If free agent forward Michael Beasley signs with an NBA team, he’ll have to sit out his first five games with that new club. According to Shams Charania of The Athletic (via Twitter), the NBA has hit Beasley with a five-game suspension for violating the league’s anti-drug policy.
Beasley, the No. 2 overall pick in the 2008 draft, spent most of the 2018/19 season with the Lakers after signing a one-year contract with the club last summer. However, his role in Los Angeles was limited. He appeared in just 26 games, averaging 7.0 PPG and 2.3 RPG in 10.7 minutes per contest.
The Lakers sent Beasley to the Clippers along with Ivica Zubac in exchange for Mike Muscala in a deadline deal in February. The Clippers subsequently released the 30-year-old, making him an unrestricted free agent. He joined the Guangdong Southern Tigers in China to finish the season.
A free agent again this offseason, Beasley hasn’t generated much buzz. His suspension probably won’t be a deal-breaker if an NBA team has interest in signing him, but for a player who was already having trouble finding a new home, it represents another red flag.
How can he get in trouble when he’s not on a roster?..
He’s still a member of the union until he submits his retirement papers. He can be drug tested at any time. I’m not 100% positive, but I think that even if he signs with an overseas team, he still can be.
Dumb
Wrong. If he signs with a team overseas, the NBAPU has no power over them until they try to come back.
Hey, dude, if yer havin’ trouble findin’ a job, time to put away the kine. Really, at 30, anyone with sense knows if you have random drug testing, just chill if it prevents you from getting the gig.
Might not have mattered anyway, but I suspect that this is the end of his NBA career, and reminds me how glad I am (despite everything that ensued) that the Bulls chose drose over him.
Between Beasley and OJ Mayo who went #3, that draft was arguably the worst draft with regards to drugs since the infamous 1986 draft of Len Bias, Chris Washburn, Roy Tarpley, and William Bedford.
Addiction is a serious thing, sometimes it’s not that easy to just “chill”
lol addicted to weed
Yeah “lol”, why not? You don’t think weed is am addictive substance? Think again. It is. Addictions manifest in many different ways. People are addicted to food, TV, salt, sugar, reading books, walking, going to the gym. Addictions psychologically serve to “distract” an individual from something unpleasant, such as emotional or physical pain. They can take many different forms, and unfortunately, often they become pathological.
Not addictive according to most scientific studies.
And I say this as a long time weed smoker. You can stop if you want to. It is not like heroin – I know people who have smoked weed and at the same time been heroin or cocaine addicts, and it is really not the same thing. Weed “addiction” is really just an excuse.
May be true, but how does this relate to an individual’s fitness for a particular job? He was disqualified based upon specific criteria that was known to him.
If he failed, he should know that he needs help.
Help exists, especially for rich people.
If he does not get help, then he just wants to fail and does not deserve our pity.
He has resources to solve the problem unless he has given the cash to others who do not.
The book you need to familiarize yourself with is the DSM-5 because what you are describing are at most, dependencies. Addictions are another level.
Common misconception. Marijuana is not physically addicting, meaning your body goes through withdrawals when deprived. Marijuana is addictive however, and has many addictive qualities.
That’s not wrong, but we’re getting into a semantic debate… A thing being “addictive” is not the same as a person being an “addict” or their condition being an “addiction”. Official sources (like the DSM, ICD, or NIH) under “addictive disorders” use “dependency” instead of “addiction”. Either word is describing something hard to shake.
To some extent it depends on where the bar is placed between dependency and addiction, and Cannibus use will surely be subject to changing standards, a political football.
Where the rubber hits the road is in what gets recognized by employers, HMOs, insurance policies, law, etc, and Cannibus is much less addictive than nicotine or alcohol.
Chieffffff’n keef
Drug code?
Does he have the talents to justify a roster spot – you’ve got a new coach, a bunch of new players and the media of LA
He’s not big enough to protect the rim or rebound and not sharp enough to be a guard. Better off giving the minutes to a young guy and developing them
They didn’t say what the drug was. I wonder if it’s the kush? If so, they should remove that from the list of drugs they test for? What’s the big deal?
Beasley loves the weed, so I would imagine so.
Who doesn’t? I started smoking about 2 years ago and was like ” where’ve you been the last 30 years? Better than prescription drugs for my knees and back.
There are pain relievers that are so much worse and more addictive than THC. There are many people who would be alive today if they got “hooked” on weed instead of corporate alternative pills from big pharma as well as crooked little pharma.
Lawmakers who keep it from people with arthritis should burn.
It should still be banned for young people though. It steals away continuity from youth to the future adult and there isn’t usually enough pain to warrant it.
Legalize it.
I am so glad that Michael Beasley spurred such an interesting discussion. Probably the first time.