How is there no thread on this? Mavs fans are gone? Howard admits to pot use....

[romad_20]

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=3368139

Source: Howard not likely to be punished for admitting offseason drug use

DALLAS -- Dallas Mavericks forward Josh Howard brought unexpected and possibly unprecedented attention to himself Friday, just hours before Game 3 of the Mavericks' first-round series with New Orleans, by openly discussing his offseason marijuana use on Dallas' ESPN Radio affiliate.

Expounding on comments about marijuana that he made over the weekend to The Dallas Morning News, Howard joined "The Michael Irvin Show" on ESPN Radio 103.3 FM on Friday afternoon and told the Hall of Fame wide receiver that he "probably" would not smoke marijuana in-season even if the league did not have a random testing program but described "smoking weed in the offseason sometimes" as his "personal choice and personal opinion."


"I don't think that's stopping me from doing my job," Howard told Irvin.

The 28-year-old from Wake Forest, selected by NBA commissioner David Stern to fill a roster spot created by injury on the Western Conference All-Star team in 2007, added, "I think that everybody in the media world and in the sports world knows that NBA players do smoke marijuana."

It was not immediately clear what sort of punishment Howard could face for his candor, either from the league office or his team. But one source close to the situation told ESPN.com that a suspension from either is unlikely.

NBA players are required to undergo four random tests every season between Oct. 1 and June 30. But a player who tests positive for marijuana is not subjected to his first five-game suspension -- or even public knowledge he has failed a drug test -- until his third failed test.

There likewise appears to be no penalty precedent for a player who merely shares details about his substance abuse in the media.

Two sources close to the situation told ESPN.com Howard will almost certainly be entered immediately into the NBA's marijuana program -- which would require him to submit to much more frequent testing -- but it would appear that he is not at risk for a suspension unless he has failed two previous tests.

The league issued no response to Howard's comments Friday, citing a policy in its anti-drug agreement with the union that forbids the NBA and the Players Association from publicly discussing specifics about substance-abuse issues.

There was also no immediate response from the Mavericks, with Dallas already reeling from a 2-0 deficit to the Hornets entering a crucial Game 3 at home.

Howard has struggled mightily in the series, averaging 13.5 points on 26.9 percent shooting from the floor. But the discussion about marijuana with Irvin came at Howard's urging -- as the station stressed repeatedly during subsequent programming -- to clarify the statements he made to The Morning News.

Asked by Irvin's co-host, Kevin Kiley, if he fears that his struggles in this series will be linked to his marijuana admission, Howard said: "Oh yeah, I understand that. . . . I know that's not the truth."

". . . Like I was saying to the [Morning News reporter], it has nothing to do with what I do as far as basketball, when I go out there and perform," Howard said. "That's how I feel about it.

". . . What I was stating was just [in response to] a random question he asked me about the marijuana use. I just let him know that most of the players in the league use marijuana and I have and do partake in smoking weed in the offseason sometimes and that's my personal choice and my personal opinion. But I don't think that's stopping me from doing my job."
Asked why he wanted to discuss this topic, Howard said: "I was raised on being truthful and honest with myself and my family, so I can say it with no problems and go out there and perform to the best of my abilities tonight and not even think about it."

Marc Stein is a senior NBA writer for ESPN.com.

Now I would normally agree with this if it was the private sector but why not just keep your mouth shut?? A lot of people smoke, but they wouldn't tell a freaking newspaper about. How dumb is this guy?

[thispego]

annndddd josh howard is the shit

[lurker]

It was stupid for him to talk about it today, but ESPN is way behind if they think this is the first time he's talked about it. He's mentioned it in interviews before.

[romad_20]

It was stupid for him to talk about it today, but ESPN is way behind if they think this is the first time he's talked about it. He's mentioned it in interviews before.

Hmmm, maybe it's just to fuck with his head? That would be a pretty f-ed up thing for his hometown writer to do.

[Dex]

Eh, stupid move on Howard's part. When you're a public figure, you have to consider talking to the media like talking to your boss. And I don't know a lot of people who can get away with telling their boss that they smoke pot when they're at home.

Even if they do.

Even if their boss does, too.

It's one of those things that's supposed to go unsaid.

On a separate note, it's an interesting statement to hear that "most" players in the league smoke pot. That's one of those things I always kind of wondered about, especially since the league doesn't enforce testing too seriously and you always hear random reports about the dumber players getting caught with it.

[endrity]

There have been rumors that Dirk and Nash used to do it back in the day as well, and I've read on Spurstalk that Duncans probably did as well. Ofcourse it's only speculation, but it really seems to be spread to all kinds of players.

