Darryn Peterson says high doses of creatine led to cramping - ESPN

Darryn Peterson finally has an answer.

One of the top prospects in this year's NBA draft spent much of his freshman season at Kansas trying to solve mysterious and sometimes debilitating cramping. But in an extended interview with ESPN this week, Peterson said that a new round of bloodwork and other tests after the college basketball season led his doctors to conclude that his use of high doses of creatine created the condition.

«I'd never taken it before [going to college],» Peterson said of the popular supplement which helps to increase muscle strength, power and growth. «But after the season I took two weeks off and they did tests which showed my baseline level was already high. So, they said when I dosed [a process of increasing a dose over time to create maximum benefit at the beginning of taking a supplement], it must've made the levels unsafe.»

Peterson, who is ranked as the No. 2 prospect available in next month's draft by ESPN's Jeremy Woo, said his issues started last year with a scary episode after Kansas coach Bill Self's annual weeklong boot camp in September that sent him to the hospital in an ambulance.

First his legs started cramping. Then his stomach, back, arms and hands. Eventually his whole body was cramping.

«I made it to the training room and just started begging them to call 911,» he said. «They were trying to get a vein to get me the IV, get me back hydrated. But I was cramping so hard they couldn't get a vein.

»I thought I was going to die on the training table that day."

Finally at the hospital the emergency room doctors were able to get a vein and give him several bags of fluids intravenously. Peterson stayed there for several hours being treated for what doctors thought was severe dehydration.