10 Famous Basketball Players Who Smoke Weed

There’s no doubt that a handful of professional athletes use cannabis. 

Whether they use it for medicinal purposes or a recreational pick-me-up, NBA players know their way around weed. 

Many of them even launched their own cannabis brands to help destigmatize the relationship between cannabis and sports. Some of these ballers even confessed that when players are high, they play the best level of basketball. 

But who are we talking about? Read on to find out which NBA stars are sparking up. 

Phoenix Suns baller Kevin Durant is no stranger to cannabis. In an interview with David Letterman, Durant explained that he’s partnered with Weedmaps. The partnership will find new “ways to change the narrative around athletes and marijuana,” said Durant. He also confessed to being high during the interview. 

The former Indiana Pacers forward are one of the proudest cannabis advocates in the game. He’s the CEO and founder of his cannabis brand VIOLA. Harrington launched the brand after encouraging his grandmother to try cannabis oil for her glaucoma.

Funny enough, Allen Iverson recently partnered up with Al Harrington’s VIOLA to launch his own line of cannabis products. The line is called The Iverson Collection, and to this day, Iverson says the only person he’d want to share a joint with, dead or alive, is Al Harrington. 

Chris Webber swished into cannabis not long ago with his very first weed venture, Players Only. Webber says that Players Only is much more than just your average weed brand. It’s a lifestyle brand that strives to reduce the stigma and change the narrative around cannabis use.

Another fierce cannabis advocate is Matt Barnes. After retiring from the NBA, Barnes dedicated his days to helping professional athletes deal with the stigma around cannabis. He even confessed that using weed was a part of his game day routine. 

Former NBA player Stephen Jackson has close ties to Matt Barnes. They also have a podcast, All The Smoke, With Matt Barnes and Stephen Jackson. In terms of his cannabis use, Jackson said he used weed before every game to get in the zone and calm down. Even coach Don Nelson knew about Jackson’s cannabis use. 

Former Detroit Pistons player Ben Wallace launched his own cannabis brand, Undrafted, on the same soil he was shooting hoops on for the last decade. Big Ben was the only undrafted player to make the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame, leading him to launch Undrafted. 

Steven Nash is a legendary baller, but could he attribute some of that success to weed? Probably not. However, after retiring, Nash explained that he’s a cannabis-using professional athlete who prefers Indica strains to help him hit the hay.

Former NBA player J.R. Smith said smoking weed was his saving grace during the 2020 Orlando Bubble. In fact, Smith recalls seeing the best level of basketball when players were high during their games in Orlando. He said he’s “glad it happened because it finally broke that barrier and that stigma that you couldn’t play and all of this, it was a drug, it was this and that.”

Retired NBA player Cliff Robinson went from shooting hoops to launching his own brand, Uncle Cliffy. He’s always been an advocate for cannabis, law reform, and cannabis-prisoner expungement. He also stated that smoking weed throughout his NBA career helped relieve pain and anxiety.