CB
05-27-2008, 07:23 AM
May 27, 2008
BY JAY MARIOTTI Sun-Times Columnist
What bugs me is the double-talk, the hypocrisy of a league that blows smoke with a sweet-and-sour odor. On a recent NBA telecast, I watched a commercial in which a deep voice implores parents to talk to their kids about drugs. Which would be a fine message if I also hadn't heard Josh Howard, one of the league's talented young forwards, explain why he told a reporter that he and most of his active playing brethren smoke dope.
"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," Howard said last month. "But I don't think that's stopping me from doing my job."
» Click to enlarge image
Joakim Noah's arrest after he was found with a joint stuffed inside a cigarette package in his pants pocket shows nothing has changed with the use of marijuana in the NBA.
If his assertion is true that most NBA players use marijuana -- which would support Charles Oakley's claim earlier this decade that "You got guys out there playing high every night. You got 60 percent of your league on marijuana" -- then David Stern's league shouldn't insult the public intelligence by sending mixed signals. You can't lecture parents to tell their kids about drugs if you haven't successfully lectured your own multi-million-dollar kids about drugs.
It's hardly a shock to the system that Joakim Noah, the Bulls' provocative and admittedly immature first-round draft pick last summer, was found with a joint stuffed inside a cigarette package in his pants pocket during a weekend arrest in Gainesville, Fla. I mean, it's 2008, and people have pot. I haven't had any in 25 years, but I tried it a few times. Mark Cuban, who signs Howard's paychecks with the Dallas Mavericks, said on Dan Patrick's radio show that he couldn't scream holy hell when he has tried the drug himself. "I'd be a hypocrite ... because I've inhaled," he said. "And when I inhaled, I coughed a couple lungs out. And so I was never a big fan of smoking, but if I've tried it, I can't look at somebody and say, 'How can you try it? That's just terrible' ... I'd just be hypocritical if I said, 'Josh, smoking pot is just the worst thing you could possibly do.'"
Still, if even one-third of the league's 400-plus players are pot users, Stern has a major problem in his house. I have difficulty believing Howard or anyone else who says he can completely shut down marijuana use during a season, confining it exclusively to the offseason. If used regularly, weed can drag down a player's performance level over 82 games of rigorous competition and travel, as Cuban said in confessing he has traded and cut players altered adversely by a regular buzz. And where is the strong deterrent, anyway? While the NBA mandates every player to take four random drug tests between Oct. 1 and June 30, a league suspension doesn't kick in until a third positive test -- and the first two failed tests are kept confidential. Simply, the average customer pays too much money to deal with uneven play.
More importantly, what does Joe Fan tell his son about the drug bust when the boy wears a NOAH jersey to the United Center?
All of which is just another headache for Bulls general manager John Paxson, whose old-school emphasis on strong character has been gutted the last seven months by a series of image-soiling episodes. The Bulls will have new life and a new face of the franchise after somehow winning the draft lottery, but Paxson and his next head coach -- after interviews with Jeff Hornacek, Chuck Person, Elston Turner and Jeff Bzdelik, I'm assuming Red Klotz is due soon -- still must launch an attitude reclamation project. This is the team that tried to get Scott Skiles fired and succeeded. This is the team that stopped giving effort and disrespected Skiles and Jim Boylan, whether it was Chris Duhon flying to the Duke-North Carolina game without telling anyone or Ty Thomas blowing off a practice over playing time or Andres Nocioni screaming at Boylan.
Noah, too, had his petulant moments during an inconsistent rookie season, such as the day he verbally abused assistant coach Ron Adams at practice. That earned him a one-game suspension from the club, plus another as voted by his teammates. As the season progressed, we gained an appreciation because he came to play every night and every possession. Unfortunately, in a visit back to the Florida campus where he won back-to-back national titles, Noah forgot he represented the Chicago Bulls and the NBA. Remember when he was described as a clown, from his wild hair down to his bow tie, on draft night in New York?
