The NBA removed cannabis from the banned substances list in the 2023 collective bargaining agreement. However, marijuana use was prevalent among players long before that, both as a recreational and therapeutic substance.
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Retired NBA vet Matt Barnes has long been a marijuana advocate. It’s right there in the title of his podcast, All The Smoke. The former forward, who was drafted in 2002 by the Memphis Grizzlies, has confessed many times that he regularly used to smoke up before games. Well, he has even said that the best games in his career all occurred when he was under the influence.
Barnes is full of weed stories from his time in the league, and he told an amazing one while on the Club 520 podcast this week. “We smoked at our coach’s house one time after we won that playoff series,” Barnes said, before getting into the finer details of the adventure.
The year was 2007, and his Warriors had just beaten the Mavericks in the first round of the Western Conference playoffs.
“Stack [Jerry Stackhouse] and Nelly [head coach Don Nelson] used to live in the same condo on the lake, and Stack was like in the middle and Nelly had the whole penthouse. So we went to Stack’s house and smoked first, then we went up to Nelly’s house to say hi before we were about to hit the streets,” Barnes continued.
“As soon as we walk in there, ‘Hey fellas, Woody Harrelson’s in the back rolling doobies. Go smoke with him.’ We’re like, what the f***, what is he talking about? So we went in the back and smoked weed with Woody Harrelson at our coach’s house, and then we hit the streets,” the former Warriors star added.
Barnes’ story plays out like one of Charlie Murphy’s ‘True Hollywood Stories’ on Chappelle’s Show. Just that, instead of Rick James or Prince, it’s Don Nelson and Woody Harrelson.
Barnes described weed culture as being big in the Bay Area at the time, even at Oracle Arena, where the Warriors played their home games. “That’s the one thing I remember about Oracle back when we played,” he recalled.
Explaining in detail his experience from the arena, Barnes added, “That s*** smelled like a dopesack, that s*** smelled like a trap house. They used to smoke so much weed in there while we were playing, bro, it was crazy.”
If Barnes had any doubt about what the smell was, his dad, of all people, cleared it for him. “You could see the smoke cloud, you could smell it, but you could see the smoke cloud at the top of the arena,” he said.
“My dad smoked cigarettes. I was like, ‘Dad, what’d you do at halftime?’ ‘I was going out there to smoke cigarettes, but everyone started smoking weed, so I just pulled my joint out and started smoking weed with them.’ I said, ‘Word?'” Barnes chuckled!
The NBA has relaxed its rules on marijuana use. But it’s still tough to imagine fans lighting one up at the Chase Center, at least not in such a big group. Woody Harrelson is probably still available postgame, though.
