Butler: I’m Not a Fan of Firing Ollie
The Story: Three seasons after he played his last NBA game, Caron Butler is full on into his retirement. He recently spoke one-on-one with The UConn Daily about a number of topics, including the firing of Kevin Ollie, how much he believes UConn’s prestige has fallen, whether the Huskies will be successful once again, Jim Calhoun‘s return to coaching and his own current endeavors.
The UConn Daily: You’ve been retired for a few years now. You’ve been doing television work. What else do you have going on at this point?
Caron Butler: I’m doing a lot of work with ESPN on college basketball. I work with Spectrum alongside working with TNT on sideline reporting. I’m working on a little documentary now with [Washington Wizards ownership group] Monumental Sports and working on my [life story] movie with Mark Wahlberg. Me and him are both co-producing. I’m just putting together a lot of content right now.
UD: Did you think you’d ever be that busy? Some people think retirement and they just take it easy.
CB: Well, I took my time. For instance, when I immediately retired, I took four or five months where it was just nothing, you know what I mean? Then it was like, OK, I did that, I had fun. Now it’s time to get to my passion and what I really love doing. I love creating content. I love writing stories and things like that. I’m trying to be a resource for things that I didn’t have growing up.
UD: So writing, filmmaking…?
CB: Yeah, doing documentaries, filmmaking. We’re doing something on mass incarceration where we’re talking about the marijuana industry and things like that. We’re premiering a documentary at Sundance at the end of this month. It’s something that affected my family with mass incarceration, and now it’s legalized on one side of the country and not on the other side, so it’s something that I wanted to address and just talk about with real people and real stories that were close to me. That’s exactly what I did. I think it’s going to kind of move the needle on some things.
UD: Someone who couldn’t handle retirement very well, you know, was Jim Calhoun. How much are you surprised by the Saint Joseph gig and what he’s done? Have you talked to him about that at all?
CB: Yeah, a little bit. So, I saw him at Ray Allen‘s Hall of Fame [ceremony]. Obviously, I have so many connections with Grant Hill, Ray Allen — those guys. Jason Kidd, I won the championship with him, so I’m supporting all the guys. Calhoun’s there, and he’s like, “Hey, I’m getting that itch.” I’m like, “…To what?” You know what I mean? Like, you’ve done everything. You’re a walking memorial. But he still loves the game of basketball, so more power to him if he’s healthy enough to be on the sideline and be engaged and help these young people. I mean, I feel like he’s a lifer.
UD: Well, he is 76 now, so that’s clearly a lifer, yeah.
CB: He’s close to 80. That’s what I’ll say. He’s close to 80 and he’s still at it, so I’m happy for him.
UD: The funny thing is the idea of him treating guys the way he treated you all, but screaming at Division III players in a tiny gym with 40 people and the voice carrying.
CB: [Laughs] Yeah, the voice carries, and it’s tough because it’s a different [level]. For us, if you were screaming at 12 of the guys, four or five were possibly professional athletes who were going to go on making a living playing basketball. Now you’re screaming at 12 Division III guys and none of them realistically have a shot at playing basketball.
UD: And then there’s the standards.
CB: Yeah, that’s what I’m saying! Ooh. You’ve got to tweak the method a little bit. He’s a mad scientist over there. I’m happy for him, though. He’s having fun and more power to him.
UD: He’s got Rashamel Jones on his staff. Ricky Moore has been through the door. Kevin Ollie, of course, has been through the door. Is coaching a thing that you would ever be interested in doing?
CB: You know, I evaluate stuff that comes across my desk. Right now, I’m doing this and I’m having a ton of fun doing this. If the right opportunity came across, I’ve got to look at. If it’s something that I should take a serious look at, I’ll take a serious look at it.
UD: Do you still watch UConn at this point?
CB: Yeah, occasionally. You know, I love the fact that Taliek Brown is there — a former roommate and obviously a teammate of mine and somebody that I love, and then obviously coach [Tom] Moore. I love the direction that they’re going as far as that — keeping the UConn DNA and the legacy and tradition strong over there.
But I was not a fan of the firing of Kevin Ollie. I’ll be the first to tell anyone that. I just think that for once, we dropped the ball on that. Anytime you see someone win, at the collegiate level, a championship, they’re extended for pretty much a lifetime, and I think he went undervalued and it was just a tricky situation. But it is what it is. Hopefully, the direction of the organization and the team move forward, and I think with Tom and Taliek Brown there, I think it will.
UD: With Kevin, how difficult has it been for you to see him go through that?
CB: Yeah, it’s tough. It was really tough for all the UConn brothers that are connected because one thing that we always value ourselves on and take pride in is considering ourselves family. We’re connected for life and forever. We live by that. Seeing him go through that process, it was heartbreaking. There are a lot of things that you want to speak on, but it’s almost like watching the divorce of your parents. You don’t want to take the side of the mother or the father.
But, I want him to know that we authentically have his support as UConn brothers.
UD: With the current group of guys, is there anyone who’s playing now who catches your eye?