That's what Joakim Noah morphed into early Sunday morning.
Ignoring an open-container law in a college town, he was walking on Main Street near 2 a.m. when police spotted him with an "iced amber-colored drink." Dr. Pepper, it was not. It was Hennessy cognac, in fact, and Noah tried to put the cup down and walk away. Bad idea. Like anyone else blatantly ignoring the law in most other American communities, he was transported to the police station. There, the authorities discovered the funny cigarette and charged Noah with possession of less than 20 grams of cannabis and having an open container. Those who think athletes get breaks will be pleased to hear the explanation of Officer Summer Hallett, a Gainesville police spokesperson.
"He lived here for several years and played ball for us and everything. He knows that he can't have any alcoholic beverages on the public streets or public sidewalk," Hallett said.
It's the sort of behavior that makes you wonder how long Noah will need to mature and become a consistently legitimate player in the league. If he can't be trusted on a weekend night in Gainesville, can he be trusted as a poised contributor in crunch time? We all like his exuberance and energy, but how much of it is attached to his immaturity?
Paxson spoke to Noah by phone Sunday and voiced his disapproval. It was the last news the Bulls needed as the GM and his staff ponder whether to draft Derrick Rose or Michael Beasley. If there are any leanings toward Beasley, the Noah arrest doesn't help. It reminds people of the in-house character issues, which might make it harder to sell Beasley. He never has been arrested, but during a prep career that included stops at five schools, he had his share of disciplinary problems. Such as at Oak Hill Academy, where he signed his initials and nickname on the car of the school principal in an episode of graffiti madness. Rose, the South Side native guided closely by his brothers and mother, has had no such troubles.
Let's not kid ourselves in the big picture. Marijuana, in some way, has been part of the NBA culture for decades. But considering the New York Times concluded after an elaborate 1997 study that "60 to 70 percent" of the league's players used marijuana, we're left with one conclusion 11 years later.
Nothing has changed. In a league known for vertical leaps and hops, people are still getting high. I'd call it a joint venture.
BY JAY MARIOTTI Sun-Times Columnist
What bugs me is the double-talk, the hypocrisy of a league that blows smoke with a sweet-and-sour odor. On a recent NBA telecast, I watched a commercial in which a deep voice implores parents to talk to their kids about drugs. Which would be a fine message if I also hadn't heard Josh Howard, one of the league's talented young forwards, explain why he told a reporter that he and most of his active playing brethren smoke dope.
"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," Howard said last month. "But I don't think that's stopping me from doing my job."
» Click to enlarge image
Joakim Noah's arrest after he was found with a joint stuffed inside a cigarette package in his pants pocket shows nothing has changed with the use of marijuana in the NBA.
If his assertion is true that most NBA players use marijuana -- which would support Charles Oakley's claim earlier this decade that "You got guys out there playing high every night. You got 60 percent of your league on marijuana" -- then David Stern's league shouldn't insult the public intelligence by sending mixed signals. You can't lecture parents to tell their kids about drugs if you haven't successfully lectured your own multi-million-dollar kids about drugs.
It's hardly a shock to the system that Joakim Noah, the Bulls' provocative and admittedly immature first-round draft pick last summer, was found with a joint stuffed inside a cigarette package in his pants pocket during a weekend arrest in Gainesville, Fla. I mean, it's 2008, and people have pot. I haven't had any in 25 years, but I tried it a few times. Mark Cuban, who signs Howard's paychecks with the Dallas Mavericks, said on Dan Patrick's radio show that he couldn't scream holy hell when he has tried the drug himself. "I'd be a hypocrite ... because I've inhaled," he said. "And when I inhaled, I coughed a couple lungs out. And so I was never a big fan of smoking, but if I've tried it, I can't look at somebody and say, 'How can you try it? That's just terrible' ... I'd just be hypocritical if I said, 'Josh, smoking pot is just the worst thing you could possibly do.'"
