Stephen Jackson went on Michael Rapaport’s podcast and told an incredible story about celebrating being able to smoke weed before games with his Warriors head coach at the time, Don Nelson. Jackson was with the Warriors from 2006 to 2010.
Stephen Jackson really loved weed and even his coach knew it
Jackson told some incredible stories about his playing days, including smoking weed before games.
Photo by Ronald Martinez/Getty Images
As told by Jackson, he had just undergone his final drug test of the season while on the road in Utah. Because NBA players only have a set number of tests, Jackson and teammate Baron Davis both knew they could start smoking weed again without the fear of any repercussions. Nelson knew it, too.
“Nobody knows this story, so this is the first time somebody is hearing this. We’re in Utah and the drug test people are around, you know, to get our last drug test so we can smoke, right? Don Nelson, we talked about weed all the time, he was cool with talking about weed. We got our last test in Utah, right? So me and Baron are coming out the locker room just screaming, excited with our last pink slip saying we could smoke for the rest of the season and Don Nelson hauls ass down there giving us high-fives like, “Yeah, we can smoke now!” It was cool, the fact that he knows what’s going on off the court with his players, which was great man. We enjoyed it. That’s why we were a great team.”
Could Jackson play basketball effectively after smoking weed? He described it like this.
“I can’t speak for nobody else. Me personally, I’ve done a lot of shit before games sometimes and still was able to go out there and be productive. I just gotta be real, you know, it’s been a couple games where I smoked before games and had great games. It’s been some games where I smoked before the game and was on the bench after three minutes sitting on the sideline, ‘please calm down, this high has to calm down,’ I done shot three shots that went over the backboard, like, I’m going to be honest, like ‘ahh, I gotta calm down.’”
Jackson said he thinks there’s a higher percentage of players who smoke weed than drink alcohol, saying that everyone smoked around him during his playing time.
Jackson also talked about a wide range of other topics on Rapaport’s podcast, including how Phil Jackson is fully to blame for the Knicks, and why he was cut from the Spurs. Asked if he’s ready to play NBA basketball again, Jackson also replies, “Goddamn right.”
By the way, who the hell knew Michael Rapaport had a podcast with more than 250 episodes? Here’s a link to the whole thing.
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