NBA responds to Stern’s marijuana comments

Former NBA commissioner David Stern, who ran the league from 1984-2014, made headlines Wednesday for his stance on marijuana and how he believes it “probably should be removed” from the league’s banned substances list.

“I think all of the sports leagues are now appropriately focused on player training, structuring of the right parts of their body, player rehabilitation in the case of injury, player nutrition ... [marijuana] should be a part of that conversation,” Stern told former NBA player Al Harrington.

In the wake of Stern’s comments, NBA executive vice president of communications Mike Bass responded:

“While [current NBA] commissioner [Adam] Silver has said that we are interested in better understanding the safety and efficacy of medical marijuana, our position remains unchanged regarding the use by current NBA players of marijuana for recreational purposes.”

Stern added that, during his reign as commissioner, it was “generally known” that a lot of players smoked marijuana until the league tightened the rules.

“Some of our players came to us and said, ‘some of these guys are high coming into the games.’ We began tightening it up, and at that time, people accepted the generally held wisdom that marijuana was a gateway drug.” Now, Stern says, there’s “a completely different perception.”