While forward Stephen Jackson enjoyed a solid NBA career, the former NBA champion also had a controversial one. During his career, Jackson was rather open about his frequent marijuana use, making fans across the globe well aware of his ganja fondness.
Now enjoying retirement and a gig on ESPN covering the NBA, Jackson revealed in a podcast hosted by Michael Rapoport of ESPN that he also indulged in marijuana use prior to various games throughout his fourteen-year tenure:
Former NBA player Stephen Jackson says he occasionally smoked marijuana before playing in games.
Jackson’s admission came on the I Am Rapaport: Stereo Podcast hosted by actor Michael Rapaport.
“I just gotta be real, you know, it’s been a couple games where I smoked before games and had great games,” Jackson said on the podcast, which was posted Friday. “It’s been some games where I smoked before the game and was on the bench after three minutes sitting on the sideline, ‘Please calm down. This high has to calm down’ — I done shot three shots that went over the backboard, like, I’m going to be honest, like, ‘Ahh, I gotta calm down.'”
This doesn’t really come as much of a surprise as cannabis is one of the most common drugs today. What is a little surprising though is Jackson stating in the same podcast that his head coach at the time, Don Nelson, was aware of the 6’8″ wing’s herb habit:
“We’re in Utah, and the [league’s] drug test people are around, you know, to get our last drug test so we can smoke, right? Don Nelson, we talked about weed all the time. He was cool with talking about weed. We got our last test in Utah, right? So me and [teammate] Baron [Davis] are coming out the locker room just screaming, excited with our last pink slip saying we could smoke for the rest of the season, and Don Nelson hauls ass down there giving us high-fives, like, ‘Yeah, we can smoke now!'” Jackson recalled. “It was cool, the fact that he knows what’s going on off the court with his players, which was great, man. We enjoyed it. That’s why we were a great team.”
With marijuana use becoming increasingly popular among athletes and even being tested for certain medical advantages, the candor of Jackson shouldn’t come as a major surprise to anybody. A long and rigorous NBA season surely has players across the league looking for relaxation, making weed the most likely drug of choice for various NBA players. Throughout his career, Jackson averaged 15.1 points per game to go along with 3.9 rebounds and 3.1 assists.
