Larry Sanders signed a four-year, $44 million contract extension with the Milwaukee Bucks and everything has gone downhill from there.  In addition to the Bucks having the worst record in the NBA, Sanders has gotten into a bar fight, suffered injuries, fights with teammates and the latest is a suspension for violating the league’s substance abuse policy.  Sanders was suspended for five games after testing positive for marijuana and well he wasn’t too apologetic about it.

Shay Marie

via Steve Aschburner of NBA.com:

“It’s something I feel strongly about, just to let you know something personal about me,” the 6-foot-11 player told NBA.com and the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel prior to the Bucks’ game against Chicago at United Center Friday. “I will deal with the consequences from it. It’s a banned substance in my league. But I believe in marijuana and the medical side of it.

“I know what it is if I’m going to use it. I study it and I know the benefits it has. In a lot of ways we’ve been deprived. You can’t really label it with so many other drugs that people can be addicted to and have so many negative effects on your body and your family and your relationships and impairment. This is not the same thing.” …

“The stigma is that it’s illegal. I hate that,” Sanders said. “Once this becomes legal, this all will go away.”

There’s plenty of other people who feel the same way as marijuana is now legal in two states and medical marijuana is available in several others.  While there are steps being taken to make it readily available there’s still the point that it’s illegal in the NBA and Sanders has been pretty toxic to his team this year.