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It’s been a few months since weed was removed from the NBA’s banned substances list, and we’re just now learning who helped start the movement.
During an interview at Game Plan 23 with Andrew Ross Sorkin, Kevin Durant mentioned the time he met with NBA Commissioner Adam Silver to advocate for his fellow players to light up.
The conversation began when Sorkin asked Durant about his decision to invest in several cannabis companies publicly and how Adam Silver felt about the connection.
“I actually called him [Silver] and advocated for him to take marijuana off the banned substance list,” he told Sorkin. “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 even spoke to Silver about removing the stigma in person and just so happened to be smoking prior, showing how commonplace it’s become. He doesn’t, however, think he’s a pioneer for weed in the NBA.
“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.”
The marijuana company Durant invests in through his VC firm Thirty-Five Ventures includes Weedmaps, which is an app for weed consumers to educate them on strains and local spots to cop, as well as Dutchie, which aims to make cannabis safe and accessible for all through a cannabis marketplace.
Here’s how lit Twitter was when marijuana was officially removed from the banned substances list:
