Bhistoric omba in the NBA. After rumors of a ‘lockout’, which was denied to MARCA on the league’s last visit to Paris, the new Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) is a reality. It will last seven years and among novelties such as the ‘Cup’-style mid-season tournament there is… A radical change. Marijuana has been liberalized. No player will be sanctioned for the use of the recreational substance in the best basketball league in the world. Historical movement in American and world sport.
According to him last agreement (established between 2017 and 2023), marijuana was a prohibited substance that carried a penalty of five games if there were three positives. The players underwent about four controls a year. Progressively, its use began to be liberalized, until the new CBA took the step to fully legalize its use.
are the logical steps from the Bubble from Disney World in Orlando. “There the stigma that you could not play if you drank was broken. It is a moment in which you are at peace with your mind, with your body, with your soul. And you can go out there and just play. This is what you want,” confessed JR Smith, one of the big promoters. Thus they wanted to banish a stage of sanctions and bans, like that of Larry Sanders in 2014. Sanctioned 10 games while charging 44 million for the use of the substance.
If you love her, you love her
since that Bubble, marijuana and its liberalization has been a recurring request from players. Nobody hides it and it goes to all levels. Like the megastar Kevin Durant, who never covered his preferences. From iconic images to statements. “If you love it, you love it. If you don’t, you won’t even taste it. Marijuana is just marijuana, it doesn’t hurt anyone. Help and make things better. It’s not a debate, “he told ‘All The Smoke’, a program in which Matt Barnes and Stephen Jackson also confessed that they were regulars.
historic decision
The new agreement opens a stage that breaks with all of the above. In no major league in the United States is it allowed -although the NFL was also studying its progressive liberalization-. Almost like a historical request, because since the 90’s the runrún was total. “If they do controls, the league has to be suspended,” Joe Dumars said in 1997 a ‘The New York Times’.
According to various estimates, more than half of the players used marijuana in the league. From stars of the past to those of the present. “I’m from Vancouver, bro,” Steve Nash would sneer when asked. He even generated urban legends, like that of Klay Thompson in his university days or that arrest in ‘full-duty’ of Rasheed Wallace and Damon Stoudemire in those controversial Blazers. And also in relation to the future, Well, Bronny James, son of LeBron James and still in his high school stage, has flirted with the substance. Legal marijuana, a reality.
