend to "read him the riot act" and will back that up by bringing in random drug testers at practice over the course of the season.

Meanwhile 38-year-old veteran Tony Ronaldson is unlikely to start the best-of-three NBL finals series for the Waikato Pistons against the Wellington Saints on Tuesday. Ronaldson injured his knee during the Pistons' semifinal win over the Nelson Giants on Friday night. It is understood he visited a specialist in Auckland yesterday after saying the knee felt unstable when he went off in the second quarter.

Ronaldson may have played the final game of his 20-year career after retiring from the ANBL with the Breakers earlier this year.