Al Harrington: The Heart of a Lion

Less than 24 hours after undergoing a heart procedure in an Indiana
hospital, former NBA star and owner of the successful cannabis/hemp company
Viola Brands, Al Harrington, was all smiles as we sat down to commence a
candid conversation. That’s all you need to know about this extraordinary
athlete’s toughness, tenacity and determination: When there’s a job to do,
Al Harrington shows up and shines. And shine he did.

Born and raised in New Jersey, Harrington was the 25th overall pick in the
1998 NBA draft after being selected as a McDonald’s High School
All-American. Bypassing college hoops altogether, Harrington played six
seasons with the Indiana Pacers then spent the following decade with the
Atlanta Hawks, Golden State Warriors, New York Knicks, Denver Nuggets,
Orlando Magic and Washington Wizards before retiring in 2015. In all,
Harrington played in 16 seasons in the NBA—that’s quite an impressive run
to be sure.
[image: Al Harrington head shot]*amazing race:* “It’s just amazing where
we’ve come, and we’re not gonna stop,” Harrington says of his cannabis and
hemp brand, Viola.

So it wasn’t a complete surprise when Harrington applied that hard-earned
discipline from his playing days to his next venture, Viola Brands, the
largest Black-owned cannabis brand producing products since 2011. Currently
available in nine states—Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Michigan,
Missouri, Nevada, New Jersey and Pennsylvania—Viola’s mission, according to
Harrington, is to “increase equity and ensure Black and brown people are
afforded the opportunity to be a part of a fast-growing industry that has
historically left them disenfranchised.”

Viola Brands’ latest big moves involve his recent collabs with fellow
former NBA star, Allen Iverson, by partnering in distributing the popular
strains Iverson ’01 and ’96. Most exciting, perhaps, is the latest news out
of this team: Viola Brands recently announced they’re once again partnering
with Iverson as well as Horticulture Co. and Circle K to launch a line of
Allen Iverson-branded, hemp-derived THC beverages called IVERSON. Circle K
is the exclusive retailer for this national rollout, which is considered
one of the very largest for THC products in American mainstream retail.

This is a very big deal.

It’s with this knowledge and energy that we entered our conversation with
Al Harrington, the tough as nails, eloquent ambassador for all things
cannabis. He’s all heart. But you already knew that didn’t you?
[image: Al Harrington and Allen Iverson]*full circle:* Harrington has
partnered with fellow NBA star Allen Iverson (left), Horticulture Co. and
Circle K to launch their beverage line nationally at Circle K

*Let’s go back to when you were a McDonald’s High School All Star pick—you
must’ve been pursued by every top college team—what went into the decision
to go straight into the NBA draft?*

Yeah, man. Well, my story goes, when I was young, I was always the
clumsiest kid in the room. Never got picked to play sports. At the end of
my eighth-grade year, I was diagnosed with Osgood-Schlatters, which is
basically a huge growth spurt—I grew from 5’10” to 6’4” in one summer. When
I got to high school, I wasn’t even gonna try out for basketball, but the
JV coach, thank God, put me on the team. I was the worst player on the
team. I couldn’t dunk. I couldn’t catch. But the next summer, I met this
guy named Sandy Pyonin, who became my AAU coach, and that’s when everything
changed, man. He taught me how to play basketball, how to dribble, shoot,
run. Everything. I switched high schools and by my junior year, it all
started to click. My senior year, I went to the Nike All-American Camp and
ended up being MVP there, which put me in the top ten in the country. And I
told my coach if I become No.1, I want to go pro. And he was like, “I don’t
know about all that.”

*It sounds as if you could’ve used a couple of years in college before
going pro.*

You know what, I probably could have. My AAU coach always says that. But I
mean, shit, I played 16 years—so let’s not get it twisted. *[Laughs]* When
I got to the league, I never, not once thought I didn’t belong. I never
thought that my teammates, or the guys I played against, were that much
better than me or that I should’ve gone to college. You know what I’m
saying?
[image: Al Harrington and Kobe Bryant play basketball at Madison Square
Garden]*all kobe, no beef:* “I had success in New York [with the Knicks]
because I just never wanted to get booed,” Harrington says, here in 2010 at
Madison Square Garden playing against Los Angeles Lakers’ legend, Kobe
Bryant.

