NBA commissioner Adam Silver apparently smelled marijuana emanating from Phoenix Suns’ star forward Kevin Durant when the two met to discuss the NBA’s policy on the substance, Durant told a CNBC panel Tuesday.
Durant spoke to the panel about his meeting with Silver to discuss removing marijuana from the NBA’s banned substance list. “Well, he smelled it when I walked in,” the two-time NBA champion told Andrew Ross Sorkin.
“I didn’t really have to say much. It’s the NBA … everybody does it, to be honest. It’s like wine at this point,” Durant continued.
At #GamePlan23 @KDTrey5 discusses his business ventures in the marijuana industry with @andrewrsorkin pic.twitter.com/IdByyZvAPV
— CNBC Events (@cnbcevents) July 26, 2023
The NBA officially eliminated testing for cannabis in June, making it defacto permissible, as part of a new collective bargaining agreement struck with the NBA Players Association. The new agreement also allows players to accept sponsorship deals from cannabis companies. (RELATED: Kevin Durant Slammed With Boos In Return To Oklahoma City)
The NBA had suspended its policy on random marijuana tests in 2020 and renewed that policy for the 2020-2021 COVID-19 “bubble” season before agreeing to completely remove the substance from testing, ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski reported in October 2021.
The new policy doesn’t equate to a major change considering how infrequently players were punished for marijuana use in the past. One glaring example was when Sacramento Kings guard Maurice Taylor received a five-game suspension after he tested positive for marijuana for a third time in 2006, CBC Sports reported at the time.
Miami Heat guard Dion Waiters was also notably suspended for 10 games in 2019 after having a THC edible-induced panic attack in 2019, though that suspension was handed down from his own team, not the NBA, for “conduct detrimental to the team,” according to USA Today.