NBA players’ new collective bargaining agreement went into effect on July 1 with some minor changes to help keep players on the court. The NBA and players union recently agreed to remove marijuana as part of the list of banned substances in the league. Kevin Durant played a major role in getting this change in the new CBA for his fellow NBA players, he claims.
New Rules
Durant recently appeared on CNBC’s “Game Plan” and spoke about a conversation advocating for marijuana use he had with NBA commissioner Adam Silver.
“I actually called [Adam Silver] and advocated for him to take marijuana off the banned substances list,” Durant said during the interview. “I just felt like it was becoming a thing around the country, around the world. The stigma behind it wasn’t as negative as it was before. It doesn’t affect you in any negative way. … I just enjoy the plant, as simple as that.”
The Suns star also expressed to the commissioner how commonplace cannabis usage is around the league.
“He smelt it when I walked in so I didn’t really have to say much,” Durant said. “He kinda understood where this was going. It’s the NBA, man, everybody does it. It’s like wine at this point.”
The NBA marijuana ban had effectively come to end three years ago when the league stopped testing for the drug. The changes to the CBA make the change official,
Changes in New CBA
Outside of the marijuana being removed from the banned substances list, the CBA also provided other major changes. The biggest change could have an effect on players missing games. The new CBA states that players must appear in at least 65 games to be eligible for regular season awards.
The second major change introduced was the new salary cap restrictions. The salary cap for each team jumped up 32 percent after the 2016 season. The new “cap-smootihing” rule will limit the rise of the salary cap for any given year to 10 percent. This will also affect teams that are $17.5 million over the luxury tax threshold, which is currently at $165 million. This rule came about after the Warriors were able to have four max contracts on their roster following the signing of Durant in 2017.
Durant not only helped his fellow players but also the owners.
