A straw in a Mountain Dew, is a deadly combo for Caron Butler

Caron Butler admitted last year that he had kicked his Mountain Dew habit. Butler slimmed down more than 15 pounds he told me simply by not drinking his normal 7-10 12-ounce bottles of Mountain Dew a day.

Now comes word that the NBA has outlawed Butler from chewing straws during games.

What seems like an easy couple of habits to kick in the grand scheme of things isn’t what it seems.

Caron told me that kicking the “Dew habit” was like kicking alcohol or drugs. He would wake up in the middle of the night, drenched in sweat, and shaking. He would have headaches that he couldn’t seem to get rid of. It was “terrible” he said, “the toughest thing I have done in my life.”

Chewing straws during games is something that Caron has done since middle school games. Anxiety would set in before games, and he found that chewing straws helped calm him down.

“Coaches have tried to make me stop, and it didn’t go over well. It was like playing without shoes on, I didn’t feel comfortable.”

Unable to be reached about the NBA’s latest ruling, it cannot be sitting well with Butler. Citing safety issues for their ruling, the NBA says it’s serious about their ruling.

Butler is going to be a key member of the Mavericks stretch run. It will be interesting in seeing how this latest ruling will affect his play.

Some people might think that gum would be a common sense alternative, but Caron warned me it wasn’t that easy. “Straws are more comfortable to chew for me.”

This was a week ago that we talked, but its interesting that our light-hearted talk about chewing straws during games has turned into an honest problem.