Al Harrington told me that he used cannabis for pain relief after one of his surgeries late in his career rather than taking opiates. Do you think we’ll see the NBA eventually allow players to use cannabis for pain relief? Jason Richardson: My goal – and I think guys like Al and anybody else who’s involved in the cannabis industry – is not just the NBA, we want to see all sports [allow this]. Especially for football players that go through so much pain. We’re hoping it’s all sports. You need something to help your body recover, to relax, to take away the pain and I think this is the more healthy alternative to taking pills. Hopefully, the NBA will soon do that. I hear that in football, it’s being talked about right now during the negotiations with their Players’ Union and the owners. Major League Baseball is doing it. We just hope that across the board, this is [allowed] for everybody and athletes all over the world will be able to do this instead of taking the alternative of pills that could have life-long consequences.
Storyline: Marijuana Use
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NBA star-turned-marijuana mogul Al Harrington says his Viola company’s sales are through the roof since the coronavirus scare took over the U.S. … and now he’s scrambling to meet the demand. Of course, Harrington has turned into a highly successful weed advocate and entrepreneur in his post-playing days … sharing the medical benefits for athletes, as well as, the average folk.
We spoke with Harrington about the insane demand for cannabis products right now — after all, EVERYBODY is stressing out over COVID-19 — and he says his sales have DOUBLED. “The challenge is gonna be making sure that we can keep up with the demand at this point,” Harrington tells TMZ Sports. “Everybody is stocking up on their favorite brands. I feel like the ‘canna-curious’ is really steppin’ up right now, especially when you’re stuck in the house with your kids 24 hours a day.”
Ian Begley: The NBA and NBPA agreed to suspend player drug testing during the moratorium to address concerns regarding the proximity of drug testers amid coronavirus and the sensitivity of drawing blood, according to sources. Yahoo first reported suspension of NBA drug testing.
Marijuana, steroids and performance-enhancing drugs are some of the banned substances in the league’s anti-drug program, even though some states allow recreational and medicinal marijuana use for those 21 or older. According to the CBA, players testing positive for drugs of abuse are banned from the league for a minimum of two years, and players testing positive for performance-enhancing substances are suspended for 25 games for a first violation, 55 games for a second violation and are banned from the league for a minimum of two years for a third violation.
The ground rules for the private affair were nonnegotiable. All tickets, priced at $200, must be purchased online. Each buyer would be screened in advance. There would be no cell phones or personal vehicles. Invitees were directed to arrive at a central location in the Oakland hills, where they would be met by Mercedes-Benz vans and then shuttled a short distance to a residence identified only 48 hours earlier. The guest of honor was cannabis. The party’s host was Brian Shaw, the former NBA player and coach who uses various forms of the plant and insists it makes his life more comfortable.
The purpose of the sponsored event was to educate attendees – mostly retired professional athletes, musicians and other cultural influencers – about its various medicinal uses. Details could be found on the 12-page invitation featuring photos of, among others, former NBA commissioner David Stern and Hall of Fame quarterback Joe Montana, quoting their belief in the health benefits of cannabis. Celebrity chef Nikki Steward, with residence hostess Nikki Shaw serving as co-chef, would prepare an eight-course meal, with a partial menu including braised lamb shanks, lobster mac-and-cheese, chicken pot pies, wings and veggie rolls. And, naturally, there would be desserts, some of which could be plucked from a supine, semi-nude female server.
The same month that Stern’s words went public, the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) removed CBD from its prohibited substance list. In June 2018, the BIG3, the three-on-three basketball league led by Ice Cube that features Harrington and other former NBA players, became the first American pro sports league to do the same. Roughly 18 months later, in January, Stern passed away after a brain hemorrhage. On the phone, Harrington’s voice trembled talking about it. “For the last two years, I kept saying, ‘I gotta go back to New York to run stuff by (Stern),’” Harrington said. “Unfortunately, there is no next time. Which sucks.”
Barnes says he smoked or “self-medicated” as part of his gameday routine. He’d go to shootaround, smoke a joint, nap for a couple hours and then go to the game. He did this same routine throughout his entire 14-year career. And Jackson? He didn’t like playing the least bit high. He’d smoke after games to balance out the adrenaline rush that pulsed through his veins. Some players drank alcohol to come down. He’d consume cannabis. In fact, he’d make sure a blunt was lit by the time he stepped into his car.
For Kevin Durant, there is no downside to marijuana use. So the Brooklyn Nets star, currently rehabbing from a torn Achilles and out for the season, is an advocate for the plant and its removal from the NBA’s banned substance list.
“It’s one of those plants that’s an acquired taste. If you love it, you love it. If you don’t, you’re not even going to be pick it up. It shouldn’t even be a discussion these days,” Durant said on a recent episode “All The Smoke” on Showtime. “It’s just like, marijuana is marijuana. It’s not harmful to anybody. It can only help and enhance and do good things. I feel like it shouldn’t even be a huge topic around it anymore.”
Durant, 31, compared weed’s effects to legalized and non-stigmatized stimulants. “Everybody on my team drinks coffee every day. Taking caffeine every day. Or guys go out to have wine after games or have a little drink here and there. Marijuana should be in that tone,” Durant said. “Why are we even talking about? It shouldn’t even be a conversation now. So hopefully we can get past that and the stigma around it and know that it does nothing but make people have a good time, make people hungry, bring people together — that plant brings us all together.”
So Harrington sees NBA All-Star weekend in Chicago, which along with the rest of Illinois allows recreational sale and use of marijuana as of Jan. 1, as an ideal time to promote his company and its message. Viola hosted a luxury suite and smoke lounge Saturday and a Sunday brunch. “This is an opportunity to raise awareness and a platform where a group of people — entrepreneurs and entertainers — are all in the same place,” Harrington said. “For my company, where it’s all black and minority ownership, it’s an opportunity to uplift and educate.”
The irony in the debate to legalize marijuana and related products in professional sports: Many current players are already partaking. “I don’t think it’s a secret,” Wizards guard Isaiah Thomas said of use among peers, noting he doesn’t use CBD or cannabis. “I mean, Matt Barnes and those guys talk about it all the time; they did it when they played. I’m pretty sure that players do it and it works for players.”
