MLB and the NFL are concerned with ridding human growth hormone and Twitter from their locker rooms. According to ESPN.com, the NBA is focusing its attention on banning straw chewing. (Did you ever think you would read that sentence?)
Too bad they don't have a patch to kick a straw-chewing habit, because Mavericks guard Caron Butler has it bad. He reportedly has chewed an average of 12 plastic straws per game since his teenage years.
"It calmed me down," he told NBA.com last March. "Then it became one of those things you keep doing."
NBA executive vice president Stu Jackson broke the news about the ban to Butler on Tuesday.
"It's against the rules," Mavericks owner Mark Cuban told ESPN.com.
Butler did not play against the Los Angeles Lakers on Wednesday after a reaction to medication, but when he returns, hopefully he can come up with an alternative solution to maintain his swagger on the court.
Strangely enough, this is not the first unusual habit Butler has had to kick. The Washington Wizards banned Butler from his heavy Mountain Dew consumption in 2007. He was known to down a two-liter bottle for every game.
"I was going through withdrawals," Butler said in his Real Juice blog on NBA.com. "… Honestly, those first two weeks without The Dew [were] the roughest two weeks of my life. I'm talking headaches, sweats and everything."
This is no joke.
"Y'all think this is just a game; it's dead serious,” Butler told the Washington Post two years ago. “I've got six refrigerators in the house. I used to have Mountain Dews filled in all of them. I don't have a Mountain Dew in my refrigerator no more. It's crazy, man. Pretty soon they'll say I can't chew my straws anymore.”
Turns out the hoopster with the strange habits is also a prophet.
