Al Harrington was a real NBA journeyman.
All through his 16-year professional profession, the previous first-round choose is generally remembered for bouncing between groups, and performed for seven totally different franchises from 1998 to 2014.
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At simply 18, he was taken because the twenty fifth general choose by the Indiana Pacers, and shortly witnessed the unbelievable highs and lows of the NBA.
Harrington performed his first years with Indiana underneath the legendary Larry Fowl, who was head coach of the crew for 3 seasons between 1997 and 2000, and got here nearer than anybody to ending the Chicago Bulls dynasty.
Arguably, there was no higher coach for a rookie to work with.
However having skipped school hoops, a teenage Harrington entered the NBA through the longest of its 4 lockouts, which lasted for greater than six months and compelled the 1998–99 season to be shortened to simply 50 common season video games.
In his first 12 months, which was something however simple, the 6-foot-9 energy ahead averaged 7.6 minutes and a pair of.1 factors per recreation.
Whereas he remained affected person and later carved a task as a key contributor for the crew, a lot of Harrington’s Pacers profession was spent coming off the bench.
As Indiana made a run to the 2000 NBA Finals, he featured 50 occasions within the common season, however by no means began a recreation, and averaged 17.1 minutes and 6.6 factors.
The Pacers confronted off towards the Los Angeles Lakers for the championship that 12 months, the place they have been crushed in six video games by Shaquille O’Neal, Kobe Bryant and Co.
Whereas Coach Fowl resigned following that disappointment, Harrington remained with the crew and started to come back into his personal.
Within the 2001-02 season, he averaged 13.1 factors and 6.3 rebounds per recreation, however his 12 months ended sooner than deliberate after he suffered a knee damage that compelled him to overlook the ultimate 38 video games.
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He made a comeback the next 12 months, changing into the one Pacer to play in all 82 video games in 2002-03, and 12 months on, was an integral a part of Indiana’s first run to the Jap Convention Finals since 2000.
However even that wasn’t sufficient to maintain Harrington in Indiana, and he was traded to the Atlanta Hawks in 2004.
After two seasons with the crew, the second of which noticed him begin a career-high 76 video games, he returned to the Pacers for a quick spell, earlier than transferring on to affix the Golden State Warriors.
Harrington spent lower than two years in San Francisco, earlier than bouncing to the New York Knicks, Orlando Magic and Washington Wizards.
In 2015, he introduced his retirement from skilled basketball, bringing the curtain down on a 16-year profession that noticed him earn $89million from the NBA.
And within the decade since, he has made that cash develop.
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NBA’s Best
In 2012, as his sporting profession was coming to an finish, Harrington co-founded Viola, a Los Angeles-based hashish firm named after his grandmother.
On the time, he was coping with the identical type of power knee and joint ache that follows nearly each participant who stays with basketball lengthy sufficient.
The anti-inflammatories he’d been taking usually for years weren’t having a lot impact, and Harrington needed to attempt medical marijuana as an alternative.
Happily, he lived in Denver, a state that was one of many first to legalize use of marijuana for medicinal functions.
Harrington started utilizing the medicinal type of the medication, in lotions that he rubbed on his knees, and drops.
Whereas they didn’t carry the excessive that smoking marijuana delivers, they introduced Harrington aid.
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Upon retiring, he went into hashish full-time and began main the event companies in three states, with a dream of being a serious participant on this planet of legalized medical marijuana.
A decade on, and his firm Viola grows, processes, and sells all varieties of hashish merchandise, from flower, to concentrates, to pre-rolled joints.
Harrington has additionally launched a lot of offshoots, together with an organization that manufactures non-psychoactive cannabinoid merchandise.
He has additionally introduced funding in a 3rd firm, Butter Child, which makes hashish edibles.
Harrington’s Viola now has operations in California, Colorado, Michigan, Oklahoma, Oregon and Washington, and generated about $20m in income in 2021 alone, earlier than it was valued at over $100m the next 12 months.
By that point, the previous basketball star had invested $6m of his personal cash to take possession of about 40 p.c of the corporate.
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Different NBA traders embrace Ben Gordon, Kenyon Martin and DeMarcus Cousins — however promoting hashish is simply a part of Viola’s mission.
Harrington’s primary aim is to assist Black entrepreneurs construct fairness in one in all America’s fastest-growing economies.
As of 2025, hashish is authorized in some kind in 39 US states, together with for leisure use in 24, and is anticipated to generate $65 billion in annual gross sales by 2030.
“The alternatives in our communities should be owned by us — interval,” Harrington stated of his mission again in 2022, when solely 2 p.c of hashish firms have been Black-owned.
“That is a matter.
“How can (the policing of) this drug have executed a lot hurt in our communities, and now could be a multibillion-dollar trade and never solely are we not in place to take part, however we’re nonetheless locked up due to it?”
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As Harrington continues to develop his hashish model, his Pacers are again within the NBA Finals for the primary time since 2000.
Led by ‘clutch king’ Tyrese Haliburton, they stole Sport 1 from the Oklahoma Metropolis Thunder, and can look to go 2-0 up within the collection on Sunday.