Those words hit home with Kevin Durant as well. As a young player, it’s great to have someone like Caron. “When I wasn’t playing, Caron was telling me to be patient,’’ Bledsoe said. Bledsoe said Butler kept him grounded and lifted him up when he was down. Caron just taught me to be professional on and off the court.’’īledsoe, now the starting point guard for the Milwaukee Bucks, said Butler helped him more than just being nattily attired. “He told me one of the things you have to do as an NBA player is look presentable, so he got me that suit. He taught me those aspects of being a professional. “I mean, Caron was big on being a professional and, with me being so young, I needed someone like him. “Caron bought me my first suit,’’ Bledsoe said with a huge smile. In 2011, with Bledsoe entering his second NBA season with the Los Angeles Clippers, Butler took him under his wing. Like leadership and commitment to his team and to the community the team was in. Talk to anyone who coached Butler or played with him during his NBA career and they’ll inevitably bring up the intangibles he brought to a team, intangibles that can’t be calculated, intangibles that the general public can’t statistically wrap themselves around. That average would, easily, lead the NBA this season. During the 2007-2008 season, he ranked as high as fourth at 39.9 minutes. In three seasons, Butler ranked among the league’s top 10 leaders in minutes per game. That’s why, despite not having gaudy numbers, he was twice chosen to the NBA All-Star Game and why he was constantly given major minutes by his coaches, all who fully realized Butler could help their teams in a variety of ways. Indeed, while Butler, who formally announced his retirement last week, wasn’t a scoring or rebounding machine, he did a lot of things well. “Caron’s a stats-stuffer,’’ Washington Wizards general manager Ernie Grunfeld often said of the 6-foot-7 Butler, who played four-plus seasons for the Wizards. In two seasons, he ranked among the top nine in steals. He boasted a complete game: he was a good rebounder, a good passer and good defender. To consider this: He played in 881 games and started in 732 of them and he recorded four seasons in which he averaged more than 16 points per game, including two seasons of more than 20 points.īut scoring was just one aspect of Butler’s game. In 14 seasons as a pro, Butler fashioned some impressive numbers, ones that vividly illustrate he just wasn’t your run-of-the-mill player. “That’s the biggest problem around our prison systems is that often people have a hard time connecting with the humanity of incarcerated people.The numbers tell a lot but hardly everything about Caron Butler’s NBA career. “This is somebody people can connect with,” she said. But there will now be a review process to ensure that isolation ends.īarbara Fair, the lead organizer for the Stop Solitary CT campaign, part of the National Religious Campaign Against Torture, said while thousands of people have horror stories about living in solitary confinement, it’s important for someone as well known as Butler to step forward. But its supporters say it includes exceptions, such as allowing officers to isolate a prisoner when that is needed to protect someone’s life. Opponents of the bill say it will take a tool away from guards that helps maintain discipline in prisons. They are going to come up with ways to rehabilitate that never dehumanize people.” There’s going to be change on the horizon. There’s going to be elected officials out there in the future that’s going to care about this community in real time. “Now I look back in hindsight and I want to tell my younger self to stay hopeful,” he said. But Butler, who is also a trustee at the Vera Institute for Justice, said he’ll never forget what he endured in prison and is hoping that the Connecticut legislation will serve as an example for other states.
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