Harrington, the founder of a cannabis company, Viola, has been at the forefront of championing a similar message in basketball. “I think the day-to-day pain management issues that players deal with can be dealt with through cannabis,” Harrington said of athletes who are often prescribed pain relievers following surgery, including highly addictive opioids. “Something that is all natural and nowhere near as harmful as the stuff that they’re using now.”
“We think that athletes use cannabis to get high, and that’s not the case,” said Antonio Harvey, another former NBA player-turned-advocate who founded Terra Mater Cannabis Company. “Our bodies are beat to s— every single night. … And a lot of guys use cannabis to cope with that. They don’t get high to get high. They get high to feel better.” Harrington, 39, said cannabis allows him to walk around pain-free after undergoing 13 surgeries over his 16-year playing career, which ended in 2014. There was a time when Harrington thought he would retire from basketball and go into coaching. But through his cannabis and CBD brands, Harrington believes he has found his calling.
I asked Nelson whether he wished marijuana had been an option back when he was coaching. “Well, actually that’s a hard one to answer because I solved my problems at that time with alcohol,” he said. “I would go out and drink a bunch of beers as an ex-player or as the coach after a game and relieve my anxieties that way. So certainly pot is better to do that than alcohol, in my estimation.”
The retired LA Lakers forward has been backing a raft of marijuana and CBD companies for several years, and is now on the brink of launching Swish in partnership with Seven Leaves in Sacramento where he spent much of his professional playing career.
The NBA Championship winner has already taken his first steps towards that goal by partnering with the UCLA Cannabis Research Initiative which has a program funded by professional athletes. “My ultimate goal is to get it legalised, or to be a part of the team that gets it legalised in professional sports,” he says.
Jared Weiss: Life is beautiful
Nelson grows his own marijuana, called “Nellie Kush,” entirely for personal use. He has permission to use marijuana for medical reasons, and he said in the interview that he smokes every day. “You’ve got to treat it like a baby,” Nelson said with a laugh. “Water them, you’ve got to have music for them. You’ve got to bless them. It’s a whole process, I’m telling you.”
Another former pro athlete is jumping onto the CBD bandwagon. Paul Pierce, the NBA champion and 10-time All-Star who retired in 2017, launched a line of cannabidiol-derived products on Tuesday with online seller Eaze Wellness branded with his nickname, “The Truth.” The line, aimed at athletes, includes his Vesper vaporizer.
Critics say the intended benefits of these products are still unclear and unproven. But Lamar Odom says it saved his life. And Pierce says it helped him move past other addictions. “Just being an athlete, you get addicted to pain medications,” Pierce says. “In my case, I was dealing with severe neck pain, because back in the early 2000s I was stabbed severely. I dealt with a lot of chronic pain in my neck and back. I was trying to find alternate remedies for this. And it got to the point where I was addicted to pain killers or NyQuil just to fall asleep, until I came across what CBD did for me.”
Former New York Knicks basketball players J.R. Smith and Al Harrington made a surprise appearance in Albany on Tuesday to push for pot to be legalized before the plan goes up in smoke at the end of the legislative session. The New Jersey-born hoops stars were invited by Assembly Majority Leader Crystal Peoples-Stokes (D-Buffalo), who is the sponsor of the recreational marijuana legislation, with the suspected tokers lending star power to the dying legislation. Harrington told The Post that he and Smith had “expertise” in both medical and recreational marijuana and were pushing for black communities to be included in the proposed legislation.
But he now sounds far more open to revising it. Silver, in an interview with Chris Haynes of Yahoo Sports: “It’s something that we are talking to Michele Roberts and the players association about, about what our policy should be. You might be surprised about it. But when I’ve talked to players about it, I think they have mixed feelings, some players. I think it’s not as much about what guys do in the summer. If they want to smoke pot in the summer, whatever. It’s legal in a lot of states, to your point. No issue. I do think there’s a little bit of concern about some of the pot smoking in-season. I think it’s a team sport, and I think part of the reason we have the rules in place, there was a time not so long ago when there were a group of players who felt – because, ultimately, the players association has to agree on any testing – that maybe there was too much pot being smoken in-season.”
“One of the things I’ve been talking more about in the last year is mental wellness of our players. And look, some guys are smoking pot just in the same way a guy would take a drink. And it’s like whatever. “Smoking pot, I’m just using it to come down a little bit or I just want to relax.” No big deal. No issue. And I think it’s the reason why it has been legalized in a lot of states. And from that standpoint, if that were the only issue, maybe we’re behind the times in our program. On the other hand, there’s also guys in the league who are smoking a lot of pot. And then the question is, why are you smoking a lot of pot? And that’s where mental wellness comes in. Because I’ve also talked directly to players who say, “I’m smoking a lot of pot, because I have a lot of anxiety. And I’m struggling.”
Silver: “And if that’s the reason they’re smoking a lot of pot – and by the way, alcohol is perfectly legal, and obviously we don’t have a ban against alcohol. We don’t test against alcohol, unless we have a reason to believe there’s a problem. But we don’t want guys to drink a lot, either. And I think if we hear that a guy is drinking a lot – whether it’s the players association, the team or the league – we’re approaching that guy and saying, “Can we help you?” First and foremost, we want guys to be in great shape. By the way, smoking isn’t great for your lungs.”
Brooklyn Nets All-Star point guard D’Angelo Russell was cited at a New York airport Wednesday night after marijuana was found in his checked baggage, a person with knowledge of the incident told USA TODAY Sports. Russell, who was flying from LaGuardia Airport to Louisville International Airport, was questioned by police after a routine search flagged what at first glance appeared to be a can of Arizona Iced Tea. Upon further inspection, the can had a hidden compartment where marijuana was discovered. Russell received a summons to appear in court for marijuana possession.
A spokesperson for the Port Authority – the police agency for LaGuardia and other major airports in the New York metro area – did not yet have information on the incident when contacted Thursday. An NBA player would be required to enter the league’s marijuana program if the player “has been convicted of (including a plea of guilty, no contest or nolo contendere to) the use or possession of marijuana in violation of the law,” according to the current collective bargaining agreement. There’s no suspension until the third violation of the marijuana policy.
