Over the past couple of years, the NBA has cooled down its policy about players smoking marijuana. Also, it's not unusual to see current and former players advocating for weed-related startups and medicinal marijuana use.
Matt Barnes, Stephen Jackson, and Al Harrington are just some of the few players who openly talk about marijuana use, going as far as to say that Warriors coach Steve Kerr rolled some of the best blunts ever.
Now, former Los Angeles Lakers wing J.R. Smith dug deeper into that subject, talking about how NBA players used to play while high when they were inside the bubble for the final stretch of the 2020 season.
NBA News: J.R. Smith Talks About Players Smoking Weed Inside The Bubble
“I’m glad it happened because it finally broke that barrier and that stigma that you couldn’t play and all of this, it was a drug, it was this and that,” Smith said on 'All The Smoke'. “When you go to the bubble basketball, some of the dudes was playing, it was like practice games, kind of situations, so some of them really can’t play that well in front of 30,000. But at this same time, you see some of the best level of basketball, you seen these dudes still doing what they was doing, kicking, killing.”
“So stop making it seem like it’s alcohol or something,” the swingman added. “You know you ain’t out there playing drunk just getting 60 like that. That s— ain’t happening no more. But when you can be at peace with your mind, with your body, with your soul and you can go out there and just hoop, that’s all you want.”
The league had suspended its random testing policy for marijuana when the players were in the bubble, so it looks like some of them made the most of that to... well, kill some time. Could it be that why some of them played out of their minds? That's unlikely, but it's a cool story nonetheless.