CB: You know, Chris Paul sent a kid there to play, the guard, No. 3, [Alterique] Gilbert. He’s a heavily talented guard in this game. He can play. He can play at a high level. He’s got game.
But I don’t know. I think a lot of the guys you see with coach [Dan] Hurley now have been passed down, so I don’t know that we’ll truly see his product out there on the court for another two or three years. Then you can go, “OK, that’s what it is.” He’s got to go through the recruiting process and all that. It’ll be interesting.
UD: You guys all set a very high level at that university, from 1999 through your time to 2004 and so forth. Does it feel to you like this program is at the same level?
CB: I think when you shift conferences, we lost a lot. We lost a lot of history. We lost a lot of tradition. You know, saying goodbye to anything is tough, and we literally detached ourselves from our history. I feel like that’s what the conference did, and when we detached ourselves from our history, it left us on an island pretty much trying to figure it out.
We lost a lot. We lost a ton. We lost the rivalries that the world, the basketball gods, wanted to see. Georgetown vs. UConn. UConn vs. Syracuse. The things that we created with the Big East rivalries with Pittsburgh and St. John’s — we lost all that. Now, you know, the tradition is still strong in college basketball, but it lies in the ACC and things like that. We’ve pretty much scratched ourselves out of it.
UD: Now you get Wednesday night games at Tulsa.
CB: Yeah. Come on! I mean, like, where’s the [tradition]? I mean, it will probably be a good game, which it was, but I saw like, it went down to the wire or overtime or something like that [against Cincinnati], but there’s no real heavy storylines or anything that you can talk about.
UD: It’s interesting to hear you say that, because Cincinnati, in particular, has been in UConn’s conference for a decade, but they joined after you left, so it really might not mean as much.
CB: Yeah, Cincinnati was in like, what, Conference USA? So when I see that, it’s crazy.
Here, I’m going to blow your mind on this one. I cover the WCC, and my first year out, they were just giving me games to get my feet wet on the sidelines. I’m like, “OK, I’ll do the WCC.” Lo and behold, I’m going over my scout, and they’re asking me, “Hey, can you do a [Loyola Marymount] game on Saturday night?” I’m like, “OK, cool.” This was Friday, and I’m like, “OK, send me over the guys to scout and the team and whatever.”
I never got the production layout until the next evening, and I arrived there at 4 o’clock and the game was at 7, and I’m like, “I don’t even know who’s playing.” I look into it and it’s UConn vs. LMU on a Saturday night in Los Angeles and nobody even knows about it. I was sitting there like, “That is crazy to me.” A Saturday night, UConn is playing somewhere and I don’t know, man. There was just no buzz. There was [nothing].
UD: When you look back at your career, 14 years and an NBA title — you’ve spoken so glowingly of Calhoun in the past, but how much do you owe credit to him and what he did for you?
CB: Well, like, I always say that the reason why I was able to have a successful career is because early on, my foundation was strong. The people that I ran into and connected with early are a coach by the name of Max Good at prep school, Maine Central Institute, and Jim Calhoun. Those two guys planted seeds that just [helped me] continue to grow.
I learned so much about work ethic and family and being competitive and channeling that energy and evaluating the game and watching film and stuff like that, and I still do those types of things in my professional life, now that I’m commentating and doing all those [things]. Like, the way that I see the game and evaluate it is from a future Hall of Fame coach in Jim Calhoun because he taught me these things. And Pat Riley — I learned a lot from them guys.
Morning Read
IN SEARCH OF A PRECIOUS RECRUIT: He isn’t God’sgift (that’s his brother), but 6-foot-8 forward Precious Achiuwa remains a top target for Dan Hurley. Achiuwa was at the HoopHall Classic in Springfield yesterday and Hurley was there to make his presence known. (Hartford Courant)
‘WANTED AND NEEDED’: Signing with UConn in December was the first step in what Myles Bell said he wants to do: Bring prestige back to the football program. (This Is UConn Country)
READY FOR MORE: Crystal Dangerfield gave the Huskies something to think about over the weekend with her career-high 26 points against Temple on Saturday. (Journal Inquirer)
DOWN TO THIRD: The women’s basketball dropped to No. 3 in the Associated Press poll despite winning two games this past week by an average of 31.5 points. Notre Dame remained No. 1 and Baylor, which was tied with UConn at No. 2 last week, stayed there. (Associated Press)
NCAA STREAK SOMETHING TO BEHOLD: The women’s basketball team has reached the Sweet 16 for 25 straight years. It’s perhaps the best streak going. (NCAA.com)
THOMPSON STARTING TO EXCEL: The Buffalo Sabres’ Tage Thompson has emerged as a first-liner in recent games, keeping UConn’s tradition of major-league success going in another sport. (Hartford Courant)
MANAGER EYES BASKETBALL CAREER: Men’s basketball student manager Matt Barresi, a senior, wants to parlay his work on the staff into a career in basketball. (Wicked Local Hanover)
SKYDIVING SUCCESS: Who knew UConn has a competitive skydiving team? That being the case, who’s surprised to find out it won a gold medal at the national championships in December? (The Day)
