NBA star drops major Kamala Harris interview revelation - after quizzing VP on marijuana

Former NBA star Matt Barnes admitted that he smoked marijuana prior to an interview with Vice President Kamala Harris.

Barnes and his co-host, fellow former NBAer Stephen Jackson, conducted a roughly 45 minute interview with Harris on their 'All the Smoke' podcast.

Speaking on The Dan Le Batard Show after his interview with the Democratic Party presidential nominee, Barnes admitted that he 'pre-gamed' his discussion with Harris and did not bring any drugs to the White House.

'I did not, unfortunately, get to smoke in the White House,' Barnes said. 'But if she wins, I was invited back and I may have to sneak something in... nah I'm playing. 

'I smoked before I went. You know what I mean? I pre-gamed as I was studying. Just like I was watching game film in the morning the day of the game, I smoked as I was going over my questions and summarizing the interview, and then I headed over.'

Barnes also admitted that he was working on questions for Harris on the ride over to the interview up until the last minute.

'We gave her a skeleton and an outline of the direction the conversation wanted to go,' Barnes said. 'And then literally, we were making up questions right up until we left in the car to go see her. 

'I gave her my pitch on how we wanted to do it, have a good time. We wanted the country to get a chance to just know her a little bit better as a person.'

Barnes also told Le Batard that he and Jackson were debating about whether or not they should even speak to Harris in the first place - mostly because the content would likely differ from their typical topics discussed on the podcast.

'I did want to get in the weeds, but also Dan, knowing my fan base and understanding that that stuff is interesting to me, but it may not be interesting to our core audience. 

'So it was really a thin line. Jack and I went back and forth on, "Hey, should we do this." Jack had his reasons and concerns. I was thinking, and we really went back and forth, really up until the day we left.

'So this wasn't a clear cut like, 'Hey, this is a tremendous opportunity. Let's go jump on it.' A lot of thinking went into this because we know who we are and what we are and what we stand for. 

'Sometimes people don't want to see those mixed, although I don't mind them mixing. It's not about me. It's about our fans.'

During the episode released Monday, the three discussed Harris' loyalty to the Golden State Warriors but also branched off to address a series of other topics from policies to her family and racial identity - as well as marijuana, where the Vice President stressed that the drug should be legalized.

The sit-down interview recorded in her Washington, DC home is the latest in a series of less traditional media appearances by the vice president as she mounts her bid for the White House.

It comes as Harris is faced criticism for largely avoiding tough interviews with reporters who would grill her on the issues while opting instead to appear on friendlier platforms as she works to reach voters across the country.

The vice president has now gone more than seventy days without doing a solo press conference since becoming first the presumptive and then the official Democratic presidential nominee.

Even as the New York Times editorial board endorsed Harris for president on Monday, it blasted her approach to the media and what appeared to be an effort to avoid unforced errors.

The group of opinion journalists wrote 'leaving the public with a sense that she is being shielded from tough questions, as Mr. Biden has been, could backfire by undermining her core argument that a capable new generation stands ready to take the reins of power.'

In the interview, Harris professed her love of the Golden State Warriors - a team which both Barnes and Jackson played on.

Harris was district attorney of San Francisco during the Golden State Warriors' 'We Believe' season when they were based out of Oakland and pulled off a dramatic turn-around.

Both Jackson and Barnes played on the team at the time in Harris' hometown.

'Our Warriors are always good, whichever era, but that was a very special time,' the vice president reminisced smiling. 'I mean it was electric. You guys remember, it was electric.'

Harris gushed about the team as the 'best of the best, legendary' and quickly turned the question back on her hosts to ask what it was like for them to play at that time.