Phoenix Suns coach Earl Watson isn't embracing marijuana use the way Steve Kerr and others have.
"I think our rhetoric on it has to be very careful because you have a lot of kids where I'm from that's reading this, and they think (marijuana is) cool," Watson told ESPN's Chris Haynes. "It's not cool. Where I'm from, you don't get six fouls to foul out. You get three strikes. One strike leads to another. I'm just being honest with you, so you have to be very careful with your rhetoric."
Watson - who was born and raised in Kansas City, Kansas - is referring to that state's three-strikes-and-you're-out law, which mandates life sentences once a person has accumulated three criminal convictions, often regardless of severity. Several other states have similar statutes.
Watson also believes marijuana can be a "gateway drug" to more serious narcotics for some people.
"I've seen a lot of guys go through that experience of using it and doing other things with that were both illegal," the 37-year-old head coach said.
"And a lot of those times, those guys never make it to the NBA, they never make it to college, and somehow it leads to something else, and they never make it past 18 ... I call it that slippery slope. We have to be very careful on the rhetoric and how we speak on it and how we express it and explain it to the youth."
The discussion of marijuana in the NBA recently emerged when Golden State Warriors coach Kerr said he used cannabis to treat back pain associated with 2015 surgery.
Related: NBA responds to Kerr's pot stance, says coaches are also tested
Watson, who is black, comes from a vastly different background than Kerr and many other marijuana advocates - and therefore possesses a divergent experience with the American criminal justice system. While several states have moved to legalize cannabis in recent years, others have not.
The NBA is expected to make minor amendments to its marijuana policy in the new collective bargaining agreement.
