Thank you for counseling addicts, btw. This is an honest question to someone with clearly more experience about this:
Is it the weed that is crippling their lives as much as our punishments that we impose on users? We put people in jail for doing it. We don't let people work who do it. But why and to what end? It's certainly not as destructive as alcohol, which is arbitrarily legal. Mitch is clearly an NBA level player, even on weed, so in his case, it's not the usage that is getting in the way of his livelihood, it's our imposed punishments for the usage.
Also, weed doesn't directly damage or change the brain like heroin or crack could (although it might affect the developing brain during younger ages). If anything, neuronal changes would be more akin to those of many random, learned behaviors/habits.
Hence, if persistently using pot leads to someone getting counseling, it's most likely a coping response and indicator of one or more underlying issues.
In actuality, weed probably does more benefit than harm (for many, not all people). It can help reduce chronic, low-grade inflammation which can be damaging in many ways. Not to mention protective of neuronal degeneration; research has even been published suggesting it mitigates Alzheimer's pathology to some extent.
FWIW, I have left open in my other posts the possibility that even if something is wrong, it is not primarily a weed issue, but rather an issue of other problems in life. The failed test may just be a collateral incident.
No.
You're just reaching now.
He needs to get help. Being unable to stop something that is jeapordizing a multimillion dollar career is a problem.
i agree with you even about recreational use. And no, this is not politics when it intrudes into entertainment like this. They do not own him off the clock and he didn't harm anyone, it's none of their business, or ours. It's like when suspended for a year by the CBAA. They're making him the victim
Well said and I need a martini now!
No ono and I mean no one can drink two giant martini's before or after dinner and not need one or really want one very badly the next day at lunch. You heard/read him he loves his Martinis and he would have to be threatened certain consequences for him to quit. I know how you feel the next day after a couple of large martini's the only thing that really helps is the hair of the dog..
No way am I trying to defend anyone who can't put the bowl down to keep millions it's the most rediculous thing I have ever heard of....
I've always thought the "A stupid rule should still be followed, you're stupid for not following a stupid rule if you know the consequences" was a pretty awful way to live. If everyone thought that way, we'd never make any progress at all.
I don't mean to paint McGary as some sort of defiant hero, bravely resisting NBA tyranny. But a stupid rule isn't any less stupid because someone chose not to follow it.
If my employer believes pizza is evil and fires me because he catches me eating a slice, that is not only absurd but it is WRONG. It has a negative impact on my life that far outweighs the consequences of just eating the pizza. Such a policy isn't ethically defensible. That is no less true just because I knew there was a no pizza policy and ignored it.
I'm sure plenty will disagree, but this argument has always irritated me. Pardon my rant.
Except Mitch isnt taking a stand to have the rule changed, he's just breaking it (allegedly) with great personal cost to himself. To use your analogy, yes it would be quite stupid for your employer to enact a "no pizza" rule you absolutely have the right to eat it (it's a free country) but he also has the right to fire you for eating it (again, free country).
If your boss had a clearly stated "no pizza" rule when you took the job you have an obligation to follow the rule, as stupid as it is, because you knew about when you made the decision to join the firm.
Mitch knew about the "no pot" rule when he decided to play pro basketball. Lots of jobs out there for people who want to smoke pot it's just none of them pay 5MM per year.
All about choices.
This is really good debate guys. By the way I'm sitting here reading this thread eating pizza after just smoking some weed - I can't make this shit up man.
Just because you are free to do something doesn't mean it's right to do it. I never questioned whether the NBA can legally fire or fine someone for pot. I just think it's wrong that they do it.
As to your second point, should one feel obligated to follow a rule when one does not truly have a choice? If you want to play pro basketball in the US, there's really only one option. There are semi pro and minor leagues and yada yada, but we all know that's not the same. It's the illusion of choice, like an iTunes agreement. You can say no, but then, you can't really say no. On the topic of drug testing, I think it's wrong to drug test as a condition of potentially hiring someone. But when an employer asks me to do it, I do. Maybe that makes me a coward who doesn't stand up for his own beliefs, I don't know. But it does reflect the reality that I don't actually have a choice - these tests are not in any way voluntary, no matter what the company might say. If I want the job, I have to do it. And when you consider that virtually all companies are testing these days, it's not like I can say "Screw you then, I'll go to company Y."
You spell it out pretty well in your last paragraph: There are lots of jobs out there, just none that pay $5 mil a year.
There you go then. $5 mil or a middle class clock puncher driving a Camry, and you call it a choice? I don't care if you literally NEED pot to live. If you actually BLEED weed, you are going to take that NBA job and hope to god you can find a way to avoid being caught.
Smoking weed is pedophilia now? That slope has gotten so slippery, it's a wonder your text didn't slide right off my computer monitor.
