In a recent documentary short for Uni former Denver Nuggets forward Al Harrington said that a botched surgery while playing for the Nuggets led him to discover CBD, a cannabis extract that is used to treat inflammation.

How I started using cannabis, is when I played for the Denver Nuggets I had a botched knee surgery that I ended up getting a staph injection. Ended up having to get four more surgeries just to clean the infection out. You know, I was on all kinds of pain meds. This lady that runs this university, she seen all of the medicine that I had on the thing and she said ‘Al, have you ever tried CBD?’ And I was just like, ‘nah I never really tried’ and she gave me a couple of things to try and I immediately felt the difference.

In this very fascinating 15-minute video, Harrington explains how he got into the marijuana industry including shops in Denver, Portland, and Detroit. He also claims that marijuana use is prevalent in professional sports, from the players, to the coaches, to the owners and that support for removing marijuana from the league’s banned substance list is gaining traction.

He even meets with former commissioner of the NBA, David Stern, to discuss the changing perspective on marijuana around the country and whether or not the league is ready to soften their stance on recreational and medical marijuana use. Stern, known for being a very conservative, law and order type presence, gives a surprising answer.

The NBA has been a fairly progressive league relative to league’s like the NFL or MLB so it seems inevitable that changes are coming to how the league handles marijuana use. With legalization becoming more and more prevalent around the country, and with what we know about prescription pain medications leading to addiction and abuse, the league might finally be ready to explore allowing marijuana use.

This content is no longer available.