Former NBA Player Admits to Consuming Cannabis Before Games
Former NBA player Stephen Jackson recently revealed that he had consumed cannabis before some games during his 17-year professional career.
Jackson made the revelation on Michael Rapaport’s I Am Rapaport: Stereo Podcast, where he made several statements regarding how cannabis affected his performance.
“I just gotta be real, you know. It’s been a couple games where I smoked before games and had great games,” he said. “It’s been some games where I smoked before the game and was on the bench after three minutes, sitting on the sideline, ‘Please calm down. This high has to calm down.'”
He later stated that Don Nelson, head coach of the Golden State Warriors at the time, knew of his cannabis use and even celebrated with the team after they cleared their final drug test of the year. When asked to elaborate on Nelson, Jackson stated, “It was cool, the fact that he knows what’s going on off the court with his players, which was great, man. We enjoyed it. That’s why we were a great team.”
Cannabis is currently a banned substance in the NBA, and although regular testing is known ahead of time, any player can be randomly drug tested up to four times during the regular season and twice during the offseason.
Current Warriors head coach, Steve Kerr revealed his own cannabis use last December. He stated that he used cannabis to treat the pain following back surgery, and even though he did not feel it was beneficial for him, he could see its merits.
Also in December, NBA All-Star Chauncey Billups told NBA Countdown that he felt players should be able to treat their ailments with cannabis without fear of punishment from the league. He went one step further by saying that some of his teammates “played better” while on cannabis.
It is becoming more and more frequent for elite athletes to come out in support of cannabis. The NBA seems happy to leave their current cannabis policy in place in spite of Commissioner Adam Silver’s admission that it is “not a priority.” Meanwhile the NFL is opening up their cannabis policy for discussion during this weekend’s Super Bowl.
