I remember talking about how Vlade Divac used to smoke cigs when he played in the NBA. I got to wondering if any other NBA ballers, past or present, were also consumers of the health taxing plant. Though I am quite sure there were players back in the day who smoked, I couldn't find any evidence. In today's league, only one such player admitted to doing so, and he looks like this:
That's right, Adam Morrison (who apparently also dips). Now, to be honest, I read a rumor saying the Vladimir Radmanovich (the player the Bobcats traded Morrison to the Lakers for -- coincidence???) also smokes, but I couldn't find anything about that. So for the sake of legitimacy, let's pose today's question, how does tobacco affect an athlete?
There have been quite a few successful athlete smokers in other professional sports: Hank Aaron and Joe DiMaggio in the MLB, Don Meredith in the NFL (and I read stories that John Elway also did), obviously Vlade in the NBA, Bobby Hull in the NHL, and Graham Watson in cycling.
How can these people whose jobs require intensive cardiovascular performance (well maybe not baseball...) still perform while hindered by cigs? I think it is because they train hard and have good genes. Unfortunately for Adam Morrison, he doesn't train hard enough and his genes are of the tall, lanky variety, not really the super athletic variety. His career has not taken off despite being the #3 overall pick in the 2006 NBA draft. When he has played, he hasn't been so bad he shouldn't get a shot at being in the league, but that is about all he should have got, a shot. It should have been this one and that should have been the last shot he ever took.
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