On August 7, 2007, former NBA player Eddie Griffin was killed in a fiery crash after slamming his SUV into a moving train. An autopsy indicated that his blood-alcohol level was more than three times the legal limit. There were no other substances found in his blood.
Almost a year later, Griffin’s tragic death serves as a stark reminder of the NBA’s failed substance abuse policy.
According to the players association’s anti-drug policy, prohibited substances include “amphetamine and its analogs, cocaine, LSD, opiates (heroin, codeine and morphine), PCP, marijuana, and steroids.” Nowhere in the policy is there any mention of alcohol abuse.
And yet how many players have we witnessed damage or destroy their careers, not to mention their personal lives, because of alcoholism; players with enormous potential such as Vin Baker, Isaiah Rider, and Shawn Kemp, just to name a few.
The league is quick to wield its righteous wand when it comes to players using marijuana. Upon the first offense for testing positive, the player is suspended and required to enter the league’s rehabilitation program. Meanwhile, players like Griffin and Baker, simply because they weren’t doing anything illegal, were left out in the rain.
So much has been made of Joakim Noah and Josh Howard both admitting (to the media, no less) their affinity for smoking weed. But while their indiscretions are much maligned, the issue of alcoholism largely goes unnoticed.
Yet what is more harmful? Noah and Howard taking bong hits in their living room, or Shawn Kemp and Juwan Howard driving around drunk and endangering their own lives and the lives of others?
The league’s anti-drug policy has always been about protecting the image of the NBA. But on the eve of the anniversary of Griffin’s death, isn’t it past time to start rethinking its policy (or lack thereof) on alcohol abuse?