[Dex]

All the cool kids are doing it.

[romad_20]

I wonder what he means by most. 30%? 70%? 100% :smokin

[rAm]

On one hand I think it was stupid to say it, because now Stern might tighten the drug policy. Which will probably piss a lot of players in the league off.

But I think the timing was bad, especially considering his level of play. Dallas should just go jump off of one of Mark Cuban's many balconies.

[balli]

When Steven A Smith had that lame ass "Quite Frankly" show I heard Baron Davis say that he would guess 85% of the league smokes. I don't blame Howard for saying this one bit. The fact that NBA players don't talk about it is ridiculous. Fuck saving the league from the bad headlines. Good job Josh Howard.

[balli]

There have been rumors that Dirk and Nash used to do it back in the day as well, and I've read on Spurstalk that Duncans probably did as well. Ofcourse it's only speculation, but it really seems to be spread to all kinds of players.

Nash smokes a lot. I grew up with Jackson Vroman who played on the Suns for a year. I've straight heard a message from Nash on Jackson's phone asking if he wanted to smoke. It was during the season. I was also told that Nash is as big a pothead as you'll ever meet. Like multiple times daily, 365.

[romad_20]

When Steven A Smith had that lame ass "Quite Frankly" show I heard Baron Davis say that he would guess 85% of the league smokes. I don't blame Howard for saying this one bit. The fact that NBA players don't talk about it is ridiculous. Fuck saving the league from the bad headlines. Good job Josh Howard.

It's not the right forum for it, and it's illegal. Now I still do, but I don't go on TV 3 times a week in front of millions of kids. When you retire from the game you could be the President of NORML, but I wouldn't confirm shit you don't have to while playing. Not to mention if Stern tightens the policy, pothead get cranky without weed and they'll be taking that out on Howard's ass.

[balli]

It's not the right forum for it, and it's illegal. Now I still do, but I don't go on TV 3 times a week in front of millions of kids. When you retire from the game you could be the President of NORML, but I wouldn't confirm shit you don't have to while playing. Not to mention if Stern tightens the policy, pothead get cranky without weed and they'll be taking that out on Howard's ass.


Well I'm entirely politically radical and you're probably not even going to be receptive to what I have to say about the public's conception and consumption of marijuana. Needless to say though, in my opinion the more people smoking herb, the better. I could care less about kids being exposed to the idea that marijuana exists. Beats all the propoganda and lies they're told about it by everyone else.

And Sterns not changing shit. One of these stories comes out every year or so and then it's forgotten and hushed up again. What's he going to do? Suspend five players a week?

[rAm]

Well I'm entirely politically radical and you're probably not even going to be receptive to what I have to say about the public's conception and consumption of marijuana. Needless to say though, in my opinion the more people smoking herb, the better. I could care less about kids being exposed to the idea that marijuana exists. Beats all the lies they're told about it by everyone else.

And Sterns not changing shit. One of these stories comes out every year or so and then it's forgotten and hushed up again. What's he going to do? Suspend five players a week?

amen

[Spurminator]

When Steven A Smith had that lame ass "Quite Frankly" show I heard Baron Davis say that he would guess 85% of the league smokes. I don't blame Howard for saying this one bit. The fact that NBA players don't talk about it is ridiculous. Fuck saving the league from the bad headlines. Good job Josh Howard.

That is interesting since SAS was just on ESPN blasting Howard for admitting to this and for implicating other NBA players... and coincidentally, Baron Davis was a guest analyst.

[romad_20]

Well in real life I'm probably a little more politically radical, but I'm playing devil's advocate a little. I mean although you and I are for pot use, some people are against it and I think they have the right to be able to watch basketball without having it brought up in front of their kids. If it was an actor or musician they can not allow them to watch or listen but there is only one place for NBA basketball.

I really think if they crack down a lot of players will be pissed.

[Spurminator]

I'd say there's a much larger risk of ESPN exposing kids to this subject by beating it into the ground for the next week. Kids don't listen to the Michael Irvin Show between 1-3 in Dallas. Frankly, neither do adults.

[rAm]

I'd say there's a much larger risk of ESPN exposing kids to this subject by beating it into the ground for the next week. Kids don't listen to the Michael Irvin Show between 1-3 in Dallas. Frankly, neither do adults.

lol, so true

[demosthenes247]

On one hand I think it was stupid to say it, because now Stern might tighten the drug policy. Which will probably piss a lot of players in the league off.

But I think the timing was bad, especially considering his level of play. Dallas should just go jump off of one of Mark Cuban's many balconies.

