Anyone who imagined Stephen Jackson getting stoned just before Warriors games might be a bit disappointed.
A month after admitting he smoked weed on some game days, the former Golden State guard clarified his comments to 95.7 The Game on Wednesday.
“I’ve never smoked before a meaningful game. I’ve never smoked before a playoff game,” Jackson told Matt Steinmetz and Bonta Hill of The Game. “There’s been times where I’ve been on teams where, at the end of the season, we have no shot at making the playoffs, four or five games left, and really the coach is not even playing me. …
“This is my routine: I would wake up, go to shoot-around, come back home, smoke, eat, take a shower, take a nap, wake up and go to the game. So by the time I get to the game, I’m at an even keel.”
Jackson did, however, add that he sometimes smoked in celebration.
“After we beat Dallas in Game 6 (of the 2007 playoffs to bounce the No. 1-seed Mavericks), we had a house full of people having a good time, and I did smoke after Game 6,” Jackson said. “Man, we celebrated like we won the championship.”
Jackson also wanted to clear up any confusion about what he told the I Am Rapaport podcast last month about marijuana consumption.
“First of all, I never said Baron Davis smoked before a game, and I never said Don Nelson smoked with us,” Jackson said. “Some idiot went on ESPN and said that.”
Jackson said he merely meant that Nelson, then the Warriors coach, didn’t stop him from toking.
“Coach didn’t have a problem with it, because Coach knows, with me, you’re going to get 110 percent of me every night. Last thing he needs to worry about is what I’m doing off the court,” Jackson said. “He let us be who we are. He didn’t try to change anyone. Coach wasn’t a squeeky-clean player — he drank, he hung out. So he understood guys and he didn’t judge guys. As long as you came out and did your job and did what was expected of you, then he was all for you. But if you didn’t play the game hard, if you did not respect the game, then he had no love for you. If you played hard, he had your back.”