Golden State Warriors head coach Steve Kerr stirred up quite a controversy within the NBA during the last couple of days after publicly expressing his support for marijuana use in the league. However, after he made his statements, he was criticized by coach Earl Watson of the Phoenix Suns.
The NBA, like other major sporting leagues such as the NFL, has always maintained a stern stance against the use of marijuana. It has always been part of the league's banned substance list.
But, during a recent interview, Kerr cited some of the benefits of using this substance and urged the league to soften its policies against it. According to the coach, after going through back surgeries during the past two years, he used marijuana to alleviate the chronic pain that we was feeling at that time, according to ESPN.
Although Kerr admitted that the substance did not completely help in relieving the pain, it still worked better than taking conventional painkillers. He then said that based on his experience, he is hoping that the NBA will change its stance on marijuana for the sake of players since he believes it is a better alternative than other legal drugs.
Although Kerr tried to make his arguments as sensible as possible, some members of the league have criticized the coach for his stance regarding the banned substance. One of those was Watson, who reminded Kerr about the implications of what he said to the fans of the NBA.
"I think our rhetoric on it has to be very careful because you have a lot of kids where I'm from that's reading this, and they think [marijuana use is] cool," Watson said according to Yahoo! Sports.
"It's not cool," he added. "Where I'm from, you don't get six fouls to foul out. You get three strikes. One strike leads to another. I'm just being honest with you, so you have to be very careful with your rhetoric."
Although Watson did not refute the benefits of marijuana that were provided by Kerr, he noted that it would have been more acceptable is these were explained by a licensed physician.