I'm with you on the poor timing. Sadly for us, his trade value is basically gone now I feel.

[balli]

That is interesting since SAS was just on ESPN blasting Howard for admitting to this and for implicating other NBA players... and coincidentally, Baron Davis was a guest analyst.

That is coincidental. I didn't see it and as I've had a bad migraine all day, I'm not even going to try to listen to Steven A's pregame shit right now. But did Baron say anything about it?

[balli]

I really think if they crack down a lot of players will be pissed.

Oh so pissed. Would they stop is the question? I guess if it comes down to it they probably would, but they wouldn't be quiet about it. David Stern doesn't want to eradicate marijuana from his league. To do that, he'd have to admit it was a problem in the first place and there's no way he sets the league up for that kind of a black eye. He's going to wait for this story to go away like everyone else.

Plus, I honestly think the players union realizes what a big deal this is to a lot of their players and there's no way they let a more restrictive marijuana policy fall into place. Actually, I think it was quietly a major, major issue for them during the last collective bargaining agreement that it didn't become more restrictive.

[clambake]

sucks grass off the court, sucks balls on the court.

[sribb43]

J-Ho is an idiot anyways...this doesnt surprise me

Release J-Ho

[DaDakota]

What an idiot.....keep that crap to yourself...and even more stupid is the timing...team is down 2-0 facing elimination and he talks about pot.

Now his trade value has decreased too....just plain stupid.

DD

[JamStone]

Everyone knew this already. It's a non-news story. A lot of young pro athletes smoke pot.

[lefty]

Stackhouse couldn't shut the fuck up during the Kidd trade.

Now Howard speaks about his off-season regimen.

What a bunch of idiots.

I feel your pain Mavericks fans :downspin:

Roy Tarpley is back !

[dirk4mvp]

Everyone knew this already. It's a non-news story. A lot of young pro athletes smoke pot.


But Josh Howard plays for the Dallas Mavericks so a ton of douchebags here are going to blow this way out of proportion.

[SAtown]

But did Baron say anything about it?

No. The host brought it up, Steven A shared his usual loud thoughts, Jalen Rose basically agreed with him, and they skipped Baron Davis who basically appeared like he didn't want to be asked. I don't blame him though, regardless if Davis does it or not, I'm sure he doesn't want to throw other players under the bus.

I hope ESPN just quietly lets this disappear, or else they will force Howard to become the NBA version of Canseco.

[romad_20]

But Josh Howard plays for the Dallas Mavericks so a ton of douchebags here are going to blow this way out of proportion.

I don't think we'll be the ones blowing it out of proportion, ESPN is doing a great job right now. They've mentioned it about every 5 mins.

[ShoogarBear]

Well, one things' for sure. We know he doesn't light up in the fourth quarter.

[LakeShow]

Josh is really just that stupid! He can't help himself.

I'm sure most of the players are made aware in advance when they're testing but Howard has opened up a whole can of worms! You never want to make something like that public. Now you'll have people looking at you more closely. If you smoke in the off season, my guess would be that you smoke during the season too, along with 85% of the NBA players. Something like this brings about investigations, which wouldn't be good for anyone!

[Xylus]

Well, one things' for sure. We know he doesn't light up in the fourth quarter.

:lol

[jack sommerset]

I want pot legal. Everyone should talk about smoking the weed. I woud be smoking dope right now but I hate looking for it and asking if anyone has it. Now atleast when I go to Dallas in the summer I know who's house I'm going to.

[Leetonidas]

...well, Josh Howard and I have something in common I guess. :lol

[LakeShow]

I have it prescribed for the Migraine Headaches i have when I don't have it! :hat

[mFFL03]

stupid jalen rose....

"this is a perfect example of when keeping it real, goes wrong"

[Obstructed_View]

Yeah, Josh is stupid. How is that a story, again?

[Budkin]

Props to Howard for being honest... the Marijuana laws in this country need to be changed. It's no different than having a few beers and the fact that it's illegal is simply ridiculous.

[Holmes_Fans]

I wish shit like this could void contracts. Give us back our 9 mil a year

[balli]

All the morons bashing Josh Howard over this need to think again. Read this Truehoop post which pretty much sums up not only why this doesn't make Josh Howard a bad guy, but actually makes him better than a lot of others.


About a year ago, I had the opportunity to interview the Dallas Mavericks' Josh Howard.

I jumped at it because I knew him to be a frank talker. I have this notion that one thing the world does not need is more athletes saying the same meaningless things again and again.

