Alex Williams of the New York Times recently caught up with Nelson in Maui, Hawaii, where the Hall of Famer has lived for years. The resultant story runs some of the same trails that similar “where are they now” features on Nelson have blazed over the last half-dozen years — that Nelson, now 77, dabbles in real estate on the island and lives what sounds like a fairly idyllic life on the beach in paradise, an existence that notably features Maui’s “most exclusive poker game with Willie Nelson, Woody Harrelson and Owen Wilson.” There are a couple of new wrinkles, though.
For one thing, Nellie’s got a beard now. (More a Popovich than a D’Antoni on this score, I guess.) For another, one of his rental properties is run by his daughter Lee, who he offhandedly mentions is “an interesting story” because he “had that daughter out of wedlock [and] knew nothing about her for 29 years” until she wrote him a letter while he was coaching the Dallas Mavericks.
Oh, and there’s also the thing about how he’s growing his own weed now:
And you’ve got an agrarian venture over here in Maui, too?
I’ve got a farm, yeah, I do. We grow some pot and flowers and coffee, and I’ve got a fish farm up there.
Pot?
I’ve got a medical card. I’m legal here. When any athlete gets old, every injury you have sustained seems to resurrect. It helps me deal with the pain without pain pills, and helps with that stress. […]
How is the quality?
Oh, it’s great. Great stuff. It’s called Nellie Kush. It’s O.G. and Hindu Kush. Hindu Kush is really good. It comes from India and the guy that brought it over mixed the two of them, so we’ve got Nellie Kush now.
I didn’t think I’d ever be a pot smoker, but hanging out with Willie and Woody and guys like that, you know, everybody smokes in those games. It just became kind of natural. Usually you’re smoking with your friends, sitting around, telling stories, you smoke a bowl. It’s not that I smoke all the time. I usually just smoke at night during poker games.
You’d imagine someone with his own strain of kush and some awfully deep-pocketed prospective clients coming over to play cards every night might be well positioned to become one of many former athletes to make inroads in the burgeoning marijuana business. Not Nellie, though: he says he’s growing for personal use only, and would never start selling his supply. After all, it sounds like he’s having too much fun with his almost hilariously perfect life, so why sully your post-basketball pleasure by turning it into just another hustle?
Running back Mike James hurts all over. He experiences chronic pain every day, a natural byproduct of his chosen profession. Still, he’s not yet ready to walk away from his NFL career, and says he knows the key to continuing: marijuana.
James, an NFL free agent, applied for a marijuana therapeutic-use exemption (TUE) from the league this offseason, which he hoped would allow him to treat his pain without fear of violating the league’s substance-abuse policy. The league denied his request last week, which James said jeopardizes his ability to sign with a team and continue his career.
“By them denying me a TUE, they’re really giving me no other options to continue playing football,” the 27-year old James said in an interview this week. “To be able to play this violent game and deal with my chronic pain, I need an option for that.”
Even as many states around the country have made efforts to decriminalize or legalize cannabis, both medicinally and recreationally, the NFL has shown few signs of relaxing its rules regarding marijuana. James made his TUE request hoping to change that, in the process offering fellow professional football players a safer alternative to addictive opioids, which many use to manage the pain inherent in the game.
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Former NBA Coach, Don Nelson, Is Now A Pot Farmer
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