The case of Vince Hunter and the unfair standards we subject athletes to / News - Basketnews.com

Credit: BasketNews illustration/A.Zaikauskas Credit BasketNews illustration/A.Zaikauskas

On July 21, 2021, Italian league champions Virtus Bologna officially announced that they were "unilaterally" parting ways with big man Vince Hunter. It was a surprise move, considering that just a few weeks ago, on July 3rd, the team had extended Hunter for two years. So what changed in such a short period of time?

Few days after the contract extension with Hunter, it was revealed that the player was found positive for "carboxy THC," the second metabolite of THC. A drug test was taken immediately after Game 4 of the Serie A final series between Virtus Bologna and AX Armani Exchange Milan. That game was played on June 11, Virtus won and became Italian champions for the first time in 20 years. On July 16, Hunter was officially suspended for three months by the National Antidoping Office.

The official measure stated that Hunter couldn't play any official game starting from June 11 till September 10. Hunter would have been perfectly able to start the regular season with this kind of suspension, which is not expected to start before September 26. But since the beginning, there was the feeling that Virtus was really infuriated by the whole situation. With an official contract extension announced just a few weeks before, Virtus felt blindsided by the news of a failed drug test, sources told BasketNews, and the new head coach Sergio Scariolo was firm in his decision to not work with the player anymore, asking the team to find a replacement.

There were also reports, coming from newspapers of the Bologna area, that Virtus wasn't satisfied with how Hunter was handling his offseason program, which coach Scariolo and trainer Matteo Panichi designed, but sources close to the player deny that he asked for any major adjustments or that he was skipping parts of his offseason schedule. Still, for Virtus it was enough to decide that they needed to part ways with the player, just 18 days after they had given him a two-year contract extension, making him one of the most important players on the roster.

Rules are rules. In Hunter's contract, there was a clause that gave the possibility for Virtus to terminate his contract in case he tested positive on a drug test, so he should have known better. At the same time, though, I can't stop thinking about the timing of this whole situation and how appropriate it might still be, in 2021, to suspend/cut a player/athlete because he/she used marijuana. Because I'm not here to talk about the rules, those are there, and there's nothing one can do for the moment, but there are definitely other elements that need to be considered in this situation. And not only in this one, to be honest.

Marijuana is not a performance-enhancing drug

One of the main elements that should be reviewed is the fact that cannabis is still considered in several sports environments as a doping substance, while science says that it's not. In scientific literature, marijuana is not usually described as a substance that might determine an undeniable improvement of physical performance. According to Michael Joyner, an American anesthesiologist and physiologist who has long been involved in research on the physiology of professional athletes, there is no real data to support the idea that cannabis produces benefits in terms of improvement of sports performances.

"If you look at any test of physical performance, there is no data for improvement. At the most, there is for a deterioration," Joyner said, without however excluding that some objective but minor benefits could occur in some sports. In shooting sports and archery, disciplines that require a certain level of focus and looseness, marijuana is prohibited due to its sedative and anxiolytic properties, potentially producing an advantage for the athletes that use it. "But marijuana certainly doesn't help you sprint faster or, say, throw the weight further or ride your bike faster," Joyner explained.

According to the results of research published in 2019 by the scientific journal PLOS One, 26 percent of 1,161 athletes recruited via the Internet, mostly runners, cyclists, and triathletes, reported being regular users of cannabis in the form of smoking, edible preparations, or other forms. Of these, about 70 percent said they found it to relieve pain related to training sessions and to allow for better sleep. Just under 60 percent reported a relaxation and nervousness-reducing effect.

A study of psychology, neuroscience, and cognitive science conducted by researchers at the University of Colorado, Boulder, examined the behavior and habits of 600 athletes who were regular cannabis users. About half of the participants said that cannabis made them feel like exercising. Over 80 percent said they regularly used it during workouts, and 70 percent said they derived more pleasure from training when consuming cannabis. Finally, about 80 percent confirmed the effects related to the ability of marijuana to favor recovery processes after training.

In a recent episode of 'The Rematch,' a YouTube show hosted by former NBA player Ethan Thomas, Al Harrington, another former NBA player (who now has a company involved in legal cannabis business), expressed his doubts about the fact that addictive opiates are often used in professional sports. Harrington said that he was given an anti-inflammatory called Celebrex for most of his NBA career and instructed to take two in the morning and once at night. Despite still being available in generic forms as celecoxib, the Food and Drug Administration ordered Pfizer, the drug's manufacturer, to conduct a large study to examine the drug's safety. For more than a decade, some doctors have been reluctant to prescribe celecoxib, which isn't an opioid, because it is similar to Vioxx, a pain reliever that was withdrawn from the market in 2004 because of safety concerns.

