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COPYRIGHT 2005 Fort Worth Star-Telegram
Byline: Danny Robbins
Nov. 27--For much of the past eight years, strength and conditioning coaches from the Mavericks, the San Antonio Spurs, the University of Texas, and other professional and college teams have provided their athletes with dietary supplements from a small Oklahoma City company, Nutrient Technology Corp.
Always looking for an edge, the coaches believe they have found it in Rebuild II, Nutri-build III and Recarb, products said to speed the recuperative process, a major plus for coping with the grind of the National Basketball Association season or minimizing the effects of heavy training.
But in using the supplements to keep Dirk Nowitzki, Tim Duncan and other elite athletes up and running, the coaches have placed their faith in the latest products developed by a controversial figure.
Nutrient Technology is the current venture of Gary Lewellyn, a former stockbroker who entered the supplement business after serving time in prison for embezzlement and then came under scrutiny from the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Food and Drug Administration.
The coaches who have bought Lewellyn's supplements for their athletes acknowledge doing so without checking his background, leaving themselves open to criticism.
Supplements can enter the market without being screened for purity, safety or effectiveness, making it particularly important, some industry observers say, for those who provide such products to athletes to be fully aware of the products' origins and manufacturers.
"The dietary supplement industry is fraught with people who come and go," said Mike Perko, chairman of the University of Alabama's health sciences department and a frequent writer and speaker on supplement issues. "For that reason, you'd want to look for someone who's been on the up and up for a long time."
Nutrient Technology was formed by Lewellyn in 1998 after shareholders of Performance Nutrition, a Dallas-based company that was publicly traded as a so-called penny stock, removed him as president.
Lewellyn's ouster came after the Dallas Observer published a lengthy article revealing that he was being sued by the SEC and had previously spent five years in prison for embezzling $17.7 million from two Iowa banks.
None of the strength and conditioning coaches interviewed for this report said they had been aware of Lewellyn's background, although some had bought Performance Nutrition's supplements for their...
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