Before Kevin Durant's pro-marijuana stance, Michael Jordan once urged David Stern to crack down on NBA players using substance
Over the last decade, the narrative surrounding marijuana use has changed. In many states, it's now legal to purchase and use recreationally. The NBA has also moved to remove marijuana from the list of banned substances in their latest collective bargaining agreement, likely due to its popularity among players.
Kevin Durant is a known advocate of marijuana and is partially responsible for the NBA making the move to remove their restrictions on the substance. Durant is also a sponsor of the popular marijuana mobile app "Weedmaps" through his company's 35 ventures. Yet, if we cast our gaze back to the previous generation, we will find a superstar who was not a fan of marijuana use: Michael Jordan.
Jordan once noted how he wanted David Stern to take a stronger stance on marijuana use in the NBA, noting how it was prevalent across the league.
"Drug use was hidden in a lot of sports a long time ago," Jordan said in an interview with Marvin R. Shanken. "Now it's out in the open, be it steroids in baseball or steroids in football. Steroids have never been prevalent in professional basketball. But you got a lot of marijuana smoking and drug use like cocaine. All that stuff has been in the NBA."
Jordan continued.
"We've been able to curtail it and try to eliminate it, but it's very tough to eliminate. I think marijuana is still strong in the NBA. I'd like to see that paid more attention to. I think [NBA Commissioner] David Stern has done a great job to eliminate all those issues, but no one is going to be able to eliminate it completely."
It would be interesting to get Jordan's take on the NBA's new stance on marijuana usage, as the changes in laws have made it far more acceptable to be used by athletes.
Michael Jordan had other vices
While Michael Jordan wasn't a fan of players using marijuana and steered clear of using the drug himself, he did have other vices. The former Chicago Bulls star was an avid gambler and would bet on anything he could due to his love of competition.
“Some people love to eat," James Bouler told the Washington Post in 1993. "Some people love to fish. Some people like to hunt. Some people like to drink beer. And some people love to gamble. Michael Jordan loves to gamble.”
Jordan had multiple high-profile gambling losses during his career, with the most prominent being a $5 million loss while playing a game of craps. Jordan would also regularly gamble while playing golf. Furthermore, Jordan also drank alcohol — not extensively, but certainly on a recreational level.
Every player has their vice. For some, like Kevin Durant, that vice is marijuana, and with the stigma having been debunked in recent years, the NBA clearly doesn't see recreational usage as a problem, even if Michael Jordan had once.