As the Golden State Warriors celebrated their fourth NBA championship win in eight years, they received a little boost in the form of complementary cannabis goody bags, courtesy of San Francisco-based cannabis company Sunset Connect.
According to a Newspostalk report, the celebratory goody bags contained a wide array of cannabis products, including pre-rolls, gummies, mini-joints, topical gel and a t-shirt.
Sunset Connect CEO Ali Jamalian said, “True to our roots, we worked the local angles to give our champions a goody bag. We wanted the team to go on vacation with real city fire.”
Jamalian says every Warrior who visited his locker at the Chase Center on Monday was greeted with a bag full of cannabis treats, “And they apparently like it a lot,” Jamalian added.
So, what exactly did the players come home with after their big win?
The goody bags included Sunset Connect’s signature, one-gram pre-roll, a “Fulton Fiver” named after the San Francisco bus line connecting the bay with the Pacific Ocean, also fully decked out in Warriors colors; a 1.5-gram pre-roll, Legends 002 Black-C Madrina; one package of Sunset Connect’s 10mg sour apple and pineapple gummies; one package of Sunset Connect hash-infused dog walker mini-joints; one package of non-has-infused apple and banana mini-joints; a bottle of “Recovery Gel,” a cannabis topical product made specifically for athletes and designed by strength and conditioning coach John Murray; a temple ball of hash and a t-shirt.
It’s quite the haul, and these types of gifts aren’t necessarily a new trend, at least when you look at other prominent figures beyond sports. Cannabis products have appeared in years past in gift bags for celebrities at Oscars and Emmys parties—Last year’s Academy Awards reportedly featured weed products including Hollowtips 24K gold vape cartridges, Elixinol’s Good Night CBD capsule, FIRE/ICE High-Performance Hemp Salve by Fifth Element, and SalTerrae Hemp Intimate Oils.
In 2020, the Oscar goody bags reportedly included a “one-of-a-kind, cannabis-infused chocolate culinary experience” worth $10,000, syrup to make CBD drinks, essential oils and gold-plated vape pens. The prior year was similarly opulent, with gift bags including cannabis-infused edibles, topicals and concentrates; cannabis facial moisturizer; cannabis facial oil; and an annual, VIP membership to MOTA, the first weed-friendly social club in Los Angeles.
However, these are entertainers in an entirely separate industry ,and some have questioned whether athletes are afforded the same luxuries in their cannabis consumption habits. It’s unclear if this gift is a first for sporting champions, though the NBA season is over and, so long as current trends hold, the NBA may not randomly test players for cannabis in future seasons.
“We have agreed with the NBPA to extend the suspension of random testing for marijuana for the 2021-22 season and focus our random testing program on performance-enhancing products and drugs of abuse,” NBA spokesman Mike Bass said last year.
California is also, of course, a legal, adult-use state for cannabis. Gifting cannabis is also legal, so long as that gift is operating within the boundaries of the law (i.e. not gifting more than an ounce at a time). It’s also worth noting that 18% of the 122 groups in the United States, along with Canada’s “Big 4” sporting activities organizations—the NFL, Major League Baseball, the NHL, and the NBA—play in states where neither medical or adult-use cannabis is legal.
The Warriors did not immediately respond to messages seeking comment after their win. With the way the U.S. cannabis market is shaping up, and with federal regulation as a possibility for the future, we could see the trend of cannabis gifting in sports continue to climb, along with further merging of the athletic and cannabis spaces.
Until then, we extend our congratulations to the Golden State Warriors, who will surely be resting well after this week.
