NBA Labor Deal Could Open Door to Cannabis Endorsements, Raising Hopes in Arizona's Marijuana Industry

A yoga class on the grass beside Tempe Town Lake, set to reggae music, offered a glimpse of how quickly attitudes toward marijuana are changing. The session, called GanjaFlow, was held on the cannabis community's unofficial holiday and drew a notable guest: Ricky Williams, the 1998 Heisman Trophy winner.

Williams, who was repeatedly suspended from the National Football League over illegal marijuana use, was once a player that teams bet their futures on, only to see him mocked and branded a bum. He said he came to believe there was a purpose behind his experience. "There's a lot of misinformation about cannabis out there," he said. Linking yoga to the plant, he noted that the word "indica," also the name of a category of marijuana strains, refers to a plant grown from India.

Less than 20 years later, Williams can earn a legal living from the substance that once made him an outcast. At the event, an associate handed out preroll joints of his favorite strains to participants. They came from Highsman, which Williams described as a cannabis lifestyle brand. He said he hopes to look back on a major change in the world that he helped bring about.

The league landscape has shifted around him. The NFL has spent $1 million to research cannabis, and professional baseball and basketball no longer ban it. Reports from The Athletic and Reuters now say the NBA's newly ratified collective bargaining agreement will let players endorse brands sold in licensed dispensaries. The players union did not say whether athletes will be allowed to promote and invest in marijuana ventures beginning in July.

Even so, the reports have stirred interest among local cannabis businesses. Josh Hirschey, president of Timeless, whose vape products are sold in Arizona and four other states, said he and several business partners are Arizona natives whose Phoenix Suns fandom dates to the 1980s. "It's in our DNA," he said. Timeless keeps a suite at Suns games to entertain customers and has cultivated a relationship with the team in the hope that cannabis sponsorships may one day be permitted.

Working with a player or the team would be "absolutely a dream of ours," Hirschey said, though he first needs to know exactly what the league's labor agreement says.

Attorney Laura Bianchi cautioned that a green light from the NBA may not settle the matter for individual players. Another endorsement contract could prohibit promoting marijuana, and she said such deals typically contain morality clauses. For an athlete, she said, it becomes a financial and business decision: whether to risk income from companies that view marijuana as unethical, regardless of how many states legalize it.

Bianchi called that view archaic but said it persists in more traditionally conservative industries. As long as marijuana remains illegal under federal law, she said, athletes will have to weigh it. The Drug Enforcement Administration still classifies marijuana as having no accepted medical use and as capable of causing severe addiction.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.