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NBA players typically have a ton of incentive to stay out of trouble based on how much they get paid, but there are still plenty of guys who’ve landed in hot water thanks to some impressively unforced errors. However, it’s very, very hard to top the manner in which Damon Stoudamire ended up getting arrested for weed after blowing up his own spot at an airport.
Ja Morant is just the latest in a long line of NBA players who’ve been forced to sit out for making some ill-advised decisions off of the court, although he can take some solace in knowing his inability to stop flashing guns on the internet only drew the ire of the league as opposed to real, actual law enforcement.
However, multiple members of the Portland Trail Blazers weren’t as lucky around the turn of the millennium, as that squad was dubbed the “Jail Blazers” thanks to a lengthy string of legal incidents that embroiled the incredibly beleaguered franchise.
Like what, you ask? Well, over the span of a few short years, the Trail Blazers willingly signed a registered sex offender in the form of free agent Ruben Patterson, parted ways with Qyntel Woods after he admitted to organizing dog fights at his house, and had to deal with the fallout of police finding marijuana in Rasheed Wallace’s Hummer after he and Stoudamire wrapped up a smoke session.
That wasn’t the first time Stoudamire had been popped for weed, as police discovered a pound of it in his house while responding to a burglar alarm that had been triggered in 2001 (he got off after a judge ruled it was found as the result of an illegal search).
However, it also wasn’t the last time, as he ended up in the headlines for all of the wrong reasons yet again thanks to what transpired in 2003.
Damon Stoudamire got arrested for trying to bring weed onto a plane because he wrapped it in aluminum foil before going through a metal detector
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As you likely know, the TSA was on very high alert for suspicious passengers and packages in the early 2000s, so if you made the ill-advised decision to bring something you weren’t supposed to have through security, you needed to take steps to ensure you didn’t raise any red flags.
Unfortunately, Stoudamire basically did everything in his power to ensure he’d get caught while taking a trip from Arizona to New Orleans in the summer of 2003.
On July 7th of that year, the world learned the former first overall pick who won Rookie of the Year honors as a member of the Raptors in 1996 had been arrested after getting caught with around 40 grams (approximately an ounce-and-a-half) of weed at Tucson International Airport.
When you consider this was the third time Stoudamire had at least been charged with possession in less than two years, we’ve established he wasn’t exactly a master criminal. However, this arrest was particularly impressive when you consider TSA agents were made aware of the illicit drug because he’d wrapped it in aluminum foil before making his way through the metal detector that was triggered as a result.
Police were called after Stoudamire placed the weed in a security bin along with some rolling papers, and the Trail Blazers wasted no time hitting him with a three-month suspension that was supplemented by a $250,000 fine.
Stoudamire eventually agreed to go to rehab, and prior to the start of the 2003-04 campaign, he told John Canzano of The Oregonian he’d be willing to submit to a random drug test at any point during the season if the sportswriter wanted proof he’d cleaned up his act (he passed with flying colors after peeing into a cup following a game in March).
The guard eventually took his talents to Memphis in 2005 and retired in 2008 after playing his final NBA season with the Spurs. From there, he turned his attention to coaching and currently serves as the skipper for the men’s basketball team at Georgia Tech.