Brooklyn Nets star Kevin Durant announced a partnership with Weedmaps, a cannabis marketplace, with an eye on destigmatizing marijuana use by athletes.
Kevin Durant took a major stand for marijuana use among athletes on Thursday by announcing a partnership with Weedmaps.
Weedmaps is a cannabis marketplace that links up users with dispensaries. By partnering with them, Durant is hoping to help destigmatize pot.
“I think it’s far past time to address the stigmas around cannabis that still exist in the sports world as well as globally,” Durant said, per ESPN’s Brian Windhorst. “This partnership is going to help us continue to normalize those conversations, as well as create content, events, and a lot more through our Boardroom media network. This is just the beginning for us.”
Kevin Durant partnered with Weedmaps to destigmatize pot use by athletes
On Durant’s Boardroom podcast he discussed the deal.
“The band-aid has been ripped off,” Durant said. “In the sports world, it’s kind of an undercover thing that players use cannabis and used it throughout while they were actively playing.”
The Brooklyn Nets star wants to change the undercover nature by having the league catch up to where society seems to be. He pointed out how where he lives in San Francisco, there are dispensaries all over the place.
Durant is by far the biggest basketball star to pair up with a cannabis-related company in such a forward way. It’s an interesting move since marijuana still appears on the NBA’s list of banned substances.
Right now, however, the NBA isn’t testing for marijuana. They haven’t since the restart of the 2020 season.
The next big fight between the players and the league could be over the potential return of that testing. Obviously, players like Durant would like to see the NBA do away with the marijuana ban entirely.