Denver Nuggets Players Could Be Shopping at Own Dispensaries Soon

We've come a long way since Carmelo Anthony was castigated for getting caught with cannabis in 2004.

Viewed as the future king of the city at the time, the Denver Nuggets player landed in hot water after weed was found in his backpack at Denver International Airport. But two decades later, you could be bumping into a Denver Nuggets player at a dispensary.

According to reports of a new collective-bargaining agreement between NBA owners and the league's players' union, NBA players can soon shop for legal weed in public. The seven-year CBA agreement hasn't yet been ratified, but that process is "certainly no more than a formality," according to the AP. And after that happens, players in states with legalized weed and sports gambling will have a few new personal freedoms.

Among the pending CBA provisions are rules allowing players to invest in and promote cannabis and sports gambling companies in states where they are legal. On top of that, NBA owners also agreed to remove cannabis from the league's banned-substances list, officially making it a legal substance in the NBA.
So not only could you see an active NBA player in a dispensary, but you might shop in a dispensary owned by an NBA player — or see an NBA player promote a sports gambling app on your phone while waiting in line at a dispensary also owned by an NBA player.

The possibilities are endless in Colorado, where both cannabis and sports gambling are legal, and locals affectionately call the team the "Nugs." (The Nuggets home arena, sponsored by the jar-producing Ball Corporation, is also known as the "Nug Jug" in the Westword office, but that hasn't taken off...yet.)

NBA players haven't been tested for cannabis since agreeing to play in a bio-secure bubble during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, but the plant was still listed as a banned substance. While that didn't stop players from talking about their active cannabis use in interviews or sharing it on social media, players were still scared away from participating in the legal, recorded system of pot sales, according to former Denver Nugget Al Harrington, who founded a multi-state cannabis company, Viola, shortly after retiring from the NBA.

"A lot of teams are in markets where cannabis is recreationally legal. So who would tell me that I can drink liquor but I can't go to another store to buy an edible? It just doesn't make sense. So first it's about getting the players out of harm's way, and then you'll see partnerships," Harrington told Westword last year.

Plenty of retired NBA players and other professional athletes have stepped into the cannabis industry, including Harrington, Allen Iverson, Chris Webber, Cliff Robinson, John Salley, Ricky Williams and Calvin Johnson, among others, with former Denver Bronco Rod Bernstine and professional cycler Floyd Landis both owning dispensaries in Colorado.

We've yet to see an active NBA player, or any other current professional athlete in the MLB, NFL or NHL, publicly take part in the legal-cannabis sector, but that will likely change soon, and to much fanfare.

Go, Nugs.