In our Spotlight on Business Report tonight.

Al Harrington is a Roselle, New Jersey, native who made a name for himself in the NBA playing for the Denver Nuggets.

And while he's had a world of success as a ballplayer, his next venture has been navigating the cannabis industry as a dispensary owner.

Ted Goldberg spent some time with Harrington to learn how he made the transition from basketball to marijuana, and how his grandma lent some inspiration along the way.

Hey, guys, how y'all doing?

Al Harrington just opened up the third recreational dispensary in Hoboken.

We have flower, pre-rolls, vaporizers, indica in the guy.

So it's get up and go.

It's, good times.

Kick back and lights out.

Harrington's shop is unique for a few reasons, mostly the fact that it's owned by a 16 year NBA veteran.

With the perks that go along with it, like a collaboration to sell cannabis produced by Hall of Famer Allen Iverson.

Once you take advantage of the advantage that I have.

Right.

And the relationships, when you look at, you know, all major corporations like New York, Coca-Cola and Pepsi, you see, they do collaborations with entertainers and athletes all the time.

And it's the reason for that.

Before Harrington was a first round pick, he was a Jersey kid in Roselle, and he says cannabis was very much not his style.

I had some cannabis uses, you know, in my family or whatever, and they were always shut, right.

They were like the, you know, being outcast from the family because they did that.

So it was something that I was afraid of and stay far away from.

That all changed.

Late in his NBA career, I just had a simple meniscus surgery that turned into an infection.

You know, I almost died from it.

To be honest.

I had to, like, made me my seventh clean out of my knee.

I was in the room all groggy, you know, and this lady walked in.

I was with my partner, who was my partner and is in this company.

And she came up and she was just like, man, why are you taking all these drugs?

Like, why don't you just try CBD?

And, you know, there's some stuff that I need, some tinctures and stuff like that.

Harrington went from cannabis curious to recommending smoke to his grandmother, who suffered from glaucoma.

And she said, well, what is cannabis?

And I said, it's marijuana.

Weed.

She looked at me as a reefah.

She said, what are you going to give me a smoke?

Reefah.

And she laughed so hard.

She said, well, you better get out of my face.

I smoke no reefah.

And I said, this will be our secret.

I won't tell nobody.

And, she tried it and went to go check on an hour and a half later and she's downstairs crying, reading the Bible.

So the first time she's saying the words I. Bible over three and a half years.

Viola.

His grandmother's name is also the name of Harrington's business, which has locations nationwide.

Harrington says it's been a roller coaster ride since he started the business late in his NBA career.

Understanding the regulatory environment and the regs and stuff like that was definitely one of the biggest challenges, right?

Because it was all left up for interpretation.

You may have spent $50,000 to go this way.

And then they saying that way is no longer good now.

Yes.

And then you got to reverse.

It's been another 100,000 to change that.

His journey to Hoboken took a few years and included some gentle persuasion of people and politicians.

It took a lot of convincing that, you know, adding this store here would not ruin the beauty of what goes on a street every single day.

Right.

They didn't want any, interruptions.

Right?

They didn't want any riffraff.

That anyone.

You know, people, you know, people being shot or robbed.

You know what I'm saying?

Because they're, you know, buying cannabis.

Harrington is a rarity in the cannabis industry, not just because he's six foot seven, but also because so few dispensaries are minority owned.

He says it's important to have represents in the industry 85% of all drug arrests.

And black communities have always been cannabis related.

Right.

So now we can have all these new cannabis stores and all these communities, and there's no representation, you know what I'm saying?

Because at the end of the day, this is a true opportunity for generational wealth, because cannabis is not going away forever.

Harrington also wants to rep new Jersey and the Merchant.

His store features a local artist.

It was very important for me to, do things all new Jersey out of the gate, and we got the Statue of Liberty.

You know, she's just taking a little smoke.

You know, it's got a long day standing all day.

You know, if you want to relax a little bit.

Harrington isn't relaxing yet.

He just received a license to open dispensaries in New York State and continue honoring his grandmother in Hoboken.

I'm Ted Goldberg, NJ Spotlight News.