Butler turns heads on streetball tour
He says some kids from Oakland gave him the nickname when he was growing up – “Ballaholic” they called him – but former Utah State basketball player Cardell Butler is still looking to get the ball in his hands a bit more often.
“I got [the name] when I was probably 15 years old,” Butler said. “I guess I shot a lot. The name just defines how I play – straight buckets.”
After a senior campaign in which his team-best 14 points-per-game lead the Aggies to a 25-4 season, Butler earned his spot on 20 dates of the And 1 Mixtape Tour – a national tour featuring some of the best streetballers in the world – only to be voted off with three games remaining.
“I worked hard for it,” Butler said of the tour which offers one contract to an amateur player a the summer’s end. “There was another guy and he was on [the tour] last year. I think we both should have got the contract, but I guess he worked a little harder than I did. He deserved it.”
Butler first caught the eye of the And 1 players at an open run competition in Salt Lake on June 19, where his play at the E Center earned him a guaranteed three games on the tour in Texas.
“When I first came on in Houston, Dallas and San Antonio,” Butler said, “I played awesome. I think I averaged, like, 26 points.”
Good enough to keep him on the tour bus for most of the summer.
But he didn’t let anyone know about the success he was having, he said, because he wanted to be able to play for himself and not worry about who was watching the show when it aired on ESPN.
“I didn’t even let my mom know I was on the tour,” Butler said. “She called me when I was in Minnesota and told me she saw me on TV. I didn’t want to tell too many people because [I would feel] like I was showing off to my friends. I just wanted to keep it to myself so I could just play.”
Butler said he had the opportunity to leave the tour early and join up with the New York Knick’s training camp, but opted to remain on the tour.
“I didn’t want to leave And 1 and go to Knicks camp and start all over,” Butler said. “Plus I got more TV time [on the mixtape tour].”
The tour marked the first time Butler had ever been inside an NBA arena, as either fan or athlete, something he said only heightened the experience.
“I was just having fun,” Butler said. “I hadn’t been in an NBA arena until this summer – ever. I played in 19 or 20 arenas this summer.”
Still, Butler said he was unaware that And 1 would have accommodated him had he chose to go to the camp.
“Next summer I’m going to do both,” Butler said. “I didn’t know that I could have done both. The cameras could have gone to Knicks camp with me.”
As part of his experience on the tour bus, Butler, and other new players, were required take part in some initiations.
“I thought they were going to put me in some lingerie or something, but they painted my face,” Butler said. “I was a tiger. They painted little whiskers and called me ‘Tigerholic’ and I had to walk around the Mall of America. It was so embarrassing.”
He said his most memorable night of the tour came on July 16 in New York, where he was able to take the court at Madison Square Garden.
“It was sold out and I played well,” Butler said. “Most guys can’t say they had two dunks and 20 points at the Garden. Michael Jordan played there against the Knicks. It’s the Mecca.”
In New Orleans, a few weeks later, Butler had the name “Ballaholic” tattooed on the right side of his neck.
Less than seven days later he played his final game of the tour in Miami, just three games short of the tour’s final game in Washington D.C.
Still, embarassment aside, Butler said he would do it all over again if he could.
“It was the best summer of my entire life,” Butler said. “I wouldn’t trade it for anything.”
-acf@cc.usu.edu