L ATIMES.COM/SPORTS S FRIDAY, AUGUST 2, 2019D7
increase of 3% from 2005 to
2015, according to a county
report.
However, four-time NBA
champion John Salley isn’t
crippled by the stigmas still
associated with pot use.
Recently, Salley — who won
championships with the
Detroit Pistons, the Chicago
Bulls and the Lakers — was
announced as the new exe-
cutive vice president of
marketing for Leading Edge
Pharmaceuticals. The com-
pany develops topical CBD-
based products, which
Salley has used to treat
chronic pain that has kept
him up at night post-career.
Later this year, he and his
22-year-old daughter, Tyla,
will launch the premium
cannabis business Deuces
22, which includes an online
“academy” designed to
educate site visitors on the
plant’s benefits.
Salley, vegan and a
health enthusiast, is the
latest high-profile former
professional athlete to take
a hit off a business opportu-
nity expected to gross more
than $70 billion globally by
- Joe Montana, Tiki
Barber, Matt Barnes, Al
Harrington and Mike Tyson
are just a few of the names
attached.
The professional leagues
from whence they came,
however, continue to test
and punish players for use.
No professional sports
league has allowed its play-
ers to use marijuana for
medicinal purposes.
One can only assume
they will do so until cannabis
is decriminalized at the
federal level. To be sensibly
proactive would either put
them at odds with the gov-
ernment or sponsors who
may be hesitant to spend
money on a league full of
potheads.
“Stereotypes are devel-
oped by people who already
have prejudiced views,”
Salley told me. “When you
think about the prejudices
regarding athletes, you have
the story of a lot of guys who
go broke when they’re done
playing. People think: Well,
they came from nothing and
now they’re back because of
drugs and what have you
and that story line gets
perpetuated.
“What you don’t hear
about is all of the predators
in professional sports who
take advantage of guys and
are allowed to keep working
in sports despite not looking
out for the best interest of
their guys. We have a lot of
bad people involved in
sports, but we like to do the
stories on the broke black
athlete smoking pot. Not the
people trusted to advise
them.”
Salley is lightly touching
on the narrative notoriously
written into the culture’s
collective consciousness by
California’s own Richard
Nixon via his war on drugs.
The public was told it was
about safety, but what his
administration actually
wanted was “the public to
associate the hippies with
marijuana and blacks with
heroin. And then crimi-
nalizing both heavily, we
could disrupt those commu-
nities,” according to Nixon’s
domestic policy chief, John
Ehrlichman.
“We could arrest their
leaders, raid their homes,
break up their meetings and
vilify them night after night
on the evening news,”
Ehrilchman said in 1994,
according to a 2016 Harper’s
Magazine article. “Did we
know we were lying about
the drugs? Of course we
did.”
Ehrlichman died in 1999,
and his children challenged
the validity of the quotes
when they were made pub-
lic. However, if you listen to
the Nixon tapes in which thepresident waxes poetic
about how “every one of the
bastards that are out for
legalizing marijuana is
Jewish” and that “homosex-
uality” and “dope” were part
of a Communist and left-
wing plot to destroy the
country, you might believe
the Harper’s story.
Regardless of the war on
drugs’ controversial begin-
ning, the reality is a lot has
changed since former NFL
player Ricky Williams first
talked about using cannabis
to help him manage his
anxiety. Back then he was
ridiculed. Today, it is clear
he was ahead of his time.
In 2000, during Williams’
second year, a Gallup poll
found that just 31% of Ameri-
cans supported legalizing
marijuana. That percentage
is now 66%.
Just as the country’s
attitude toward alcohol
changed after Prohibition
ended in 1933, the sweeping
wave of voting initiatives
legalizing pot is a clear indi-
cation that the professional
leagues need to move be-
yond studying the issue.
They can say they’re “follow-
ing the science,” but that’s a
cop-out. If that were true,
alcohol and opioids would
already be banned.Instead of being overly
cautious cowards they
should catch up with their
athletes, fan base and the
rest of the country.
Barnes believes the
problem with athletes being
associated with cannabis
isn’t the plant but rather
what the public knows
about it.
“Don’t get me wrong, I
enjoy getting high,” Barnes
said. “But I really think what
we need to do as a society is
to educate people. So my
hope now is to remove the
high aspect and give people
the beneficial and the edu-
cational piece and really
make people understand. I
mean, a majority of the
population doesn’t know the
difference between CBD and
THC. That CBD is more the
anti-inflammatory recovery
wellness body stuff, and
THC is what gets you high.
