Kevin Durant – Source: Ezra Shaw / Getty
Kevin Durant recently revealed that he smoked weed right before a meeting with the NBA Commissioner to advocate removing marijuana from the banned substance list.
As an athlete, you are subjected to annoying and unannounced drug testing procedures for steroids but the tests are also for recreational drugs.
For decades players have lobbied for marijuana to be removed from the banned substance list and in recent years it finally happened. One of the main people advocating for the plant was Kevin Durant and during an interview at CNBC and Boardroom’s Game Plan sports business conference, he told a funny story about meeting with NBA Commissioner Adam Silver.
According to the baller, the commissioner couldn’t help but “smell it” on him.
“I actually called him [Silver] and advocated for him to take marijuana off the banned substance list,” he told Andrew Ross Sorkin. “I just felt like it was becoming a thing around the country, around the world… The stigma behind it wasn’t as negative as it was before. It doesn’t affect you in any negative way.”
“Well, he smelled it when I walked in. So I didn’t really have to say much, you know what I’m saying? He kind of understood where this was going…It’s the NBA, man… everybody does it, to be honest. It’s like wine at this point.”
It was a very bold move to meet the commissioner smelling like loud but in the long run, it worked out.
Marijuana is now treated the same as alcohol and permitted as part of the NBA and NBPA’s new collective bargaining agreement.
You can watch the interview clip with Durant recalling the meeting with Silver below.
