During an interview at Game Plan 23, Kevin Durant recalled walking into a meeting with Adam Silver to advocate for him to remove marijuana from the NBA's banned substances list.
"I actually called him [Silver] and advocated for him to take marijuana off the banned substance list," he told Andrew Ross Sorkin after he was asked about his decision to publicly associate with multiple marijuana companies and ventures. "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."
Durant said that Silver "agreed" with him when they spoke about marijuana, but Durant rejected the idea he was a "pioneer" in destigmatizing marijuana among NBA players. "I just enjoy the plant, it's as simple as that," he added. "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."
Until 2021, the NBA's banned substances list included marijuana, but the league did change the rules to not test for the drug during the 2020 bubble. Ever since then, there's been a far more relaxed approach to the plant and players are permitted to enjoy it outside of game time, as they would with alcohol on occasion. Earlier this year, the new Collective Bargaining Agreement between the player's Association and the NBA completely scrapped testing for marijuana.
In an interview with David Letterman last year, Durant opened up about the misconceptions regarding athletes using marijuana. He suggested responsible use of the plant "clears the distractions out of your brain a little bit" and can "settle you down." He also spoke about his involvement in the tech platform Weedmaps.
“We partner with them on content and trying to figure out ways to change the narrative around athletes and marijuana,” Durant told Letterman, noting that there will "be dispensaries everywhere" in New York City. He made a similar comparison in the interview, and said smoking a joint could be similar to having "a glass of wine."