Is the NHL’s marijuana policy the model of the future? The NFL’s CBA expires after the 2020 season, and it’s believed the drug policy will be a major discussion point. The NFLPA probably will argue for something similar to the NHL’s policy — test for marijuana, but don’t punish it — and it will be worth monitoring if the NFL agrees. The NBA and NBPA have had ongoing discussions about their marijuana policy, with commissioner Adam Silver seemingly open to reform, being quoted several times as saying, “We should follow the science.”
The NBA does not test its players for marijuana in the offseason. Players are subject to four random tests during the regular season. A first positive test means a player must enter the marijuana program. The second positive test calls for a $25,000 fine. The third infraction is a five-game suspension, and five more games are added to each ensuing violation (10 games for a fourth positive test, 15 games for a fifth, etc.).
Gary Washburn: Charles Barkley on former NBA players who said they used marijuana during their career to heal injuries: “I think those guys are full of shit. They didn’t smoke pot for medicinal purposes in our day.” #NBAonTNT
What do you think the NBA’s and other sports leagues’ policy on cannabis should be? Clifford Robinson: I think that it should be an impairment based policy. Treat it like alcohol. Just because a player has THC metabolites in their system does not mean that they are impaired, or that they are somehow not going to perform as well. These league’s cannabis policies are sometimes touted as being for the players’ own health, which is total propaganda. Cannabis is medicine. Leagues need to treat it as such.
Clifford Robinson: The NBA has no exceptions for medical cannabis use, and no exceptions for use that occurred in a legal state. Look at how many NBA teams are located in states that have legalized cannabis for medical and/or adult-use. Soon Canada will be legal nationwide, including in Toronto where the Raptors play. If the player is consuming responsibly, off the clock, in a place where it’s legal why should the NBA care?
Diamond Leung: Stephen Jackson on why he never was suspended for smoking marijuana all during his career: “I’m not smoking for people to know. I’m smoking for the feeling. I’m smoking to get high.”
It’s no secret that former NBA forward Matt Barnes is a cannabis aficionado, as he’s been outspoken about the topic since retiring from the league, and has become an advocate of sorts. Barnes played for nine NBA teams during the course of his 14-year NBA career, which ended on a high note, as he won a title with the Golden State Warriors in 2017. And apparently, Barnes used cannabis throughout his entire career, even dating back to high school. He recently appeared on Van Lathan’s “Red Pill Podcast,” and he admitted he smoked marijuana before every NBA game he played. “We’d have shootaround at 11, I’d be done by 12, back to the house by 12:30,” he said. “Roll a joint, smoke it. Take a nap, wake up, eat, shower, and go to the game.”
Speaking solemnly to hundreds of attendees at the annual Cannabis Science Conference, Clifford Robinson said he medicated with the plant before practices and games to reduce anxiety. “If you play 18 years in the NBA and perform over an 82-game schedule, you’re going to deal with anxiety issues and your ability to relax,” said Robinson, who averaged 14 points and five rebounds per game from 1989 to 2007. “Cannabis has always helped me with that.”
The NFL and NBA are the only two major sports leagues to test for and punish players for relatively low doses of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the main psychoactive ingredient in marijuana.
Brooklyn Nets star Kenneth Faried was arrested and charged for possessing more than 2 ounces of weed on Sunday … and TMZ Sports has the mug shot. The 28-year-old was arrested on the Montauk Highway in Bridgehamption, New York at 1:30 AM … after the vehicle he was riding in was stopped at a sobriety checkpoint. A rep for the Southampton Town Police Dept. tells us the officer at the scene noticed a “strong odor of marjuana was emanating from the inside of the vehicle.”
Cops say Faried got the harsher charge because he was in possession of more than 2 ounces. If convicted, Faried faces up to a year in jail … for WEED. The Nets released a statement to TMZ Sports, saying, “We are aware of the situation involving Kenneth Faried and are in the process of gathering more information at this time.”
Kenneth Faried arrested
An NBA player who recently signed with the Brooklyn Nets was arrested in Bridgehampton on Sunday morning and charged with being in possession of marijuana. Southampton Town Police said Kenneth Bernard Faried Lewis, 29, known as Kenneth Faried, of Denver, Colorado, was arrested on Montauk Highway at 1:30 a.m. and charged with fourth-degree criminal possession of marijuana, a misdemeanor.
Anthony Puccio: Southampton Police Department tells me that Kenneth Faried was arrested and charged with criminal possession of marijuana, a misdemeanor, this past weekend in Bridgehampton.
Anthony Puccio: Faried was the rear passenger of a vehicle that was stopped during a sobriety checkpoint and was found to be in possession of more than two ounces of marijuana. Money was seized as well and he was released on $500 bail.
Have you been into cannabis for long? Don Nelson: No, I didn’t smoke until maybe three or four years ago. I never smoked when I was coaching. I just started. Willie got me smoking.
How is the quality? Don Nelson: Oh, it’s great. Great stuff. It’s called Nellie Kush. It’s O.G. and Hindu Kush. Hindu Kush is really good. It comes from India and the guy that brought it over mixed the two of them, so we’ve got Nellie Kush now.
how much weed you smoke before and after games? Gilbert Arenas: I’ve never smoked a day in my life.
Howard Beck: Matt Barnes had a LOT to say re athletes and weed on the latest Full 48: On benefits: “People need to shut up and learn” On NBA drug policy: “You’re steering people towards drinking more” On player use: “…some of the biggest names in the game”
I have a German friend who can’t post on here right now (I’m not sure why) but he wants to know what is your favorite go-to-movie? Matt Barnes: When I’m high? I like to laugh. Anything from Old School to Wedding Crashers to any of the Friday’s. I like to laugh when I’m high, and I’m high all the time so
Matt Barnes: I would smoke after shoot around. I’d take a nap, wake up, shower, eat and go to the game. I would definitely feel more focused
Matt Barnes: Don was really cool and down to earth. Always came to practice with a beer. Cup of crown. He was cool with whatever off the court as long as we performed on the court
“All of my best games, I was medicated,” says Matt Barnes, who won the NBA championship with the Golden State Warriors last year and spent 14 seasons in the NBA. “It wasn’t every single game but, in 15 years, it was a lot.”
