“It was helping,” he said of the marijuana. “My most consistent year of smoking weed and playing was when I averaged three blocks and a double-double.” But in 2015, Sanders was suspended for 10 games after multiple failed drug tests, according to USA Today. “It was like, ‘I know what’s good for me. I know these alternatives that you all are offering me are going to put me in a weaker position in the long term,’ ” Sanders said of the NBA’s alternative suggestions of anxiety treatment, which he didn’t specify. The athlete added, “I knew what helped and what worked. It always came down to legalities.”