*Let’s talk about New York City—I remember you with the Knicks, and all of
a sudden, everything clicked for you. You scored more points than ever. Was
something different playing at Madison Square Garden versus other places?*

I’ll say why I had success in New York was really because I just never
wanted to get booed. [*Laughs*] In New York City, they’ll boo your ass in a
minute. So, I always made sure I had my best games in New York because I
never wanted to get booed. But I can say I never got booed once in my two
years playing there!

*How did Viola, your successful cannabis brand since 2011, get its name?*

So, my grandmother’s name is Viola. Right around the time I started playing
for the Denver Nuggets, cannabis was just making its way onto the medical
scene and I was reading about it every day in the newspapers—I’m a big
newspaper reader—and at the end of that year, my grandmother came to see me
play. When she got there, she was taking all this medication for high blood
pressure, diabetes, glaucoma…I told her I’d just read that cannabis can
cure glaucoma. She looked at me and she said, “*Reefer?!* Boy, you trying
to get me to smoke reefer?! You outta your mind!” And she laughed and
laughed. But the next day I come home and she’s sitting in the kitchen
complaining about how bad her eyes hurt, and I told her “Grandma, look,
you’re in a legal market here. Doctors recommend cannabis for patients
dealing with what you’re dealing with, so why don’t you just give it a
try?” I called a dispensary, and they recommended a strain called Vietnam
Kush. We bought this Volcano bag system, had her go outside and she tried
it. I asked her how she was feeling. She was crying, and she said, “I’m
healed! I haven’t been able to read the words in my Bible in more than
three-and-a-half years.” I hug her and we call my mother, and she’s telling
her, “God gave me my sight back. Everything’s so bright.” That’s what
inspired me to just start learning more about cannabis, weed,
reefer—whatever you want to call it—because of the medicinal benefit—the
*miracle* it was for my grandmother.

*Did she live long enough to see the company?*

Yep, she did. She died in 2021, so she lived to 91 years. When I launched
the company, she came to the launch party. And after we got done with
dinner and everything, we were driving home and she was like, “Al, that was
a lot of people, and everybody was saying my name, my name was everywhere.”
She’s like, “If anything happens bad, will I go to jail?” *[Laughs]*

*Not only do you have the deep medical origin story, but Viola is
legitimately committed to entrepreneurs of color.*

I mean it’s always been the focus once I got into the industry. This
industry isn’t easy and it’s not really set up for us to be successful,
especially when people have limited resources. And after COVID, it’s been
in this kind of wonky place because so many people lost money betting on
these huge players that couldn’t produce. But you know, at the end of the
day, it’s like sports—you come into a game with a game plan to stop Steph
Curry, and if it don’t work, you got to readjust the plan. So, we’ve
pivoted into the adult beverage space; we continue to stay relevant and
make sure that we keep a seat at the table as this industry continues to
evolve.

*A few years ago, you wrote an article stating there was still a war on
marijuana. Do you think that’s still in place, particularly given the
recent—and shocking— federal ban on hemp Trump signed into law?*

Yeah, you see it all the time, man. Obviously, it makes no sense, right?
You’d think that train has left the station already when it comes to
banning any cannabis at this point. But that’s just the world we live in,
especially in the US. Like the fact that there’s still Red Dye 40 in damn
near everything we eat—it’s so funny the things they choose to care about
when there’s other things that are really, *really* affecting and hurting
all of us, even children. It’s just a weird time and the war on cannabis is
continuing. [US Senator] Mitch McConnell throwing that in there in a budget
bill is just criminal, right? Because who’s gonna stop a budget bill to
address a hemp ban?

*And Trump’s not gonna read the fine print, as we know.*

I mean, even if he did, he’s not going to stop it—people have been out of
work for more than 40 days, right? He can’t stop that to say, “I don’t want
hemp in there” and go back and forth. But there’s always gonna be hurdles
along the way, ’cause we’re going through prohibition, and we’ll find a way
to come out good on the other side, it’s just gonna take us more time and
money—and energy that a lot of people don’t seem to have anymore, because
we kinda tired and beat up from getting to where are today. But at the end
of the day, we see how much good is done and it’d be crazy for us to stop
now.