Kenyon Martin, who played 15 seasons in the NBA, estimates 85 percent of the league smoked during his career. “It was a lot. It was people who you wouldn’t think,” he told B/R at a roundtable discussion in February:
Your winter meeting is Friday. Can you share what is on the agenda? Michele Roberts: “Not much. It will be a discussion of some of the issues that have been in the news. There has been a lot of buzz from the start of the year about medical marijuana. A lot of players are interested in knowing what that is all about, so we will have some conversations about that. [NBA commissioner] Adam [Silver] has revisited the issue on one-and-done, but there are some conversations we will have with the league about that. I wanted to get some input from players about that.
At 7 feet tall, Brad Miller’s adult life has been spent towering above most others. Now he’s working on a different way to get high. The former Sacramento Kings center’s new company, CHC California City, broke ground Friday on its cannabis manufacturing facility in eastern Kern County. The plant will put out 38 different cannabis products including edibles, water-soluble THC and vaporizer cartridges under the name Mountain Chief Products, California City Chamber of Commerce announced in a news release. Miller is the principal in CHC California City but will leave day-to-day operational oversight to deputy Ricky Mauch.
At 7 feet tall, Brad Miller’s adult life has been spent towering above most others. Now he’s working on a different way to get high. The former Sacramento Kings center’s new company, CHC California City, broke ground Friday on its cannabis manufacturing facility in eastern Kern County.
The plant will put out 38 different cannabis products including edibles, water-soluble THC and vaporizer cartridges under the name Mountain Chief Products, California City Chamber of Commerce announced in a news release. Miller is the principal in CHC California City but will leave day-to-day operational oversight to deputy Ricky Mauch. California City has emerged as a surprisingly pot-friendly oasis in the Mojave Desert, with 30 manufacturers or cultivators receiving licenses in the 14,000-person city as of last July, according to ABC23. Former heavyweight boxer Mike Tyson broke ground on a 40-acre “marijuana resort,” half of which will be dedicated to cultivation facilities, on Dec. 20.
Stephen Jackson says he toked up his ENTIRE CAREER and still balled like a boss — so when it comes to pulling pot off the league’s banned substance list, he’s all for it. “I think they should take it off, why not?” Jackson told TMZ Sports. “I smoked my whole career, had a hell of a career.”
On Monday, California became the nation’s sixth state to legalize the recreational use of marijuana through the passage of 2016’s Proposition 64. On Tuesday afternoon, Warriors coach Steve Kerr expressed support for the drug. “I’m a proponent of it,” Kerr said after Tuesday’s practice. “I do feel strongly that [marijuana] is a much better option than some of the prescription drugs and I know that it’s helping a lot of people, which is great.”
Tom Thibodeau’s reaction regarding Karl-Anthony Towns advocating for medicinal marijuana use within the NBA: “Karl, he’s got a lot of different interests. And I think it says a lot about who he is as a person. I saw [the story] briefly this morning and just knowing Karl, he’s a thoughtful guy. I don’t know how much he’s studied the research, but in terms of helping people and people that are suffering, I know that that’s the type of person he is. He’s a very open-minded person, he’s got great curiosity in a lot of different things, very thoughtful. So it was his opinion, it was honest and I don’t have a problem with it.”
Minnesota Timberwolves big man Karl-Anthony Towns believes the NBA should allow the use of medicinal marijuana among its players. The topic recently came up with the young star during a wide-ranging Q&A with ESPN. In it, Towns was asked what one change he would make if he were commissioner Adam Silver. “I agree with David Stern with marijuana,” Towns told ESPN. “You don’t have to actually make it ‘Mary J’ [or] ‘Half Baked.’ You don’t have to do it like that, but you could use the [chemical] properties in it to make a lot of people better.
For Towns, the topic of medicinal marijuana is personal. His girlfriend’s nephew is autistic, and he has seen first-hand how some of the new treatments involving properties from marijuana have helped the young boy and his family deal with the condition. “I’ve seen nothing but benefits for him,” Towns said. “And I’m very happy that he finds comfort. He finds that normalcy every day. Just like a father, a mother, a parent with a child, you’d do anything for your child.”
Detroit Pistons coach Stan Van Gundy stopped short of agreeing with Stern. But with attitudes changing in regards to marijuana, Van Gundy admitted the NBA faces a complex issue with tough answers. “I think the NBA is going to be in a tough spot down the road – not just medical – but as more states legalize marijuana even for recreational use,” Van Gundy said after Friday’s practice at the Galen Center on the USC campus.
Stan Van Gundy: “That doesn’t mean you have to allow it. There’s still some businesses who test for it, but you let people be impaired by alcohol because it’s legal, how are you going to draw that distinction with marijuana in states that it’s legal? To me, that’s a tough one.”
Jeff Zillgitt: In light of David Stern’s comments, NBA reiterates stance on medical and recreational marijuana, via spokesman Mike Bass:
UNINTERRUPTED: The entrepreneur and his craft. THE CONCEPT OF CANNABIS with Al Harrington @CheddahCheese7 is now live at http://youtu.be/9sVsR2DsFKs .
In a recent documentary short for The Undisputed, former Denver Nuggets forward Al Harrington said that a botched surgery while playing for the Nuggets led him to discover CBD, a cannabis extract that is used to treat inflammation. How I started using cannabis, is when I played for the Denver Nuggets I had a botched knee surgery that I ended up getting a staph injection. Ended up having to get four more surgeries just to clean the infection out. You know, I was on all kinds of pain meds. This lady that runs this university, she seen all of the medicine that I had on the thing and she said ‘Al, have you ever tried CBD?’ And I was just like, ‘nah I never really tried’ and she gave me a couple of things to try and I immediately felt the difference.
In this very fascinating 15-minute video, Harrington explains how he got into the marijuana industry including shops in Denver, Portland, and Detroit. He also claims that marijuana use is prevalent in professional sports, from the players, to the coaches, to the owners and that support for removing marijuana from the league’s banned substance list is gaining traction. He even meets with former commissioner of the NBA, David Stern, to discuss the changing perspective on marijuana around the country and whether or not the league is ready to soften their stance on recreational and medical marijuana use. Stern, known for being a very conservative, law and order type presence, gives a surprising answer.
