LeBron James is allegedly taking some kind of performance-enhancing drug (PED) to continue to play professional basketball at such a high level, and he isn’t the only NBA player doing it.

That is the contention of Clay Travis, the host of Outkick the Coverage on Fox Sports Radio, who also claims that the NBA hierarchy is looking the other way in players’ PED use.

PEDs that LeBron may or may not be taking were no help Sunday night, however, when the James-led Cleveland Cavaliers lost to the Boston Celtics 111-108 after blowing a huge lead in Game 3 in the best of seven Eastern Conference Finals. James substantially underperformed in the Cavs’ first 2017 playoff loss, finishing with just 11 points on 4-13 shooting, three made free throws, and zero three pointers despite being on the floor for 45 minutes. The Celtics also managed to prevail despite the absence of their star Isaiah Thomas, who is injured.

The likelihood is that LeBron James, who plays at what can be called point forward, will be very aggressive in tonight’s Game 4 to make up for his disappearing act in Game 3.

Meanwhile, the Golden State Warriors are waiting in the wings, having steamrolled through the west with an undefeated 12-0 playoff record, after eliminating the Kawhi Leonard-less San Antonio Spurs last night.

[Image by Tony Dejak/AP Images]

With the Warriors and the Cavs likely to meet in the NBA Finals for the third consecutive year, this calls into question whether the regular season has any meaning for the also-rans. Upon eliminating the Celtics, this would be LeBron James’ seventh consecutive year in the NBA finals.

On his Outkick the Show Periscope broadcast (see clip below), Clay Travis expressed his thoughts on LeBron James’ alleged PED use, which he insisted is an open secret in the league.

“I believe that LeBron James is on some sort of performance enhancing substance that is not legal. I don’t have any doubt at all about it…the guy is 32 years old and he hasn’t lost a step. I just don’t believe that’s athletically possible…I think that he is on some sort of performance enhancing drug that isn’t legal, and I think lots of guys in the NBA are. I don’t particularly care, but if you look at the data of what he’s doing right now, and you compare it to every other NBA player that’s existed, it doesn’t make sense…LeBron James at 32, I believe, is doing something to extend his reign at the top of the basketball charts…many people in the NBA sit around and talk about the same thing that LeBron’s physical condition doesn’t make sense relative to all the other things that are going on…”

LeBron vanishes, Ducks-Preds game 6, Garth Brooks anthem, sea lion attack https://t.co/ZVYMseccV5 — Clay Travis (@ClayTravis) May 22, 2017

Travis also noted that the NBA superstar has not changed his game to make it less physical over the years, which makes the scenario all the more unique.

“I just don’t buy in to LeBron James as just happening to be a harder worker than everybody else, just happening to have all this mileage on him starting at the age of 18…and somehow he’s better at 32 than he was at 31, than he was at 30…”

Separately, against the backdrop of a collapsing financial model owing to cord cutting, Clay Travis — a lawyer who describes himself as a radical moderate who has never voted for a Republican — has been critical of ESPN for overpaying for rights fees while becoming the social justice warrior network, thereby alienating a huge chunk of its audience. Late last month, ESPN laid off about 100 public-facing employees, i.e. on-air anchors and commentators and website writers, because of its red ink.

[Image by Elise Amendola/AP Images]

Like his colleague Jason Whitlock, Clay Travis has also been critical of the sports media’s obsession with whether free agent quarterback Colin Kaepernick, formerly of the San Francisco 49ers, will get a job with another NFL team.

“The fevered coverage of Colin Kaepernick is about biased left wing sports media, 96% of whom voted against Donald Trump in the 2016 election, blatantly rooting for Kaepernick to be signed and calling out the NFL, NFL teams, and NFL personnel for the fact that he remains unsigned…The simple truth is this: Colin Kaepernick isn’t a free agent because he protested the national anthem last fall, he’s a free agent because he protested the national anthem last fall and he isn’t a very good quarterback,” Travis wrote at the Outkick the Coverage website.

Do you think it is plausible that LeBron James is taking steroids or another form of PEDs?

[Featured Image by Charles Krupa/AP Images]