And it's only right that I talk about this relationship, and this favor that this one officer showed me - and that all officers aren't bad people.Photo Credit: Getty Images Caron Butler And The Mean Streets Of Racine – From Nothing To Something That was self-inflicted.Īnd Detective Geller - this guy showed me tremendous favor, where he could've just thrown me to the wolves and gave me 10 to 15 and I'm gone. I was doing things to create the tension that I was getting. It was like, we don't need them out here, doing what they do to us, jumping out on us all the time, running us out of our neighborhood and doing stuff like that.īut at the same time, you know, there was a reason behind that madness. I had a perception of police officers as a youth coming up. On the lessons he drew from the encounter And you weren't the individual they described. The informant had said that there was drugs being sold out of this house, and they described the individual. To this day, I ask him: "Why didn't you charge me that day? I'm still searching for that answer myself - why didn't you pursue that charge?"Īnd he was just like, "I knew you weren't guilty. Geller said, "Let him go." He showed me tremendous favor, and I'm forever grateful because of that. Take him." If I was convicted, I was facing 10 to 15 years. Geller now because we're good friends - the sergeant looked at me and said, "Look, we got enough to convict him. They say, "Bingo! We got it." And I'm handcuffed, and I'm sitting there, and I'm just like, "Man, that's not my stuff." So after they have everything in the house secured, they go to the garage and find a little over an ounce of cocaine. I'm playing basketball, I have a job, everything is together and it's moving forward. I'm just like, man - my hope is not anything in this house that can lead me back to going to corrections, because at this time, I'm doing so well in my life. I hurry up and just, you know, try to protect myself as they come up the stairs. I look out the window and see police, ATF, SWAT team, everything out there. I leave school at about 8:30 a.m., and I'm at my house. On the encounter that led to a turning point in his life, at age 17 I lost friends in this, and I know the outcome: Either I'm going to have to hurt somebody, somebody's going to hurt me or I'm going to spend the rest of my life like this - incarcerated." I was just like, "I don't want to live this life no more. And I got out of that environment, I was seeing things a little differently. Once I got incarcerated, and I was in solitary confinement - by myself - for 23 hours a day, I got stronger mentally and physically. I didn't want that for her now, because I saw how hard she worked. What I saw go through - I didn't want that.
I was like, "Man, that's the life I want. I was exposed to that game early - as a 7, 8, 9-year-old - seeing it, seeing the money come, seeing the income, seeing the flashy jewelry and things like that. Those were my uncles, those were father figures that I had, the male role models.
Her two brothers were in the streets, hustling and doing all these things. Your purchase helps support NPR programming. The book is co-written by Steve Springer.Ĭlose overlay Buy Featured Book Title Tuff Juice Subtitle My Journey from the Streets to the NBA Author Steve, Springer, Kobe Bryant, et al His journey to basketball stardom may have instead been a journey to life behind bars, had it not been for a police detective whose words - "I trust you, and I believe in you" - proved to be a turning point in Butler's life.īutler, now starting his 14th season in the NBA, shares his story in a new memoir, Tuff Juice: My Journey from the Streets to the NBA. He had a rough upbringing in Racine, Wis., and took an unusual route to get to the pros, which included numerous drug arrests, a stint in prison and a close call that could have changed his entire life - all before he turned 18. The two-time NBA All-Star has contributed his talents on the court to the Miami Heat, the LA Lakers and the Dallas Mavericks, where he was part of a championship team in 2011.īut before he got to the NBA, his life was headed in a very different direction.
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Detroit Pistons forward Caron Butler shoots a free throw during a game against the New York Knicks in February.Ĭaron Butler has had a stellar career.
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