Kevin Durant is hoping to change the narrative around smoking marijuana, and he started that by sitting down for an interview with famed late-night talkshow host David Letterman.
The conversation was part of Letterman’s Netflix show “My Next Guest Needs No Introduction” and the full episode will be available on the streaming platform on Friday. In a clip promoting the interview, Durant told Letterman that he was “actually high right now” when the host asked if he had smoked the day of the interview.
Durant has partnered with Weedmaps, a tech company that provides information on marijuana dispensaries and reviews of those locations, to try and change the narrative around athletes and marijuana.
“It’s confusing to a lot of people,” Durant said in the clip about the perception of weed. “You can look around (New York City) in the next year or two and there’s going to be dispensaries everywhere. Where you can actually go buy weed. … It’s even crazier that you have people in jail for 20 years for maybe selling a pound.”
The Nets superstar said that he started smoking weed when he was 22 years old and said that it was a way for him to clear his mind.
“To me, it clears the distractions out your brain a little bit. It settles you down, it’s like having a glass of wine,” Durant said.
Letterman also shared an experience of a time had smoked marijuana and then had gone to a baseball game out in Los Angeles. He told Durant he didn’t remember who won the game, but did recall spending time thinking about the pitcher standing on a mound of dirt.
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He then asked Durant if he had been smoking the wrong kind of weed.
“No you were smoking the right kind if you were thinking about stuff like that,” Durant replied.
Views on marijuana have shifted over time and recreational use is legal in 18 states across the country. Only six states have not legalized recreational or medical marijuana use.
The NBA has also softened its stance on players using it. While marijuana is still a banned substance by the NBA, they have relaxed their enforcement since the 2020 bubble.
