Wizards Make Worries Vanish
Butler Finds A New Home
November 6, 2005
By DESMOND CONNER, Courant Staff Writer TORONTO - Caron Butler was at his
first regular season shoot-around for the Wa****ngton Wizards at the Air
Canada Centre Wednesday afternoon with a smile on his face.
He was smiling again when he strolled into the building wearing a fresh
gray
suit a couple of hours before the game against the Toronto Raptors.
A five-year, $50 million dollar contract could have that effect on
anybody,
but that's only part of the reason the former UConn All-American is so
happy.
"I'm blessed," Butler, 25, said. "It's an honor to be in a situation where
you're needed and the management, the owner and the coaching staff is very
fond of you and they expect big things. It's always good to be wanted. So
I
feel truly blessed to be in this situation."
Butler, in his fourth season in the league, is with his third team and
feels
the same way he did in Miami, which took him 10th in the 2002 draft. He
didn't feel that way last season in Los Angeles. He was part of a trade
that
sent Shaquille O'Neal to Miami.
"When I got traded from Miami, I was upset and it was disturbing because
it
was a family environment, and I liked the guys I was playing with," Butler
said. "It was just a great situation for me to prosper. But it was
Shaquille
O'Neal. That's how the business works, especially when you're talking
about
one of the most dominant players ever to play the game. So I had to go to
L.A. It was a business. I understood that, but it was hard for me to fit
in
out there. Even though it was great playing alongside Kobe Bryant and
playing for the franchise of the Lakers, I needed a situation again so I
could prosper, show everybody I was back to myself and capable of doing
things.
"So last year, my main thing was just showing everybody I was healthy and
getting through a season and putting up good numbers, playing hard and
playing consistent. And I think I did that."
Butler averaged 15.5 points, 5.8 rebounds and two assists in 77 starts
with
the Lakers, after a 2003-04 season in Miami in which he missed 14 games
after knee surgery.
Against his doctor's wishes - and his better judgment - Butler came back
too
early because he wanted to help his team. He struggled for the rest of the
regular season to average 9.2 points, 4.8 boards and 1.9 assists. He
improved through the postseason, averaging 12.8 points, 8.5 rebounds and
2.4
assists.
But then came the trade. Butler knew he was going into a situation where
the
team was overloaded at his small forward position.
It didn't really matter, at least offensively, because he was just a part
of
the Kobe show, especially with Shaq out of the picture.
"It was just a situation of where I was just a spot-up shooter," Butler
said. "I wasn't involved. There wasn't anybody involved in the offense.
And
with all due respect, you have one of the best players in the game
playing,
the majority of the time he's going to have the ball in his hands. And he
always had the ball in his hand and he did great things with it but, you
know, it didn't benefit me. I had to get into a situation where I was
involved in a lot of things that were going on. ... I wanted to win games,
but the chemistry just wasn't happening out there."
Neither were contract extension talks, Butler said.
"It was just tough," he said. "A lot of adversity out there: losing
coaches,
no certainty of what was going to happen the year after. They didn't want
to
make a commitment to me and secure my family for the rest of my life.
There
were talks about that was going to happen. But that was one of my main
concerns."
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