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NBA players representing Team USA to resume marijuana testing
While the NBA has not tested players for marijuana since March 2020, NBA players in consideration to represent Team USA at the Summer Olympics in Tokyo will be subject to World Anti-Doping Agency testing, according to a memo sent to all 30 teams on Tuesday and obtained by The Athletic's Shams Charania.
"Each national team player" for Team USA will be subject to testing that includes cannabinoids, narcotics and performance-enhancing drugs, according to the memo. The players will be subject to such testing until they are no longer part of Team USA, the team is out of the Olympics or the games are canceled. Team USA training camp is scheduled for on or just after July 1, which coincides with the NBA Finals.
The NBA hasn't tested its players for marijuana since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, a span including the Disney bubble and the 2020-21 season.
For more, read Joe Vardon's story in the Go Deeper section below.
Why did the NBA stop testing?
Joe Vardon, NBA senior writer: When the league was set to resume the 2020 season at Disney, severe restrictions were put in place due to COVID-19 that limited the players’ sociability.
For two months, no families were allowed into the bubble, friends were never allowed, and no one was permitted into anyone else’s room. Players weren’t allowed to leave campus for any reason. So to ease the mental stress of it all the league chose to look the other way if players wanted to use marijuana.
Will the NBA reinstitute testing?
Vardon: The league hasn’t said yet either way. A little known nugget: As it stands now, technically, the NBA can test for weed with cause. But this would be for such blatant usage that it was affecting a player’s on-court performance.
There are players using weed this season, but there have been no suspensions of any kind, so, yeah this just isn’t something that’s being done. It’s also legal in a bunch of states where the NBA plays.
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