*You said post-COVID’s been wonky for the cannabis industry and capital’s
sort of dried up—what I’ve seen is a lot of consolidations and
collaborations. I’ve seen your recent work with Allen Iverson. I see you
with Ricky Williams. How have you teamed up, and how are collaborations a
part of Viola now?*

Being an NBA player for 16 years, I understand that no matter how good
Reggie Miller was by himself, if it wasn’t all of us collectively working
together, he ain’t gonna win no games. So that’s kind of how I see it. For
me, being able to join forces with people that are like-minded and come
from sports is important—I know that athletes don’t quit. And what we do is
really intentional.
[image: Iverson Viola THC drinks]

*Is the Iverson collaboration just on the beverage line?*

No, so we actually started our collaboration with Allen Iverson in 2021,
and it started with just flower. Then it went from flower to vapes to
edibles and pre-rolls. Then we started concocting these beverages about two
years ago, and we did a collaboration with a company called Tempters, where
we provided the terpenes. We’re coming up on our two-year anniversary with
them. Last month, we launched the IVERSON beverage and we got a national
mandate with Circle K. So we’ll be in 3,000 Circle Ks.

*Huge news. What a massive win.*

Thank you, bro. I mean that came together so fast, man. God has always been
on my side. And the fact that we met Circle K when we did and they allowed
us to get in on that fourth quarter set, which was already done six months
ago, was a huge play for us. We have all of our beverage line in there,
five different brands. Spec’s, which is the biggest grossing THC beverage
liquor store chain in the country, based in Texas, we just launched in
there last week, and we’re just growing it from there—Goody Goody, Total
Wine, Gopuff, we’re working on more. Obviously, with this bill, they just
snuck a monkey wrench in there, but we’re still business as usual, we’re
just going to have to work and lobby. We got a year to fight it, and I
think we’ll make some weight because these products are too good and
they’re helping so many people.

*We’ve seen a lot of celebrity brands who come into the space, and don’t
succeed. Is Viola’s success also partly due because you do enjoy the plant
and it’s part of your life? What are some of the strains or forms of
consumption that you enjoy?*

So for me, I prefer OGs, you know, I just love the way OGs make you feel,
it checks all the boxes. It gives you the body high, a little bit of a head
high and relaxes me. I’m not a big sativa smoker because it makes my heart
race and I get in my head. For OGs, I like the Skittles for flavor and
high, so we’ve been doing a lot of variations of cuts with Skittles. Lemon
Cherry Gelato had a huge run; we’re doing a lot of crossing with that.
We’re crossing a lot of stuff with Blue Nerds right now. I prefer a hybrid,
because I don’t like being too high where I can’t do anything. I’m looking
more for functional, right? And that’s what we brought to the beverages—I
drink beverages every single day and I smoke more socially. All our
beverages have clean ingredients—low sugar, low calorie. Always standing
true to our roots of health and wellness. I’ve literally lost millions of
dollars because I wanted to make sure we stayed with the quality. Bottom
line? This brand has my grandmother’s name. If it’s not good enough for
Grandma Viola to smoke, then we’re not allowing nobody else to smoke it.
And to your point, I honestly believe that’s why we’re still here and well
respected after all these years.

*Yeah, nobody’s booing you in the cannabis space either, that’s for sure. *

No doubt. I still got that fear. *[Laughs]*

*Where are you in five years?*

In five years, man, I hope that we’re still in this game. I think we’ll
have some of the best spirits in the cannabis space, maybe circle back to
edibles. I think we’ll be one of the biggest brands in convenience, through
Circle K, hopefully 7-Eleven and we’re talking to Target. You know, when I
started I never would’ve thought that I’d ever be sitting in a store next
to Doritos and Pepsi. *[Laughs]* It’s just amazing where we’ve come, and
we’re not gonna stop. We’ll keep trying to break down all those damn
barriers.

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