Pro Basketball Player Suspended After Drug Test Revealed He Was Pregnant

DJ Cooper #5 of the Ohio Bobcats gets ready to play defense during the second half while playing the Bowling Green Falcons at the Stroh Center on March 2, 2013, in Bowling Green, Ohio.
DJ Cooper #5 of the Ohio Bobcats gets ready to play defense during the second half while playing the Bowling Green Falcons at the Stroh Center on March 2, 2013, in Bowling Green, Ohio.
Photo: Gregory Shamus (Getty Images)

Former Ohio University standout Donell “D.J.” Cooper was trying to catch on with a team overseas when a drug test revealed that he was pregnant.

Apparently, Cooper used his girlfriend’s urine to try to skirt a drug test and learned in bizarre fashion that the couple was expecting. Cooper was given a two-year suspension after he submitted his lady’s pee for a drug test and said test revealed that she was with child.

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According to Yahoo, Cooper has been balling overseas and was attempting “to join the Bosnian national team as a naturalized player” in 2018. He has had a decent professional career playing outside of the U.S., reports Sports Illustrated:

Cooper played at Ohio from 2009 to 2013 and went undrafted. He was a member of the Wizards’ summer league team in 2016. He has spent most of his professional career in Europe with teams in Greece and Monte Carlo. He last played with AS Monaco in 2017. He spent some time coaching with the Bosnian national team, according to RTV Slovenia. He applied for citizenship in Bosnia-Herzegovina in 2014.

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His drug test, according to Eurohoops.net, revealed that he was pregnant.

From Yahoo:

The test on the urine that Cooper provided revealed the presence of human chorionic gonadotropin, or hCG, which is a hormone made by the placenta during pregnancy.

That urine, per the report, actually belonged to his girlfriend—who likely didn’t know she was pregnant at the time.

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The International Basketball Federation, which goes by the acronym FIBA— which absolutely makes no sense—suspended Cooper for fraud. He’s eligible to return to the court on June 20, 2020.