Once the 2016-17 NBA season started, a “hurt” and “lost” Mayo couldn’t bear to watch, consumed by remorse over the years that had preceded his ban. He had “burned the candle at both ends [until I] ain’t got no candle left.” His “entourage” had grown too big, and he had prioritized “showing love to friends, hanging out, and finding girls” over the gym. He acknowledged smoking marijuana and abusing a prescription pain medication that triggered his two-year ban because it is on the NBA’s “drugs of abuse” list. (He emphatically denied testing positive for hard drugs like cocaine.)
“[Thinking I’m crazy] is an easy perspective for someone to have given the way I was living,” Mayo said. “I’m not ignorant. Somebody could easily fix their mind to say something like that because of my résumé. I don’t have a media rep or PR company making sure that everything is good, and I don’t go to social media with my problems. “But that ain’t me. I’m far from crazy. I’ve made some crazy a– decisions, but I’m not crazy. I’m good with myself. I’m comfortable with my body. I dug myself a hole, but it’s not a coffin. I can still get out.”
Yet, the NBA continues to prohibit its players from using marijuana. NBA commissioner Adam Silver, via C.J. McCollum of The Players Tribune: “I don’t see the need for any changes right now. I mean, it’s legal in certain states. But as you know, our players are constantly travelling, and it might be a bit of a trap to say we’re going to legalize it in these states, but no, it’s illegal in other states. And then players get in a position where they’re travelling with marijuana, and we’re obviously getting into trouble.”
What are the majority of athletes who come into your clinic plagued by? Marijuana. Marijuana is affecting athletes that much? A lot of kids are picking schools based on the smoking policy because the rule can get you in trouble. The education for now has been changed because people are investing in buying drug companies, marijuana farms because it’s legal … It’s being legalized, but it’s still like nicotine and alcohol. It can kill you. It won’t kill you from smoking it, but it creates a big form of depression.
“I know everyone thought it was for marijuana, but I had to develop some things on the personal side. I had things I had to handle and as a man, as a father, as a husband. Now that I’ve developed certain things and have grown I feel confident and I feel I can simultaneously handle basketball and my personal life.”
“I was young in the league,” he says. “I was using it to handle where I was going. I wasn’t really managing my life at a high level. That was helping me to cope. But in hindsight, while I was coping on a day to day, on a larger scale, it was hindering. Because there were other skills that I needed to learn. Now, being away from marijuana, I’m able to look back on it and understand it and indulge in these other coping mechanisms. I’m older now, too. I feel my brain’s more developed. There’s different things that, chemically, are put in place now, that make me, I feel like a stronger individual, where a crutch doesn’t seem as appealing as it did before. There’s a lot of value in me learning things on my own and dealing with issues head on.”
Matt Steinmetz: Ex-Warrior Stephen Jackson: “I never smoked before playoff games, meaningful games,” LINK to interview. bit.ly/2mdEY1f
Antonio and his wife, Jennifer Speer-Harvey, own and operate Terra Mater Farms in Canby, Oregon and was one of the first eight businesses in the state of Oregon to receive a license to grow recreational marijuana. With high quality and a wide natural selection of cannabis (clean grown without the use of synthetic pesticides and fertilizers), business is booming for Terra Mater and growing at a rapid pace thanks to 132 acres nestled away in Clackamas County. That numbers tell the story. According to the State of Oregon, the Oregon Liquor Control Commission initially believed $18.4 million in tax revenue would be projected within the first two years of annual cannabis sales. That was back in July 2015, when adults could legally posses “limited quantities of usable recreational marijuana”. By the time November 30 rolled around actual tax payments had exceeded $54 million.
It’s one that remains taboo with some parents and places restraints on options for Antonio making that move into coaching at the high school level knowing that Terra Mater and the business of cannabis is one many — even in Oregon — are still trying to wrap their heads around. Unfortunately, stereotypes are not easily uprooted, yet just as Harvey has adjusted to setbacks throughout his life including his dismissal from the Blazers, he hopes he can help bridge the gap educating people about the benefits of marijuana on both a recreational and medical level.
“I believe in this plant and how it can help provide relief to those in pain. I am approached all of the time from people wanting to learn more about cannabis and my big thing is to make sure people are educated on the facts. I’m not pushing my beliefs on anyone, particularly smoking marijuana at a young age which I do not condone, but I do want to make sure people know this information is readily available to them and to make their decisions based on what they have learned. Take cannabinoids for example — they are responsible for marijuana’s effects on the body. That’s one thing I hope people take away from this….that you already have cannabinoids in your brain, in your body that are similar to what is found in cannabis. It’s very valuable information here we are sharing to those open to understanding.”
Billups even claimed that some of his former teammates’ performances on the court would improve after they smoked weed before games. He says he encouraged them to do it to quell their anxiety issues before a game’s tipoff. “I had teammates…I actually wanted them to smoke, they played better like that. It helped them focus in on the gameplan…I needed them to do that. I would rather them [smoke] sometimes than drink,” he said.
Adams didn’t have a strong opinion about whether or not players should be able to use medical marijuana, but he did crack jokes and was his funny self. Adams said: “I don’t now. I haven’t researched it that much … I’m not a doctor, mate. The only thing I know is dudes just want to go to another world. Take that guy and it’ll help get their mind off it. That’s all I know. In terms of medical, no idea, mate. I would stick to prescription if the doctor prescribes it.”
New York Knicks president Phil Jackson appeared on CBS Sports Network’s “We Need to Talk”on Tuesday, and he said that, like Golden State Warriors coach Steve Kerr, he used medicinal marijuana to treat his back pain. Jackson had back surgery when he played for the Knicks, missing the entire 1969-70 championship season because of it. “I don’t know about it’s medicinal ability,” Jackson said. “I had back surgery, and the year I was off, I was smoking marijuana during that period of time,” Jackson said. “I think it was a distraction for me as much as a pain reliever. But I’ve never thought of it as ultimately a pain medication for that type of situation. I know ocular things, stomach, digestive issues and other things, I think it is regarded quite highly.
