NBA News: After Warriors Coach Kerr, Knicks President Phil Jackson Also Says He Took Marijuana During His Recovery From Back Injury

By Shubham Ghosh - 07 Dec '16 06:00AM

Phil Jackson, president of the New York Knicks, said it again. On Tuesday (December 6), Jackson, a former basketball player himself, said on CBS Sports Network's "We Need to Talk" that he used medicinal marijuana to treat back pain during his playing days for the Knicks (1967-78). Jackson, 71, had missed the entire season of 1969-70 because of the problem.

"I don't know about it's medicinal ability. I had back surgery, and the year I was off, I was smoking marijuana during that period of time," Jackson said, as per a CBS Sports report.

Jackson said a definite decision needs to be taken on the issue and added that it would be taken by the people and not the legislatures. He said the effort to stop it in the NBA hasn't succeeded, adding that one either has to find a way to accommodate the use of marijuana or a way to deal with the issue.

This is, however, not the first time that the marijuana story of the veteran's life has come out in the open. Both his autobiography "Maverick" published in 1975 and biography "Mindgames: Phil Jackson's Long Strange Journey" published in 2001, his use of marijuana has been discussed. His biography penned by Roland Lazenby revealed that despite his friends warning him against smoking excessive marijuana, Jackson "loved its effect on his mind" and how he started to view things and relationships in new ways, the CBS Sports report added.

This did not leave Jackson amused though as he felt people picked one or two parts of what was being said to construct his overall personality. He also kept his words limited on "We Need To Talk" perhaps because he did not want more controversies on this.

Steve Kerr also used it

Jackson is not the only personality who have made the headlines in the context of using marijuana recently. Steve Kerr, coach of the Golden State Warriors, also said on a CSN Bay Area podcast (via ESPN's Chris Haynes) last week that he used marijuana to get relief from intense back pain which has caused him a lot of problem in the past couple of years.

"I guess maybe I could even get in some trouble for this, but I've actually tried [marijuana] twice during the last year and a half when I've been going through this pain, this chronic pain that I've been dealing with," Kerr, 51, said on the occasion.

Kerr missed nearly the entire first half of the 2015-16 season because of two back operations and continued to face discomfort. The coach of the star team which has been playing exceedingly well this season also hoped that the league authorities took a soft stand on the use of marijuana as it is a better alternative to get relieve from pain. Was Kerr far off from Jackson on this?