Still, if even one-third of the league's 400-plus players are pot users, Stern has a major problem in his house. I have difficulty believing Howard or anyone else who says he can completely shut down marijuana use during a season, confining it exclusively to the offseason. If used regularly, weed can drag down a player's performance level over 82 games of rigorous competition and travel, as Cuban said in confessing he has traded and cut players altered adversely by a regular buzz. And where is the strong deterrent, anyway? While the NBA mandates every player to take four random drug tests between Oct. 1 and June 30, a league suspension doesn't kick in until a third positive test -- and the first two failed tests are kept confidential. Simply, the average customer pays too much money to deal with uneven play.
More importantly, what does Joe Fan tell his son about the drug bust when the boy wears a NOAH jersey to the United Center?
All of which is just another headache for Bulls general manager John Paxson, whose old-school emphasis on strong character has been gutted the last seven months by a series of image-soiling episodes. The Bulls will have new life and a new face of the franchise after somehow winning the draft lottery, but Paxson and his next head coach -- after interviews with Jeff Hornacek, Chuck Person, Elston Turner and Jeff Bzdelik, I'm assuming Red Klotz is due soon -- still must launch an attitude reclamation project. This is the team that tried to get Scott Skiles fired and succeeded. This is the team that stopped giving effort and disrespected Skiles and Jim Boylan, whether it was Chris Duhon flying to the Duke-North Carolina game without telling anyone or Ty Thomas blowing off a practice over playing time or Andres Nocioni screaming at Boylan.
Noah, too, had his petulant moments during an inconsistent rookie season, such as the day he verbally abused assistant coach Ron Adams at practice. That earned him a one-game suspension from the club, plus another as voted by his teammates. As the season progressed, we gained an appreciation because he came to play every night and every possession. Unfortunately, in a visit back to the Florida campus where he won back-to-back national titles, Noah forgot he represented the Chicago Bulls and the NBA. Remember when he was described as a clown, from his wild hair down to his bow tie, on draft night in New York?
That's what Joakim Noah morphed into early Sunday morning.
Ignoring an open-container law in a college town, he was walking on Main Street near 2 a.m. when police spotted him with an "iced amber-colored drink." Dr. Pepper, it was not. It was Hennessy cognac, in fact, and Noah tried to put the cup down and walk away. Bad idea. Like anyone else blatantly ignoring the law in most other American communities, he was transported to the police station. There, the authorities discovered the funny cigarette and charged Noah with possession of less than 20 grams of cannabis and having an open container. Those who think athletes get breaks will be pleased to hear the explanation of Officer Summer Hallett, a Gainesville police spokesperson.
"He lived here for several years and played ball for us and everything. He knows that he can't have any alcoholic beverages on the public streets or public sidewalk," Hallett said.
It's the sort of behavior that makes you wonder how long Noah will need to mature and become a consistently legitimate player in the league. If he can't be trusted on a weekend night in Gainesville, can he be trusted as a poised contributor in crunch time? We all like his exuberance and energy, but how much of it is attached to his immaturity?
Paxson spoke to Noah by phone Sunday and voiced his disapproval. It was the last news the Bulls needed as the GM and his staff ponder whether to draft Derrick Rose or Michael Beasley. If there are any leanings toward Beasley, the Noah arrest doesn't help. It reminds people of the in-house character issues, which might make it harder to sell Beasley. He never has been arrested, but during a prep career that included stops at five schools, he had his share of disciplinary problems. Such as at Oak Hill Academy, where he signed his initials and nickname on the car of the school principal in an episode of graffiti madness. Rose, the South Side native guided closely by his brothers and mother, has had no such troubles.
Let's not kid ourselves in the big picture. Marijuana, in some way, has been part of the NBA culture for decades. But considering the New York Times concluded after an elaborate 1997 study that "60 to 70 percent" of the league's players used marijuana, we're left with one conclusion 11 years later.
Nothing has changed. In a league known for vertical leaps and hops, people are still getting high. I'd call it a joint venture.