Ex-NBA forward Travis Outlaw arrested on felony marijuana charge
Former NBA forward Travis Outlaw was arrested last Tuesday after a grand jury indicted him on a felony marijuana charge.
The Starkville, Miss., native turned himself in, according to Jim Gaines of the Starkville Daily News, was arrested and quickly released on $10,000 bond. More from Carl Smith of the Columbus Dispatch:
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The indictment, issued July 15, states the Starkville native possessed an amount of the drug greater than 250 grams but less than 1 kilogram on July 23, 2015.
Outlaw was arrested and booked at the Oktibbeha County Sheriff’s Department for possession of a controlled substance. He was released that same day after posting a $10,000 bond.
Sheriff Steve Gladney said the case was presented by the Mississippi Bureau of Narcotics.
(For the non-metric-friendly among us, the amount of pot listed in the indictment converts to between 9 ounces and 2.2 pounds.)
Outlaw, who turns 32 next month, last played in the NBA in April of 2014. He entered the NBA straight out of high school, with the Portland Trail Blazers using the 23rd overall pick in the 2003 draft on a lanky 6-foot-9 teenager that they believed could grow into a versatile, sweet-shooting combo forward. He developed into a key reserve on late-2000s Blazers teams that, fueled by the talent of LaMarcus Aldridge and Brandon Roy and the leadership of Nate McMillan, rose from also-ran status to 54 wins and a playoff berth.
Outlaw averaged 13 points and 4.3 rebounds in 27.2 minutes per game off the bench between the 2007-08 and 2008-09 seasons, shooting 38.3 percent from 3-point range. At the 2010 trade deadline, though, Portland packaged him with point guard Steve Blake and shipped them to the Los Angeles Clippers in exchange for veteran center Marcus Camby, and Outlaw’s career was never the same once he left Oregon.
The Clips let him walk after the season. One dismal campaign into a five-year, $35 million contract with the New Jersey Nets effectively ended his opportunities at starting in the NBA, and led the Nets to excise him using the amnesty clause included in the 2011 collective bargaining agreement. Outlaw then caught on with the Sacramento Kings, where he spent three mostly underwhelming years shooting under 40 percent from the field and struggling to crack various coaches’ rotations. He was traded to the New York Knicks in the summer of 2014, but never played a regular-season game for them; he was traded to the Philadelphia 76ers in the fall of 2014, but never played for them at all before being waived; he didn’t catch on with an NBA team for the 2015-16 campaign.
A spokeswoman for Outlaw declined comment to The Associated Press on Sunday.
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