Howard is, by reputation, a straight shooter, and a truth teller. Someone who speaks like a regular guy, even if it means getting his hands dirty once in a while. (We all know that scene from Bull Durham, right, where the veteran teaches the rookie how to never say anything interesting. That is not Josh Howard, and I applaud that.)

So I did a bunch of homework, watched video, and got ready for the interview. It became clear that one big untold story about Josh Howard was how he ended up on the Mavericks at all. He was drafted 29th, even though just about everyone had him ranked as a top ten talent, and he has always played as one.

There must have been some knock on him, right? Some reason ... To me, that was a real question. I asked a lot of basketball experts, and people all said the same thing: they had heard that teams were scared by his alleged use of marijuana. I heard it from several people who were in a position to know, and decided that as it related directly to how he got to the team he's on now, it was an inextricable part of his basketball story, and something I had to ask him about -- even if he was likely to duck it.

Plus, if people around the league were saying it about him, but it was not true, this would be a chance for him to set the record straight.

We talked for about a half hour, and he said a lot of bold things. For instance, he said that he felt team owner Mark Cuban's sideline antics did hurt the team sometimes. He talked about politics, money, and yes, marijuana. All things that many people leave alone -- and let's be honest, if Howard's first priority were his own career advancement, endorsements and the like, he likely would have been quiet on those topics.

I wrote up the interview and published it on TrueHoop, kind of crossing my fingers that people would not fly off the handle about any portion of the interview. There was a flutter in the Dallas press about his criticism of Cuban, but that was about it. All in all, I felt the talk was a glimpse into his character, which made him come off like the reasonable and lucid guy I felt I had talked to.

The comments on that post (there has been some technical trouble, and almost all of them, sadly, were wiped out) were very reasonable and sober-minded. There was no big hoopla. People by and large thought Josh Howard seemed like an interesting and refreshingly honest guy.

A year passed.

On Saturday, an update to my story was in the Dallas Morning News (and subsequently on the Morning News Mavericks blog). That apparently inspired a radio interview in Dallas, that featured heavily on ESPN and elsewhere.

And now we're in a situation where the marijuana part of the story has been separated from the "getting to know Josh Howard" part of the story. Whereas people who read the entire initial interview seemed to think Howard came off lucid and balanced. People who only know, essentially, that he told reporters he smokes marijuana occasionally in the off-season, probably think he's just a nut.

I hope you'll read the whole thing.

Now, I'm fine with people debating the relative merits of marijuana. That's probably healthy.

But I'm a little sad that people will judge Josh Howard by this one element of his character.

Especially when -- what is the news here exactly? It's hard to even find presidential candidates who haven't done what Howard says he has done. The club of people who have smoked pot has membership in the millions. Has anyone here ever spent any time on a college campus? At a rock concert? I swear I smelled pot smoke in the bathroom at the Sixers game this very night.

That lots of people smoke marijuana is not news. That some athletes smoke marijuana is maybe borderline news -- but not new. We all knew that, too. It has been reported again and again in various ways. Not too long ago, a Deadspin post cited this very same Josh Howard interview, and declared that pot use was too mundane to get anybody upset anymore. (Another tiny example: check out this interview about the champion 1977 Portland Blazers.)

No, to me the thing that's new here is someone lacking the willingness or ability to obfuscate, lie, or duck the question. We're not alarmed that one young person smoked pot. We're alarmed that anyone admitted it.

I'm a guy who named his blog TrueHoop. I love the truth. I can't stand being lied to. I can't stand that lying to the media is business as usual. I think the truth is important, because although it may cause problems in the short term, in the long term it less us all learn.

I am reminded of Aubrey McClendon. He is an owner of the Seattle SuperSonics. He told a reporter last summer what we now know, via recently publicized emails, to be the truth: he and his fellow owners always intended to move the team to Oklahoma City.

His sin was the same as the sins of his co-owners. McClendon was the only one who didn't lie about it, however.

McClendon was, however, the only one to see punishment from the NBA. He was fined a quarter-million dollars. What the fine was for was never well explained.

Is McClendon the worst guy in that ownership group? In my book, his candor makes him 4% more likable than the other owners.

Same goes for Josh Howard. He's one of a zillion pro athlete pot smokers. I can't see why all the other pot smokers should be rewarded for lying, while Howard is hung out to dry.

The good news, however, is that I suspect it will not end up being that big of a deal. My bet is that in six months we look back at this and learn that the biggest news about this news is that it's not news.

[BATMAN]

It's not who you are underneath, but what you do that defines you.

[BiZNicK]

What i was wondering was...

How did he just blurt this out? What lead him to say this?

"Oh....by the way, i smoke weed in the offseason, FYI"

???