When Caron Butler’s NBA playing career came to an end in 2016, he didn’t necessarily envision himself returning to the league as a coach. As a father of five and businessman with plenty to keep him busy in retirement, Butler had enough going on.
But Butler’s thinking changed somewhere along the way, as he just completed his third season as a Heat assistant coach on Erik Spoelstra’s staff and served as the Heat summer league head coach for the first time this year.
“I didn’t know that I was going to fall in love with the game and the teaching and all those things,” Butler said to the Miami Herald, with the Heat closing this year’s summer league on Sunday against the Portland Trail Blazers in Las Vegas (8 p.m., ESPN 2). “But it’s something that I just can’t see myself not doing now because of the connection with the players and seeing them get it and the information that you instill in them. That feeling is priceless.”