“Now, I know being an
athlete, being a father, being
a coach, you really have to be
careful. ... I have 10-year-old
twin boys that look at my
every move. And it’s a con-
versation I’ve had with
them. I remember one night,
I put them to bed and then I
went in the backyard and
smoked a joint. One of them
said he looked out the win-dow and saw me. So the next
morning, he came out like,
‘Daddy, why are you smok-
ing cigarettes?’ And I was
just like, ‘What are you talk-
ing about? I don’t smoke
cigarettes.’ They’re like,
‘Well, we saw you smoking
last night in the backyard.’ I
was like, ‘Oh ...’ So I was at a
real crossroads. Do I lie?
What do I do? So I just told
them.
“It was the year I won a
championship. I’m still
limping around. My ankle’s
really sore. My knee hurts.
My back hurts. [So I said]
‘Daddy doesn’t like to drink
alcohol or take pills. So
when Daddy smokes a joint,
it makes all my pain go away,
and it helps me sleep.’ And
then one of the twins said,
‘Well Daddy, you know my
ankle and knee hurt. When
can I smoke?’ And I was just
like ... it’s when it kind of got
real. I’m just like, ‘You can’t
smoke until you’re about 30.’
He was like, ‘Oh. When I get
really old, I can smoke?’ And
I just kind of had a little
laugh.”
Barnes may have been
able to find humor in the
situation, but for Earl Wat-
son there’s not much to joke
about. The former NBA
coach and UCLA alumnussays his concern about
players being open about
their marijuana use isn’t
about kids like Barnes’
twins, but rather those who
don’t have the same re-
sources.
“It’s not a secret that
lower economic communi-
ties tend to end up incarcer-
ated versus the obvious
non-criminalized options of
therapy, “ Watson said.
Watson said inmates
convicted of marijuana
offenses should be released
before a state could legalize
marijuana use and sales. He
added that, “professional
athletes will have a responsi-
bility to perform at a high
level by being disciplined if
they choose to use marijua-
na, reflecting the same
responsibilities as alcohol
use.”
How the athletes show
they are using responsibly is
paramount. I still play
pickup basketball fairly
often for a middle-aged guy,
and let me tell you, it’s hard
to find a court without a
young guy taking ill-advised
three-pointers, trying to
imitate Steph Curry. If the
two-time MVP started pro-
moting pot, it’s safe to as-
sume some of those medio-
cre shooters would follow
suit.
This is why the leagues
need to be transparent
about demystifying canna-
bis rather than hiding be-
hind the justification that
“it’s the law” — the laws are
changing.
This spring, Illinois be-
came the 11th state to legal-
ize recreational and medical
marijuana — the first to do
so through the legislative
process.
Officials project more
than $2 billion in sales lead-
ing to roughly $500 million in
revenue for the state, which
has the Chicago Bulls,
Bears, Blackhawks, Sky,
White Sox and Cubs.
If NBA Commissioner
Adam Silver thinks tamper-
ing with pot is difficult to
discourage, how will he
continue to justify punishing
players for partaking in a
product a growing number
of his league’s alumni are
getting rich off of and pro-
ducing with the governor’s
blessing?
It’s borderline comical
and downright embarrass-
ing to watch these powerful
entities continue to wring
their hands over antiquated
policy. Especially consider-
ing it all may very well have
started because an anti-
Semitic racist didn’t like
hippies.Society has changed on pot and so should sports leagues
[G randerson, from D1]
FORMER NBAplayer Matt Barnes is one of several
retired pro athletes who are in the cannabis business.Kathy WillensAssociated Press
RICKY WILLIAMS talked about using pot when
support for legalization was much lower than today.Chris TrotmanGetty ImagesWith hundreds of games
to be played over the course
of 15 weeks, it could be
viewed as a foolish endeavor
to pick a handful of contests
that will most help the
College Football Playoff
committee fill up the
bracket. But that’s the
nature of having a four-team
tournament field made up
of representatives from five
conferences, one of which
does not feature a team
ranked in the top 10 of the
preseason coaches’ poll
released Thursday (hello,
Pac-12).
With the “Conference of
Champions” unlikely to
produce a legitimate playoff
contender, at least based on
data on hand, the other four
conferences can feel confi-
dent in their champion
having an argument for one
of the coveted slots — unless
this is one of those years
when the Southeastern
Conference’s top two teams
have an undeniably superior
resume to a Big Ten or Big
12 champion.
It would be a shock,
given its soft schedule, if
defending national champi-
on Clemson, ranked No. 1 in
the preseason by the
coaches for the first time in
school history, does not win
the Atlantic Coast Confer-
ence and punch its ticket.