“We’re in a situation that’s in flux,” Jackson continued. “We have states — Washington, D.C., Colorado — have legalized marijuana. Those are going to raise issues. We also have a testing regimen that we go through in the NBA, so we’re kind of in conflict with what is going to be the law. I see that as a matter of a decision that — I don’t know if we can equate it to gay marriage or whatever else, but it’s a decision that’s going to be made by our population at some point. They’re going to come out and make that decision for us, I think, instead of legislatures trying to make the decision. I think that we have tried to stop it in the NBA. I don’t think we have been able to stop it in the NBA. I think it still goes on and is still a part of the culture in the NBA. I think it is something that we either have to accommodate or figure out another way to deal with it.”
John Lucas read the comments and understands the arguments but disagrees that illegal drugs, mainly marijuana, should be used for medicinal purposes. A debate began last week after Golden State Warriors coach Steve Kerr told CSN Bay Area that he has tried marijuana for chronic back pain. Kerr said he didn’t like it, but offered that maybe sports leagues should allow players to use marijuana for medicinal purposes to treat pain.
“It’s easy to tell if you have an addiction,” Lucas told ESPN. “If you can’t change your behavior to reach your goals, but you change your goals to meet your behavior, then it’s a real problem. So, Steve knew he had a back issue, and he changed his goal to do something illegal. See the violation? So, you run the risk of getting arrested. Well, you say, ‘I was worried about my back.’ Well, if I told you this was going to produce an intoxication, would you do it? No — there’s the answer.”
It doesn’t appear the NBA is close to allowing marijuana to be used for medicinal purposes in the near future. Lucas would like for it to remain that way. “I never seen anybody tell me anything good that’s come from it,” Lucas said. “You go to the barber shop, you smell it on your hands — it’s the most addictive thing that is closest to nicotine that you can get.”
Phoenix Suns coach Earl Watson said he understands where Kerr is coming from but is concerned that Kerr’s message about embracing marijuana might be taken the wrong way by youngsters. “I think our rhetoric on it has to be very careful because you have a lot of kids where I’m from that’s reading this, and they think [marijuana use is] cool,” Watson told ESPN on Saturday after the Suns’ 138-109 loss to the Warriors. “It’s not cool. Where I’m from, you don’t get six fouls to foul out. You get three strikes. One strike leads to another. I’m just being honest with you, so you have to be very careful with your rhetoric.”
Watson said he doesn’t feel that the coaching profession is the appropriate line of work for publicly advocating the benefits of consuming marijuana as a pain reliever. “I think it would have to come from a physician — not a coach,” Watson said. “And for me, I’ve lived in that other life [of crime and drugs]. I’m from that area, so I’ve seen a lot of guys go through that experience of using it and doing other things with that were both illegal. And a lot of those times, those guys never make it to the NBA, they never make it to college, and somehow it leads to something else, and they never make it past 18.
Phoenix Suns coach Earl Watson said he understands where Kerr is coming from but is concerned Kerr’s message about embracing marijuana might be taken the wrong way by youngsters. “I think our rhetoric on it has to be very careful because you have a lot of kids where I’m from that’s reading this, and they think [marijuana use is] cool,” Watson told ESPN on Saturday after the Suns’ 138-109 loss to the Warriors. “It’s not cool. Where I’m from, you don’t get six fouls to foul out. You get three strikes. One strike leads to another. I’m just being honest with you, so you have to be very careful with your rhetoric.”
Kerr was then asked whether he feels the NBA should deal with the issue in the upcoming CBA, which will reportedly be finalized in the next few weeks. “I think the league should look into the use of medicinal marijuana for pain relief,” Kerr said. “As far as recreational, I’m not talking about that. I’m talking about pain relief, what’s best for our players health. That’s what should be in the CBA. And that’s what our owners and our league and our player’s union should be the most concerned with. And maybe part of that is educating the public about how bad some of the stuff our players are given for pain relief actually is. So the education is important and I think as the public gets more educated and people get more educated, there will ultimately be a policy that includes medicinal CBD, oils, whatever is best suited for pain. Hopefully that’s something that comes in the next CBA, but I have no idea. That’s not my responsibility.”
April 2, 2020 | 9:36 pm EDT Update
Arn Tellem said that in his more than 30 years as a sports agent and five years in the Pistons front office, he has never faced a more difficult challenge. “I’ve experienced long lockouts as an agent,” he said. “I’ve experienced the economic downturns. That definitely had an impact on our business. We went through the tragedy of 9/11, which had an impact. But nothing like this.”
For the time being, and likely for weeks or months to come, basketball is no longer the team’s primary public concern. “We’re trying to get ahead of the game as best we can,” Tellem said. “As part of that, it’s changing our whole public face. Usually we’re talking about upcoming games, the draft, free agency, all those things in our advertising and content online and obviously we’re now changing that content.”
The league has not made public any plans for the remainder of the season or playoffs, which were supposed to start April 18. Per a contract agreement with the league, players received paychecks April 1 despite the suspended season, but the NBA has yet to reach a long-term agreement, ESPN reported. “There will be a time, when we flatten the curve and we’re on the significant down side of the curve, that professional sports and all sports will play an important role in the healing of this country,” Tellem said.
Youngstown State Sophomore Darius Quisenberry announced on Twtter that he has decided to declare for the 2020 NBA Draft. He will not hire an agent, and will maintain his eligibility.
Somehow, though Donnie Walsh still isn’t exactly sure how, he’s been plopped in the middle of America’s most famous infectious disease doctor’s basketball claim to fame. “I said, ‘How did that happen?'” Walsh said in a phone interview Wednesday. “This has been one of the most out-of-the-blue things I’ve ever been involved in.” Sixty-two years ago, Anthony Fauci took his high school’s 1-16 team onto Walsh’s court — and won.
Walsh wishes he could recall that game in 1958, what with all the hullabaloo surrounding Fauci now. But he doesn’t. “I don’t remember this game at all. I don’t remember Fauci,” Walsh said. “I’d like to say ‘I remember him and he’s a tough little guy,’ but I just don’t.”
Ujiri’s contention came in his legal response to Alan Strickland’s litigation, which claims Ujiri hit him trying to access the court after the final buzzer in Game 6 that ended the season on June 13, 2019. Strickland also sued the NBA, which contended as well in its response that the security guard was the aggressor.
