In light of 4/20, athletes among some of the most popular sports opened up about the influence of marihuana in their respective leagues.
Former NBA players Matt Barnes, Kenyon Martin, and Al Harrington opened up about their experiences with weed over their own playing careers in the league.
Martin got a crack at the most important question everyone wants to know — How much of the NBA does weed?
“I think about 85 percent,” said the 15-year veteran in a Bleacher Report special. “It was a lot.”
NFL athletes guess-timated from 80 to 89 percent, per veterans Shaun Smith and Martellus Bennett.
Yet Barnes and Harrington brought perhaps the most eye-popping statement, saying that even executives were known to indulge in smoking as well.
“The GMs, coaches, presidents, like, as far as what you wanna say ‘closet' – it goes deeper than what you think,” said Barnes. “Some of the poeple that are cracking whips and suspending us are smoking weed.”
The NBA and the NFL have been known to have more than their fair share of cases with weed smoking, and up to this date, suspensions have been cracked down, but non-athletes have been just as guilty of indulging in the occasional hit — yet they're not punished for it at all due to their position.
“Mostly everybody is a closet smoker, all of my billionaire mentors or whatever — they all consume,” added Harrington.
Barnes played for Steve Kerr in his last year with the Golden State Warriors, one of the very few open weed-smoking personalities in the sports business. And while he did it to alleviate the nagging spinal pain that has seen him sit out for more than a half of a season in 2015-16 and for most of the postseason as recently as 2017 — Kerr has yet to be fined a single penny for his habits.
All of this begs the question — how long until marihuana is normalized in sports?
Having proved to have no effects increasing athletic performance and with plenty of success stories of reducing pain and keeping athletes sane — is this really a ban worth having in 2018?
Let us know in the comments section.
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