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"I would smoke cannabis six hours before a game. We'd have a shoot-around in the morning, I'd come home and smoke a joint, take a nap, shower, eat and go and play."
Matt Barnes won the NBA with Golden State Warriors last year after following that pre-game routine.
The
38-year-old retired last June after the 4-1 series win over Cleveland
Cavaliers and has told BBC Sport that use of the banned substance is
"widespread" despite being in breach of NBA rules.
Barnes says he even discussed cannabis with his coach, seven-time NBA champion Steve Kerr, who has previously admitted to taking the drug to ease chronic back pain.
But
is using a substance that is legal for medical use in 29 states and
recreationally in nine of those really so prevalent in one of the most
moneyed sports leagues in the world?
If so, how are players getting away with it? And what is the NBA doing about it?
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Why are players using cannabis?
Cannabis has been a part of Barnes' life since he was 14, but he refutes suggestions that he is addicted.
During
his 14 seasons in the NBA with seven different teams, he used it to
manage pain, to relax and to help him sleep, and says it "brought me
peace of mind".
The story is echoed by several of Barnes'
contemporaries in a sport where athletes are often asked to play several
high-intensity matches in distant cities within the space of a few
days.
Former NBA power forward Kenyon Martin, in an interview with Bleacher Report in April, estimated that 85% of NBA players smoked the drug during his career.
And
one of Barnes' former Warriors team-mates - Al Harrington - has taken
his cannabis use into retirement by founding a medical marijuana
company.
Harrington, who played 16 seasons in the NBA before
quitting in 2014, says he first smoked cannabis following a Warriors
game in 2007.
He then smoked it during the off-season for seven
years and used gel capsules and creams containing cannabis between
matches to manage pain.
"Even the coaches and owners are using it," the former Denver Nuggets
power forward told BBC Sport. "Each team I played on had at least five
smokers and not once did they arrive at a game under the influence."
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The
38-year-old - who resorted to cannabis following knee surgery in 2012
after seeing how it helped a relative's glaucoma - has a vested
interest, but is a staunch advocate of the drug.
He argues that it
is unfair to prevent players using cannabis in US states where it is
legal: "Why are they living by a different standard to the people that
come and watch them play?"
And he believes the side-effects are
less harmful than the anti-inflammatory pills he took every day from the
age of 19 until he discovered cannabis almost eight years later.
That view is supported by the National Institute on Drug Abuse, who state that "every day, more than 115 people in the United States die after overdosing on opioids".
Harrington says: "I wasn't addicted to opioids. But who knows what they were doing to my body?"
Is it legal in the US? And what are the risks?
Just like in the UK, it is illegal to possess, use, buy, sell, or grow cannabis in the US, at a nationwide level at least.
So far, so simple.
However,
29 US states have passed legislation allowing medical use of the drug,
and nine of those states permit recreational use.
So far, the US
government has not enacted federal law in these instances, meaning
companies such as Harrington's have sprung up across the country.
However,
the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) - the government agency
responsible for regulating drugs - has not approved cannabis as a safe
and effective drug for any indication.
And the World Heath Authority (WHO) says the side-effects include impairing learning, memory, attention and co-ordination, as well as addiction in chronic users.
In 2017, they concluded that the non-psychoactive component of cannabis does not appear to have abuse potential or cause harm.
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So what is the NBA doing?
In association with the players association (NBAPA), the NBA runs an
anti-drug programme and cannabis is on their prohibited substances list.
Each
player has nine unannounced drugs tests each year and the punishment
for cannabis being found in a players' system is a place in the league's
treatment and counselling programme.
That involves being tested weekly for three months until they 'graduate' - something which Barnes believes has "no point".
The BBC asked the NBA how many tests were failed because of cannabis last season, but a clause in the NBA collective bargaining agreement (CBA) means such information remains undisclosed.
Despite using the drug consistently, Barnes only failed two tests during his career - one in 2007 while playing for the Golden State Warriors and one in 2014 with the LA Clippers.
The forward's
explanation is that, after the initial fear of being caught subsided, he
just became better at navigating the testing system.
"I understood how much I could smoke and get it out of my system before my next test," he says.
"Everyone
from your rookies to the top players are using cannabis. If we're still
out there doing our jobs we shouldn't be penalised."
Harrington
found similar ways to manipulate the system but concedes he was "almost
hoping to get caught" so he had a platform to discuss the issue.
He maintains that, had he been able to use cannabis freely, he could have extended his career by "two or three years".
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