Story goes, a sick, bedridden Butler with a throw up bucket in his reach was suddenly stunned when police officers burst in searching for drugs. One man’s decision to let a now-clean Butler off on a home invasion drug-bust allowed his future to live another day. Drug-free and bound for success on the basketball court, nothing was stopping Caron Butler.īut, in January of 1998, Butler’s future was almost completed shattered. Butler played on Amateur Athletic Union teams as a youngster, and played a few years at Racine Park High School in Racine, Wisconsin dominating the competition.
11 months later, clean, drug-free Butler took his basketball skills and ran with them. How was Caron Butler introduced to basketball, anyway? While incarcerated in a juvenile detention center in his early teenage years, Butler embraced the game of basketball more than anything in his life. A life in the ghetto is not easy, and people who grew up in such a grueling place either don’t grow to see their elder years, or stay there for life.īecoming successful while living in the ghetto is tough, but has been done before. Around this time-instead of proving himself on the basketball court-he had to prove himself on the streets as a gang member and drug dealer.Ĭaron Butler has seen it all: friends killed, gang fights, arrested 15 times before the age of 15. In his 2015 book, Tuff Juice: My Journey from the Streets to the NBA, the one-time NBA champion describes and tells all about his troubled life in the ghetto before being drafted to the NBA. Kobe’s story may be over, but the people he has influenced continue to write more chapters to his legend.This article isn’t about how great of a player Caron Butler once was, but the unbelievably delinquent childhood Butler once knew as a young man growing up in the mean streets of Racine, Wisconsin. “My mind was just wrapped around, how can I create a legacy that’s bigger than myself? How can I leave something and impact people from all walks of life, not just through the game of basketball, but all walks of life?,” Butler added. Aside from being an assistant coach for the Miami Heat, the one-time champion with the Dallas Mavericks is also an entrepreneur, philanthropist and activist–being among the first ones to speak out about George Floyd’s death. He frequently watched WNBA games live with his daughter Gianna as he helped promote the sport.Īs for Butler, he took Kobe’s advice to heart and is now doing his best to leave his mark to the current generation of NBA players.
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Now this is in year three, year four and he’s already talking about life after basketball.”Ĭaron Butler took Kobe's wise words to heart on making your second act greater than your first ? Watch the full episode: #WhosInterviewingWho | /tP1ktQg2buĬaron Butler’s story certainly gives everyone a peek at Kobe Bryant’s brain and why the Lakers icon has become such an influential force in the NBA.Įven before his retirement, Kobe has made sure to guide the younger generation, with the likes of Jayson Tatum, Devin Booker and Trae Young all sharing how his mentorship allowed them to grow and evolve into the NBA players today.,īefore his tragic passing in 2020 and even before and after his retirement, the former Lakers star also embarked on a journey to promote women’s basketball and provide female athletes the opportunity and platform to show their skills on a national level.
“I didn’t realize that until I went and joined forces with Kobe… where he was just talking to me about the importance of our second acts. “This is a spec of time that I’m going to have this platform,” Butler said, per NBC Washington. Despite being still young at the time as well, Bryant emphasized to Butler the importance of making “second acts” better or greater than the first. Butler recalled the wise words of Kobe when he joined the then-established superstar in 2004 with the Lakers. In an episode of the Uninterrupted with De’Aaron Fox and Marvin Bagley. For one, Caron Butler will never forget one advice the Black Mamba gave him.
Los Angeles Lakers icon Kobe Bryant may be gone, but the legacy and lessons he left his peers and the younger generation of NBA players will forever be remembered.