Many major media publications might be shocked by this declaration but for those of us familiar with the “hood” this is no surprise at all. Caron Butler grew up dealing drugs, and despite his tall frame and basketball skills, his dream was to be a drug kingpin.
via ProBasketballTalk:
“It was just pastime,” Butler said (speaking on basketball). “The real goal was being out there on the streets and trying to make ends meet and make money.”
He began shooting guns at 9, dealing drugs at 11, bragging about his $10,000 stash and nice clothes at 13.
Butler looked up to drug dealers like Jimmy “Junebug” Carter, whom described himself as “The Santa Claus of the ghetto.” As Butler tells it, Junebug won a BMW in a dice game, shut down a local Foot Locker by buying all the merchandise and kept 10s of thousands of dollars in various houses around the city.
“Be like Mike? Everybody I knew wanted to be like Junebug,” Butler wrote in his autobiography, “Tuff Juice: My Journey from the Streets to the NBA.”
Many kids from the hood dream of making it to the NBA but they also deal with reality; being poor and needing money now, as well as the small chances of making it to the league. Of course they grow up idolizing guys like Michael Jordan but the local dealers in the hood flossing money and cars are RIGHT there and for many, they become something to aspire to.
