Over the past decade, the narrative around cannabis use has changed. In many states, it is now legal to purchase and recreationally use. The NBA also moved to remove marijuana from the list of prohibited substances in the latest collective bargaining agreement, likely due to its popularity among players.
Kevin Durant is a well-known marijuana advocate who is partially responsible for the NBA’s removal of marijuana restrictions. Durant also sponsors the popular cannabis mobile app “Weedmaps” through his company’s 35 businesses. However, if we look back a generation, we find one superstar who did not smoke marijuana: Michael Jordan.
Jordan has said he wants David Stern to take a tougher stance on marijuana use in the NBA, citing its prevalence throughout the league.
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“A long time ago, drug use was hidden in many sports,” Jordan said in an interview with Marvin R. Shanken. “Now it’s out in the open, whether it’s steroids in baseball or steroids in football. Steroids have never been popular in professional basketball. But you have a lot of people smoking marijuana and using drugs like cocaine. All that stuff is in the NBA. Appeared. “
Jordan continued.
“We’ve been able to limit it and try to eliminate it, but it’s very difficult to eliminate it. I think marijuana is still very strong in the NBA. I’d like to see that get more attention. I think (NBA Commissioner) David Stern It’s done a great job of eliminating all of these problems, but no one has been able to eliminate it completely.”
It will be interesting to know what Jordan thinks about the NBA’s new stance on marijuana use, as changes in the law make it more acceptable to athletes.
Michael Jordan had other bad habits
While Michael Jordan disliked players smoking marijuana and explicitly forbade it himself, he did have other vices. The former Chicago Bulls star is an avid gambler who will bet on anything he can because of his love for competition.
“Some people like to eat,” James Bouler told The Washington Post in 1993. “Some people like to fish. Some people like to hunt. Some people like to drink beer. And some people like to gamble.” Michael Jordan likes to gamble. “
Jordan suffered several high-profile gambling losses during his career, the most prominent of which was losing $5 million while playing craps. Jordan also frequently gambled while playing golf. Additionally, Jordan drank alcohol—not a lot, but certainly for fun.
Every player has his or her own vices. For the likes of Kevin Durant, that vice is marijuana, and as the stigma has been debunked in recent years, the NBA clearly doesn’t consider recreational use to be a problem, even if Michael Jordan once had one .