Darryn Peterson Links Season-Long Cramping to Excessive Creatine Use
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Top NBA draft hopeful Darryn Peterson says doctors have traced the persistent muscle cramps that marred his freshman year at Kansas to “unsafe” creatine levels brought on by heavy supplementation.
In an interview published May 8, 2026, the 19-year-old guard told ESPN that offseason bloodwork revealed his baseline creatine level was already high before he began a loading phase last summer. “When I dosed, it must’ve made the levels unsafe,” he said.
Peterson, ranked No. 2 in next month’s draft by ESPN analyst Jeremy Woo, first experienced severe cramps after head coach Bill Self’s boot camp in September. The episode escalated from leg spasms to full-body cramping, sending him to a hospital by ambulance, where emergency physicians administered multiple IV bags. “I thought I was going to die on the training table that day,” he recalled.
Although initial medical staff suspected extreme dehydration, the cause remained a mystery throughout the season. Peterson missed 11 games and frequently requested to be subbed out when symptoms returned, drawing public scrutiny he felt powerless to address because he lacked a diagnosis and Self was barred by HIPAA regulations from discussing specifics.
Teammates saw the strain firsthand, watching him undergo daily rehab, electrolyte treatments and dietary changes in an effort to stay on the court. “If he could have been out there, he would be,” roommate Bryson Tiller told Peterson during the season, according to the player.
The uncertainty also weighed on family members. Peterson said his mother, Natatia, once phoned him in tears, while his father, former Akron player Darryl Peterson, urged patience: “We’re going to get to the last laugh whenever it is.” Former AAU coach and ex-NBA Coach of the Year Sam Mitchell checked in regularly, defending Peterson’s work ethic.
Since discontinuing creatine, Peterson has trained in Los Angeles for the NBA combine without recurrence of the cramps. He is concentrating on refining his shooting and point-guard duties after spending much of his lone college season off the ball. “There was another level of me that people didn’t get to see,” he said.
Source: ESPN.com
