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Karon Butler #4 of the Miami Heat celebrates with teammate Raffer Alston #11 as the Heat defeated the Indiana Pacers 100-86 in Game 4 of the Eastern Conference semifinals during the 2004 NBA Playoffs
Recently there were many comments about the 2006 NBA champion Miami Heat after Shaquille O’Neal was traded to South Beach from the Los Angeles Lakers. Heat legend Dwyane Wade recently spoke about how adding Shaq helped take his game to another level. Odonis Haslem talked about his early days in Miami when he was too afraid to talk to Pat Riley. O’Neal himself recently shared his reaction to his trade from the Lakers to Miami on a recent episode of ‘Legacy: The True Story of the Los Angeles Lakers“.
“Mr. Boss called me and said, ‘Man, I love you. I understand you don’t want to take any less money; Miami is interested.’” O’Neill said, “Okay, I’m going to Miami. Thank you sir, great with me…basketball work! “
The episode even included comments from former Lakers owner Buss and if he had any regrets about trading O’Neal to the Heat.
“Nobody! This is a franchise decision that was made, in my opinion, for the best health of the franchise,” Jerry Boss said. “I think he took it more personally than intended.”
Caron Butler on Shaquille O’Neal Trade
Another Heat player, Karon Butler recently spoke about his reaction to the Shaquille O’Neal deal and how excited he was until he found out he was included in the deal.
Butler recalls during a recent episode of “I’ll Never Forget Back From Antigua”All the Smoke podcast. “I was doing a camp or clinic for Basketball Without Borders for the Miami Heat. … I’m walking into the airport, and they’re like, ‘Shaquille O’Neal is coming to the Miami Heat.’” I was like, “Damn, we’re about to be drugged.”
Unfortunately, Butler’s enthusiasm was short-lived, and details of the trade emerged, Butler was one of three players involved in exchange for O’Neill, and that he would not be part of the team being built in the South. Beach.
“I was like, ‘Oh, damn, that’s how this works? “I thought I was here forever. I just bought a bed. I can’t sell my bed. It was like all that emotional attachment. But this was just a crazy experience.”
Dr-wade on Team Hit with Shack
Butler wasn’t part of the Heat team he was passionate about, and that team saw Dwyane Wade continue to grow into the mega star legend that the Heat has become. Wade recently talked about how Shaq’s trade helped take his game to another level and made him one of the greats on a recent episode of their show. Podcast “Point Forward”With Evan Turner and Andre Iguodala.
“When Shaq came along, he included this level of confidence that I could be one of the greats. I mean, I needed someone who was great to be able to show me how great it was. When Shaq says you’re going to be one of the greats, I don’t need more juice” , Wade said.
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