Weed isn't pedophilia. It's not crack. It's not domestic abuse (which until very recently was something pro athletes got away with much easier than pot.) If you're trying to argue for marijuana being dangerous, unless you're high 24/7 to the point you can't even function, it's probably less dangerous than the pizza would be. It's certainly less dangerous than alcohol or tobacco. Mitch could get drunk EVERY SINGLE DAY and the NBA wouldn't bat an eyelash so long as he didn't beat his girlfriend or crash his car or show up to a press conference that way.
The misplaced priorities, both in pro sports and in our legal system as a whole, is what I really take issue with here. The NBA doesn't have the power to decriminalize marijuana, but they could take a stand against the absurdity of it being illegal in the states where it still is by saying, "We won't participate. We won't test for it. It's not performance-enhancing, and it helps with pain management. Furthermore, in a country where around 10,000 people a year are killed by drunk driving, and around 500,000(!!!!) cases of domestic violence are reported by the NCADD to be alcohol related, we simply cannot stand here and pretend that marijuana is a problem."
is not a free country its actually called a "right to work"
But I'm going to start this weekend.
That may be; there are strong indications that a lot use it recreationally as well. You know my position on this, but I'm not addressing the morality of that issue. A lot of guys, it's safe to assume, ingest substances that are not permitted by their respective sports in a way to circumvent getting caught. Anyone can make a mistake once, of course. But McGary is also missing time for non-sports reasons and has been caught multiple times.
It may be unrelated. "Personal issues" can include serious family trouble or serious depression or any number of other things. But the combination of all these at least makes me cock an eyebrow of concern for his well-being. This could be "bad timing" after all... but it could also be a sign that there's other trouble afoot. And if so I hope he is able to address it properly.
A lot of people use marijuana just because they enjoy it so much and really enjoy the benefits it provides. There doesn't always have to be major life problems for people to continually use it. The number of people that use it and the number of professionals, doctors, athletes, etc that use would blow your mind. For those that enjoy it, giving up that part of your life is not always easy. Not excusing Mitch either.
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You're doing a fine job of it too--he's so totally burned!
I agree this is horrible. No one should ever be penalized for consuming cannabis in their personal time.
It was time to worry when Durant left. With him and then westbrook gone McGary is no longer a step away from contributing on a champion contender. Now he's on another terrible team like all the other UM alums.
are bad teams? THJ and Jamal Crawford beg to differ
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Should have had a fall guy.
I still do not know why this ass-wipe was not fired the very next day the video came out....
because he had a fall guy.
Well at least he learned something while he was at OSU...
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MY BOY, Big Mitch. West Side all day evvery day. Back pain can be a mutha' fucka'. Smoke it while you can. -Avon
I enjoy the stuff myself, but if it's hurting his game then it's a problem. He looked good in Summer League the other night but these bits from a recent NBA.com article are concerning.
The Thunder basketball staff has always liked McGary's raw talent, but never been fully impressed with his commitment to conditioning and to be able deliver in every game and on every trip down the floor.
Though OKC summer league coach Mark Daigneault has praised McGary for his conditioning throughout the week, there have still been times when he's been beaten or out of position simply because he looks gassed.
This does not surprise me, as I felt he had conditioning commitment problems while in school, too.
"Every trip down the floor" coming from someone associated with the NBA? That's fucking hysterical. There were maybe 4 games all season where that took place and they were all in the finals.
Not true. Watch good defensive teams play. They are intense all the time. Especially in areas that should be McGary's sweet spot.
I don't know, man. I get that folks like to think of college sports as being comparitively full of earnest, try-harder types. But there are plenty of players who take time off during basketball and football games.
It's the difference between 80-100 games per season vs. 30-40.
He's out there busting his buns every night.
...how do you think that's going to work in the playoffs? Or over an 82-game season?
For a guy whose appeal has been, in significant part, and his ability to hustle and scrap, he needs to be 100% full-go, all the time. He's not athletic enough to coast -- when you're a 13th man, fighting for a roster spot, you need to be all-hustle, all the time.
Carmelo et al can get away with dogging it b/c they have an elite skill (or two) such a shooting, scoring, etc -- Mitch is just another guy scrapping for playing time.
I really hope he gets fully focused and can get playing time.
Didn't he say when he tested positive here that he hardly ever used? What are the odds that the 4 times he did it were right before he got tested. That is some bad luck.
Lol he was most certainly a huge stoner. it was an open secret during his time here
He said, "I did it once to help with back pain..." But we all knew he really meant, "I smoke anything and everything I can for as long as I can, but I didn't expect to get tested while injured."
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If it's marijuana, every state needs to simply legalize that shit already. The effects from alcohol are worse than those of marijuana. The state governments can tax marijuana sales, which, from a government standpoint, is never a bad thing. Governments LOVE taxing the people of this country.
yeah, we know, we get it, especially us in CO. But that's not the issue here.
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