Players: Kerr could spark dialogue
OAKLAND, Calif. — David West has undergone four surgeries in his long NBA career: left knee, right elbow and right foot twice to fix a couple of toes.
“I don’t even like saying all that,” he said.
So, yes, West knows real pain. Draymond Green has never needed an operation — he knocks on a table not once but twice as to not jinx himself — yet he considers that the option of using medicinal marijuana “makes a lot of sense.”
Steve Kerr’s players believe his voice can go far in starting a serious, thoughtful dialogue in professional sports regarding pot use for pain relief.
“You look at something that comes from the Earth. Any vegetable that comes from the Earth, they encourage you to eat it,” Green said at shootaround Saturday. “It does make a little sense as opposed to giving someone a manufactured pill. If something takes your pain away like some of these pills do, it can’t be all good for you.”
The reigning NBA Coach of the Year acknowledged he tried marijuana twice in the past 18 months while dealing with debilitating back pain that still affects him this season. Sure, it caught the team by surprise, West said, because “it came out of nowhere.”
Kerr told Comcast SportsNet Bay Area’s Warriors Insider Podcast with Monte Poole on Friday that he used medicinal marijuana but it didn’t help — and painkillers have often been worse.
“I have no idea if I would, maybe I would have failed a drug test, I don’t even know if I’m subject to a drug test or any laws from the NBA,” Kerr said. “I tried it and it didn’t help at all.”