Although he said he wouldn't call himself a "pioneer," Kevin Durant helped get marijuana taken off the NBA banned substance list. The Phoenix Suns forward had been advocating for this since at least 2020 and has invested in multiple cannabis-related companies.
This has now made it into the latest Collective Bargaining Agreement between the NBA and the NBPA, as reported by Shams Charania earlier this year.
"I just enjoy the plant," Durant said during the CNBC and Boardroom's inaugural Game Plan sports business conference in Los Angeles this week. "It's as simple as that."
Marijuana has been removed from the NBA's anti-drug testing program, although the change started during the 2019-20 season when the league said they would not be testing players randomly for the substance. That decision was made when the NBA resumed play in a bubble in Orlando after a break caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
On Tuesday, Durant discussed his meeting with NBA Commisioner Adam Silver.
"I actually called him and advocated for him to take marijuana off the banned substance list," he said. "I just felt like it was becoming a thing around the country, around the world, that the stigma behind it wasn't as negative as it was before."
At #GamePlan23 @KDTrey5 discusses his business ventures in the marijuana industry with @andrewrsorkin pic.twitter.com/IdByyZvAPV
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Durant said marijuana doesn't affect players in a negative way, and that Silver agreed with him. The two-time NBA Finals MVP said it wasn't difficult to start that conversation, because Silver pretty much already smelled what was coming.
"Well, he smelled it when I walked in," Durant said. "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."