April 2, 2020 | 8:15 pm EDT Update
Kyle Goon: Frank Vogel just spoke on a conference call about the possibility the 2019-20 season might not resume: “That certainly is a possibility, and it would be a huge disappointment if we aren’t able to play. However, we get it, and this is bigger than basketball.”
Mike Trudell: Vogel has his assistants “working on the playoff opponents as if the (regular) season were not to resume and they were to go right into the playoffs,” just in case. “So whenever we’re able to resume we’re ready to go.”
Mike Trudell: LAL built terrific chemistry, were in a nice rhythm when the season was suspended, having just beat MIL+LAC, w/a 5.5 game lead. Vogel said they’re going to have to “re-create” it. Can’t assume it will maintain. But he’s confident due to how quickly they found it to start season.
Bill Oram: On conference call with Lakers beat writers, Frank Vogel just said… • Coaches and staff were not tested for COVID-19, only players, saying “everybody recognized the shortage of tests.” • “Us getting back on the court is not the most important thing for the world right now”
P.J. Tucker will release a new limited-edition collection of clothing items next week to help promote awareness of coronavirus safety measures and raise funds for the Houston Food Bank and local businesses and vendors. Tucker announced that he and The Better Generation will make items available for a preorder through the weekend or while supplies last. The items will include long and short sleeve shirts, shorts and a baseball cap and feature COVID-19 awareness graphics.
“We all came together and said we wanted to do something positive,” Tucker said. “With so much negativity and so much stuff going on right now in the world, we wanted to do something to give back and help out. We’re doing three different shirts, three different shorts and a hat. There is a social distancing logo and messaging on the back with the logo for the store.”
Tucker said he “for sure, for sure” hopes the season can be salvaged “in some way, for sure. “I’m all for playing anywhere,” he said. “However they want to do it, I’m all for it. I don’t care. I just want to play.”
April 2, 2020 | 5:36 pm EDT Update
Nuggets rookie Michael Porter Jr. said Thursday that the right ankle injury he suffered at Milwaukee on Jan. 31 was “worse than I thought” and that he was playing through pain when he did return after the All-Star break. Porter called the NBA’s hiatus a blessing in disguise because of that.
Porter, who spent one season at Missouri, said he’s got a private gym that he can access whenever he wants. “I’ve literally been in the gym just as much as I was in Denver, which has been really good,” Porter said on Altitude’s digital show. “I feel like I haven’t really lost a lot. And it’s been good for my ankle, too, because you know my ankle was still kind of sore.”
In his downtime, he said he’s been preparing for the NBA 2K tournament that will air Friday night on ESPN. Porter, a No. 12 seed, drew No. 5 seed Devin Booker of the Phoenix Suns. Booker’s a notorious gamer, but Porter liked his chances. “I’m just naturally good at 2K,” he said. “It’s kind of weird. 2K, if you’re good at actual basketball, like it translates.”
The NBL would like to clarify the current situation regarding LaMelo Ball and the Illawarra Hawks. The league can confirm LaMelo Ball and his management had discussions about being involved with the club while he was playing in the NBL last season.
At this point we are continuing to work with current licence holder Simon Stratford on a number of options for what we hope will be a fruitful outcome for Illawarra and the NBL. The NBL has final approval on any transfer of licence and no application has been made to date. The NBL has no further comment at this stage.
The Atlanta Hawks, through the Hawks Foundation and State Farm, are funding the preparation of 4,000 meals weekly to be delivered to the more than 1,000 frontline healthcare workers treating COVID-19 patients at Emory Healthcare through a four-week pilot that is part of the newly-formed Atlanta Healthcare Heroes inaugural program. The meals are provided in partnership with two local Atlanta restaurants, which are now able to re-employ “hundreds” of workers who were recently laid off or furloughed due to the financial effects of the crisis, according to Hawks CEO Steve Koonin.
How important is it to keep the Atlanta economy alive during this time for the Hawks? Koonin: It’s critical to help small businesses. You know, we might be the only place that wears the name Atlanta across their chest when we go to work every day. We’re very proud to be a basketball team that wears its city name and it’s unbelievably important to support that [city].
April 2, 2020 | 5:11 pm EDT Update
If the NBA decides to have a postseason, Louisville could be a destination as a neutral site, according to the New York Post. The article said the league is considering Louisville along with Las Vegas, Atlantic City, Orlando, the Bahamas and Hawaii. It could be a “fan-less, 16-team playoff and a 5-to-7 game regular season prelude” decided in best-of-three series.
If the NBA is weighing this, KFC Yum! Center general manager Eric Granger said he has not heard about it from anyone. “I’ve had no contact with the NBA,” Granger said. “I’ve reached out to a few of my contacts and not gotten a response yet, but obviously we’d be very excited about the opportunity to host this event.”
Though it is just a reported possibility, Granger said he wants to be prepared if it ever did gain some traction, saying it could help prove Louisville would be a good future home for a permanent team. “We’re trying just to make sure the experience is second to none for the NBA,” Granger said. “This would be an opportunity for us to showcase to the NBA what we’re capable of doing.”
Wichita State guard Dexter Dennis announced on his social media accounts on Thursday afternoon that he is entering his name in the 2020 NBA Draft, but plans to maintain his college eligibility with the option of returning for his junior season with the Shockers.
Although it launched last October, the Utah Jazz is using their Utah Jazz Podcast Network as an outlet for players to broaden their off-the-court reach and skills. “Our players have obviously been focused on keeping themselves healthy and making sure that their family and those close to them are healthy,” Bart Sharp, the Jazz’s senior vice president of marketing, said. “But they’ve also expressed a desire to try and provide some sense of normalcy and entertainment to our fan base during this time and wanted to find ways in which they can help people during this unique period.”
Already, some of the Jazz’s most well-known players are lending a hand to help produce content for the team. Utah rolled out its first player-specific podcast series, Ingles Insight, centered around Jazz shooting guard Joe Ingles, on March 21. The fifth-year player out of Adelaide, South Australia, is accompanied on Ingles Insight by his wife, Renae Ingles. The inaugural episode had more than 11,000 downloads in the first week, over 200 five-star reviews, and was the second-most popular basketball podcast in the United States on Apple Music, Sharp said.
