Caron Butler is still under contract with a team in the NBA. You probably wouldn't know it because he has only appeared in nine games this season, but if you turn on the Sacramento Kings, he's there at the end of the bench. Butler was in the news earlier this season because he was expected to be traded to his hometown Milwaukee Bucks, but the deal never came to fruition.
The most we have been hearing about Butler recently was about an excerpt he had in his autobiography regarding the gun incident between Gilbert Arenas and Javaris Crittenton in the Washington Wizards locker room. It turns out the autobiography, titled "Tuff Juice: My Journey From the Streets to the NBA", is going to be made into a movie.
Butler is close friends with Mark Wahlberg, whom he met back around 2011 when he was playing with the Los Angeles Clippers, and now Wahlberg is going to be the guy that produces the movie. Since Butler released the memoir, he had hoped to make it into a movie, and he says Wahlberg has always been on board. Now Wahlberg has stayed true to his word as he essentially bought the rights to the story.
Wahlberg signing on to be a producer of the film does not mean it is anywhere close to happening, but it sets the plan in motion. Wahlberg now has the option to play any role he would like in the film and Butler himself plans to be very active in the making of the movie.
As mentioned before, the Arenas-Crittenton story got the most publicity from Butler's book, but that isn't at all what it's about. It is a story of how Butler went from selling drugs and carrying a gun to becoming a 14-year NBA veteran.
There are a lot of steps that need to take place before this thing really gets rolling, including figuring out a budget and pitching it to studios, but this is a good step for Butler to get his story told. Butler and Wahlberg have talked about who they would want to play him in the movie, but obviously haven't gotten that far yet.
If Butler had his first choice it would be Michael B. Jordan. "I think he would do a great job sharing my story," Butler said.
