FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Friday, February 28th, 2020

NBA INSIDER TOM HABERSTROH & NBC SPORTS BAY AREA’S MONTE POOLE DISCUSS MARIJUANA USAGE BY PROFESSIONAL ATHLETES

Column Available NOW Exclusively on NBCSports.com/Haberstroh and MyTeams app

Haberstroh and Poole Discuss their Column in a New Episode of The HaberShow Podcast, Available Now

STAMFORD, Conn. – Feb. 28, 2020 – NBC Sports national NBA Insider Tom Haberstroh and NBC Sports Bay Area’s Monte Poole discuss the use of marijuana by professional athletes in a newly released column, available now exclusively on NBCSports.com/Haberstroh and NBC Sports’ MyTeams app.

Haberstroh and Poole speak with former NBA players Stephen Jackson, Al Harrington, Antonio Davis, and Brian Shaw, and 2015 NBA Finals MVP and current Miami Heat forward Andre Iguodala. The players discuss why they believe marijuana should be removed from the league’s banned substance list, how it provides safer health and recovery benefits than doctor-prescribed opioids, and share their personal experiences managing pain from their playing and post-playing days.

Highlights include:

    • “With growing scientific literature pointing to benefits of pain management, lowering inflammation and reducing anxiety, cannabis’ non-intoxicating compound, cannabidiol (CBD), has been widely used as an alternative to opioids. Leagues are loosening up their policies accordingly.”
    • “Six different NBA players, who did not want to be identified, estimated that the percentage of active players using marijuana in some form – buds, edibles, concentrates, CBD oils, lotions, patches – was at least 50 percent and as high as 85 percent.”
    • “There’s definitely a stigma, still, around weed. And I don’t want to believe the leadership of the NBA is afraid to allow it. I don’t think Adam Silver is (afraid), but maybe there’s pressure from some of the owners.” – Shaw on the NBA’s relationship with marijuana
    • “This is what bothers me about this conversation. People think that players come to the game high. If that were the case, and they were that irresponsible, why don’t players play drunk? We all know there’s a time and place for everything. We go out and compete at the highest level in the world.” – Harrington on the NBA’s stigma surrounding marijuana
    • “Every time an NBA team gave me pills because I was in pain, I’d take it, but I wouldn’t actually take it. I’d go home and smoke.” – Jackson on opioids as pain relief medication
    • “Let’s just be honest: All the stuff that we used – and I can’t speak to what guys are doing now – but whether it was alcohol or anything else, it wasn’t good for us…Well, what alternatives are you giving me?…You’re telling me not to go out, not to drink alcohol, not to smoke weed. What can I do? You can’t keep shoving a pill down my throat, telling me to take it. I know that doesn’t make me feel good, either.” – Davis on opioids

 

On a new episode of The HaberShow Podcast, Haberstroh and Poole dive into their column on marijuana use in professional sports, discuss Kobe Bryant’s funeral, and Steph Curry’s imminent return to the court.

The podcast is available for download now on all major podcast platforms, including: NBCSports.com/podcasts, NBC Sports’ Scores app, Apple, Stitcher, Spotify, Google Podcasts, TuneIn and iHeart.

– NBC SPORTS REGIONAL NETWORKS –