From there, it would also be
a surprise if Alabama and
Georgia don’t meet in the
SEC championship game in
Atlanta with a playoff spoton the line.
Things would have to be
pretty ugly in the Big Ten,
Big 12 and Pac-12 for the
Alabama-Georgia loser to
be inserted into the playoff a
day later.
Oklahoma and Texas are
preseason top-10 teams and
have their Red River Rivalry
game at the Cotton Bowl on
Oct. 12. The winner gets a
leg up and improved seating
on the hype train, but it’s
likely that the Sooners and
Longhorns will meet again
in the Big 12 title game at
AT&T Stadium, which
would receive much more
weight than the first
matchup.
Texas beating Louisiana
State in Austin on Sept. 7
would go a long way toward
affirming what theLonghorns did in handling
Georgia in last year’s Sugar
Bowl, turning that first
meeting between Texas and
Oklahoma into a mid-sea-
son, top-five tilt. Ohio State
and Michigan begin the
season ranked No. 5 and No.
7, respectively, in the
coaches’ poll, setting up the
potential for another high-
stakes edition of the Game
on Nov. 30 at the Big House.
The Wolverines were posi-
tioned for a playoff berth in
2016 and 2018 but fell to the
Buckeyes in Columbus each
year, keeping Jim Har-
baugh’s program from
national relevance beyond
the headlines created by its
eccentric head coach.
The winner in Ann Arbor
should have a shot at secur-
ing the final playoff spot.23 DAYS
TO COLLEGE FOOTBALL
Leading up to the opening games of the season on Aug. 24, The Times each day will examine the
top story lines for 2019 all the way up to the kickoff.
THE WINNER of the annual Red River Rivalry game on Oct. 12 will have a leg up in the Big 12 Conference.
Cooper NeillAssociated PressLike it or not, a handful of games will fill CFP field
By J. Brady McCollough
In a fourth quarter that
had only a combined 21 points
scored, Nneka Ogwumike and
the Sparks held on to defeat
the conference-leading Las
Vegas Aces 76-68 Thursday
night at Staples Center.
Ogwumike, who was
named WNBA player of the
month for July earlier in the
day, led the Sparks with 19
points and 11 rebounds. Veter-
an Sparks forward Candace
Parker, playing for the first
time since June 18, scored 16
points.
“I feel like it was kind of
those gritty wins you need a
handful of times throughout
the season,” Sparks coach
Derek Fisher said as his team
won for the fifth time in its last
six games.
The Sparks (12-8) took
early advantage of two quick
fouls on Aces forward Liz
Cambage and led by as many
as 11 points in the first quarter.
The Aces (14-7) responded by
outscoring the Sparks 25-16 in
the second quarter to tie the
score at 40 at halftime. Sparks
guard Tierra Ruffin-Pratt
went down in the final sec-
onds before the half after a
hard screen but returned to
the game in the second half.
“He just said it’s a zero to
zero ball game,” Nneka Ogwu-
mike said of Fisher’s halftime
message. “We had to come outand throw the first punch.
They kind of did that [in the
third quarter], but we re-
sponded in a way that kind of
allowed us to control the
tempo of the game later on.”
Parker had 13 of her 16
points in the first half after re-
turning from a hamstring in-
jury.
She was perfect in three
three-point attempts and
added seven rebounds.
“It felt great to be back out
there with my teammates,”
Parker said. “It’s not some-
thing that I take for granted
being back out there on the
floor. I’ve done a lot of rehab to
get back to this point, but I feel
confident and healthy.”
Chelsea Gray contributed
16 points and 10 assists, and in-
cluded a key fade-away basket
with 1:15 left in the fourth
quarter. Sydney Wiese added
nine points for the Sparks.
The Sparks had nine avail-
able players for the first time
since July 12. Chiney Ogwu-
mike was ruled out prior to the
game after undergoing a tooth
extraction. She fractured her
tooth in the Sparks last game
against the Atlanta Dream.
Coming off the bench,
Maria Vadeeva, Kalani Brown
and Alexis Jones combined
for 16 points in the win.
“We need all of our players,
while we’re still working our
way into full roster,” Fisher
said. “We need people to be
able to come in and contrib-
ute. I think the end [of] the
third [quarter] is what got us
enough momentum.”
With the win the Sparks
took a 2-1 series lead over the
Aces with one game remain-
ing in the season series. On
Sunday, the Sparks will face
the Seattle Storm at 2 p.m. at
Staples Center.Parker comes
back, helps
power Sparks
Veteran forward
returns from injury as
L.A. stays hot with
fifth win in last six.
SPARKS 76
LAS VEGAS 68
By Mia Berry