Another new video podcast series hosted by Utah power forward Georges Niang, Drive and Dish, launched its first episode on Tuesday, March 31. Filmed out of Niang’s home and recorded through Zoom, Drive And Dish is described by Sharp as an “interview-style” podcast. The first episode saw Niang talk with teammate Jordan Clarkson about what is going on right now in a basketball-less world: what Clarkson is doing during the quarantine, his various tattoos, his distinct fashion taste, and other topics. After the debut of Drive And Dish, Sharp and the Jazz are preparing for another podcast series starring both Niang and Donovan Mitchell.
April 2, 2020 | 4:36 pm EDT Update
Doc Rivers wasn’t immediately impressed with Williams when the Clippers acquired him from the Houston Rockets. On Thursday’s episode of The Bob Ryan and Jeff Goodman Podcast, Rivers spoke about his first impressions of Williams. “When we traded for Lou, I was not having Lou,” Rivers said. “I saw a guy that kept getting traded. And I appreciated his offense, but not nearly, never thought it was this good… When he finally showed up three days before training camp, I was not having him. I was like, ‘We’re not gonna work’, you know?”
“I brought him up in the office and I told him my feelings,” Rivers said. “I said, ‘Lou, you’re one of these guys that wanna do whatever you wanna do, and you don’t want to buy-in. We asked everybody to come in. Everyone did except for you… I don’t know how this is gonna work.’ And he said, ‘I’ve been traded five years in a row. Why would I buy-in to you?’, and I didn’t have an answer.”
So with 19.5 seconds remaining in overtime and the Hawks trailing by seven to the New York Knicks, head coach Lloyd Pierce checked Carter into the game and the emotions began to hit him as the home crowd chanted. “I kind of made eye contact with coach (Pierce) and he’s like, ‘Yeah, yeah,'” Carter said on the latest episode of “Winging it with Vince Carter and Annie Finberg.” “Right then, it’s like a chill just hit me.”
“I can say this now, who knows how the season ends and navigates, but, regardless – I won with either result, or either way this ends up,” Carter said. “If that was the last game and that was the last shot, I made my last shot and I’m cool with it, and I feel good about my career and how things ended.”
EuroLeague still hopes to complete the season after suspending all action in March. And while having the Final Four in May at this point is a more than a long shot, as EuroLeague Chief Operating Officer Edward Scott recently said to Eurohoops, the last possible scenario to save the season might be an express-tournament, not unlikely the plans of the Chinese CBA.
As Scott said to the Spanish newspaper “El Pais”: “If due to sanitary reasons or deadlines it is not possible to play in the 18 team arenas, we would choose to concentrate all the matches in one or two gyms in a single city. The last option would be for the clubs to establish the corresponding modification of the competition format for a more direct resolution”.
April 2, 2020 | 4:30 pm EDT Update
Knicks front office staying put
For now, Leon Rose is proceeding as status quo with an inherited front office in following an unofficial NBA hiring/firing stoppage with the world stopped cold. According to sources, Rose is actively holding scouting meetings with his staff via conference call/video regarding the draft. “I don’t see any teams hiring or firing during this,” one NBA source said. “That’s the sense.”
“With the workouts and games done, Leon has to lean on people who spent the entire year scouting,” said one NBA source who has spoken to Knicks brass. “As of now, everything is status quo.”
It’s a good bet Knicks GM Scott Perry will be in place for the NBA Draft 2020 whenever it is held. The current date is June 25. What happens after the Knicks’ draft is unclear. Because of the self-isolation rules, Rose will look to rely on his current personnel men who spent the season scouting college games.
Youngstown native, and former Ursuline basketball player David Collins is entering his name in the 2020 NBA Draft.
Javon Freeman-Liberty announced on Twitter on Wednesday afternoon that he was declaring for the 2020 NBA Draft. Freeman-Liberty becomes the fourth Valparaiso player to declare for the draft as an early entrant in the last five years.
Pelicans shooting guard JJ Redick and his wife, Chelsea, are spearheading a campaign that will provide millions of meals throughout south Louisiana while it battles the coronavirus. On Thursday, the Redicks, the Pelicans and the Lineage Logistics, a food transportation and distribution company, announced donations to Second Harvest Food Bank. Together, they aim to provide 1.8 million meals in 23 parishes.
The initiative will also create jobs for employees who work during Pelicans games at Smoothie King Center. They will help staff Lineage Logistics’ warehouses in the New Orleans area.
April 2, 2020 | 4:21 pm EDT Update
NBA participating in COVID-19 plasma project
On Sunday, the NBA league office reached out to team physicians encouraging players who have recovered from the virus to consider opting in to the experimental treatment, according to a copy of the memo obtained by ABC News. The NBA also donated $100,000 to the National COVID-19 Convalescent Plasma Project as part of the NBA Together campaign.
The NBA’s donation and plea for players to opt in to the program comes amid criticism that the league coordinated VIP testing of players while other Americans showing symptoms struggled to access tests. Dr. Joyner said that while “testing at many levels will be highlighted” when all is said and done, the players deserve credit for offering their help.
Marcus Smart, a guard for the Boston Celtics, confirmed through his agent that he is one of the players who will opt in to the program. Smart announced Monday on Twitter that he had been cleared of the virus by the Massachusetts Department of Health. The identities of the other three players planning to participate are not known.
Buckeye star Kaleb Wesson entering draft
Ohio State star Kaleb Wesson plans to enter the NBA draft. Wesson tweeted Wednesday night that he would forgo his final year of eligibility and declare for the draft. He is ranked No. 54 in ESPN’s rankings of the top prospects for the draft.
South East Melbourne Phoenix Next Star Terry Armstrong will enter the 2020 NBA Draft after one season in the NBL.
Junior forward Romello White became the second Arizona State player in as many days to declare for the NBA draft, doing so Wednesday afternoon, about 24 hours after junior point guard Remy Martin did the same.
Karl has not coached in the NBA since leaving the Kings. Cousins has suffered a number of serious injuries. And so, on April Fools’ Day, Karl decided to joke about a potential reunion, saying that both were headed back to the Kings.