Perception of marijuana is quickly changing

Another factor to add to the discussion is that the global opinion regarding the usage of marijuana is very different from what it was in the past. In the USA, for example, despite still being illegal at a federal level, the recreational use of marijuana is legal in 19 states plus Washington D.C. and Guam. Vince Hunter is from Detroit in Michigan, one of the states where marijuana's recreational use is legal.

Sha'Carri Richardson, the USA runner who couldn't participate in the Olympic Games because she was found positive during a drug test after the trials, used marijuana in Oregon, where it's legal. In Canada and South American countries like Chile and Uruguay, the recreational use of marijuana is legal, and Australia made this step a few years ago. Even in professional sports, the classic narrative around the use of marijuana is changing. After the 2019-20 season and the playoffs played in the Orlando bubble, the NBA has decided not to conduct tests for marijuana during the 2020-21 season, a policy they already had in place while in the Orlando bubble.

National Football League has decided that it wouldn't test for THC during the off-season (from April 20 to August 9). Players will be tested for THC once training camps open in August, but the league has decided to eliminate the suspensions for positive THC tests. Instead, they'll issue fines for up to three weeks' pay. In Europe, though, the situation is not so "progressive-minded," in most countries, marijuana is still listed as a "doping substance," and suspensions are part of the rules in many leagues. The recreational use of marijuana is tolerated in some countries, for example, in Spain or the Netherlands, but only inside some specific places (coffee shops and cannabis clubs). In Italy, only the sale of light cannabis, with minimal contents of THC, is tolerated but there's still a discussion actively going on in the parliament about the subject.

USA president Joe Biden spoke about Sha'Carri Richardson's case and the opportunity to remove marijuana from the list of prohibited substances of WADA (the World Anti-Doping Agency), saying, "the rules are the rules. Whether they should remain that way, is a different issue." Euroleague, which has shown signs of progress in recent years, is trying to involve more players in the decision-making process and needs to start a conversation about this topic. Of course, the same invite should be extended to FIBA, who can bring the discussion forward as basketball's governing body.

Are standards for athletes fair?

Another issue regarding the topic of the use of marijuana is how media and fans often keep treating players/athletes as they are robots who are there only to entertain. It's like they are supposed to shut down when they finish their games and then turn on again for the next one without any kind of movement or rational thought in the middle. LeBron is supposed to shut up and dribble, Megan Rapinoe shouldn't talk about equal pay, Naomi Osaka has to answer every single question from the reporters, even the most stupid ones, and can't complain about her personal issues.

This whole rhetoric that athletes are only supposed to play their game and nothing else is simply pointless. It was already in the past and it's even more ridiculous now that we live in a different era, in which there's much more awareness regarding such important topics as racism and equality. Also, there must be progress in how we perceive athletes from the outside. They're not superheroes, they're not perfect, they have issues like everyone else, and like everyone else, they can make mistakes.

Both Vince Hunter and Sha'Carri Richardson, the two athletes that we mentioned in this article, made a mistake. Richardson even acknowledged in a statement but she also added: "I'm human". And that's the main point. We're talking about human beings, not robots. It's in our nature, as human beings, to make mistakes but those errors, especially when it comes to the occasional use of marijuana, shouldn't define ourselves. Vince Hunter remains a very good player despite what happened with Virtus Bologna. He should have been more careful, no doubt, but still, it remains the fact that he was suspended for three months because he used marijuana, which doesn't improve performance, and then lost his job because a single mistake suddenly defined his whole two-year stint with the club, which is not exactly a fair treatment. He was given a contract extension just a few days before and then he wasn't good anymore, just like that.

Sha'Carri Richardson earned her spot in the Olympic Games because she ran the 100 m in 10.65 seconds and she was stripped of that possibility because of the rules. She didn't run fast because of marijuana, she ran fast because she's a hell of an athlete. Did she make a mistake? Sure. Was the punishment too harsh? Also sure.

A quick reminder that while she was in Oregon for the trials, Richardson received the news that her biological mother had passed away. Let that sink in for a while. We always try to highlight the emotional moments that athletes might have on the court or while doing their job, maybe after they've won an important game or because they decided to dedicate a few seconds to someone in the stands. But when athletes actually show their human side away from the competition, making a mistake or showing some sort of weakness, we demonize that in every way possible, accusing them of being spoiled children or emotional divas.

Once again, I'm not suggesting that breaking rules is a good idea. As President Biden said, rules are rules but some of those rules are definitely outdated and need to change. Certain situations should help us in having more compassion and tolerance. With those feelings in place, at best we'd be able to reevaluate the rules themselves, but at least it'd serve as a reminder that athletes are in fact human beings and not just toys to play with.

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