NATIONAL MONEYBALL ASSOCIATION

BY WILL BRENDZA

Al Harrington ended his 16-season professional basketball career in 2015. The power forward had played for the Golden State Warriors, New York Knicks, Denver Nuggets and more. He played 981 games, scored 13,237 points, and earned more than $97 million.

But even that fortune would pale in comparison to what Harrington would make after he retired and started his own cannabis franchise, Viola Brands. The company, which now operates in Michigan, Oklahoma, Oregon, Colorado, Washington and California, made more than $20 million in revenue in 2022 alone.

This coming season will be the first that cannabis isn’t on the National Basketball Association’s (NBA) list of banned substances. Early reports from the league’s collective bargaining agreement with the National Basketball Player’s Association (NBPA) suggested that players would be able to endorse and invest in cannabis brands. But the NBA recanted on that, clarifying in March that even though players wouldn’t be tested for cannabis, they also wouldn’t be allowed to endorse cannabis businesses or start their own.

That amendment to the NBPA collective bargaining agreement has less to do with the legal status of cannabis in the U.S. and more to do with the association’s public image and control over a potentially massive stream of revenue.

The NBA’s announcement to stop randomly drug testing its athletes for cannabis made big news. But it was hardly the first pro sports league to do so. The National Hockey League has never punished its players for using cannabis. And in December 2019, Major League Baseball removed cannabis from its own list of banned substances. Then in March of the same year, the National Football League amended its rules so that a positive THC test would no longer result in a player’s suspension.

Not long after that, in June 2020, the NBA stopped testing its players for cannabis. It was an impermanent change at first — a season-toseason decision that the league made for three consecutive seasons — until April of 2023, when the NBA officially announced it was permanently removing cannabis from its own list of banned substances.

“We decided that, given all the things that were happening in society, given all the pressures and stress that players were under, we didn’t need to act as Big Brother right now,” Adam Silver, NBA commissioner, said at the time.

The declaration was met with much fanfare. Naturally, NBA commentator, marijuana icon and chronic entrepreneur Snoop Dogg was openly in support of the association’s move.

“As long as it doesn’t enhance your skills to make you play better or to give you an advantage, you should be able to treat yourself and to heal yourself,” Snoop Dogg said on ESPN, regarding the NBA announcement.

Like Harrington, Snoop also has his own cannabis brand, Leafs by Snoop. So when the NBPA reported that its early tentative deal with the NBA would allow players to likewise participate in the business side of cannabis, players and fans alike were excited.

But the NBA has certain protocols around substance endorsements. It’s why you don’t see players in White Claw, Budweiser or Captain Morgan commercials. While there is no official prohibition on players endorsing various alcohol brands, the prospective brand would have to get approval from the NBA to combine the player, their uniform, team name and logos for advertising purposes. And the NBA does not easily relinquish — except for Michelob Ultra, its official sponsor.

Similarly, the NBA has an official CBD sponsor already lined up. It’s a product that will be available at both Walmart and Amazon and one that current NBA athletes are welcome to publicly endorse and invest in — a product made and sold by none other than Al Harrington’s Viola.

And once THC is federally legalized, or decriminalized like CBD, it’s expected that the NBA will repeat this same tactic: hand-selecting a THC sponsor, and limiting player endorsements and investment to that product or brand alone. It allows them to maintain control over NBA-related cannabis revenue and the image associated with it.

Still, almost everyone agrees that this play by the NBA is progress in the right direction. With more states ending prohibition than those upholding it, and the American Medical Association coming out with studies showing cannabis is associated with “significant” and “sustained” health improvements, the fact that cannabis is now available to pro basketball players as a means of recovery, recreation or relaxation is a leap forward — for both the players and the NBA as a business.