Getty Caron Butler #4 of the Miami Heat celebrates with teammate Rafer Alston #11 as the Heat defeated the Indiana Pacers 100-86 in Game Four of the Eastern Conference Semifinals during the 2004 NBA Playoffs
There’s been a lot of conversation this season about the 2006 NBA Champion Miami Heat team after Shaquille O’Neal was traded to South Beach from the Los Angeles Lakers. Heat legend Dwyane Wade spoke out in late August on the “Point Forward” podcast about how the addition of Shaq helped elevate his game to another level. In an appearance on “Boardroom” the same month, Udonis Haslem talked about the early days in Miami when he was too afraid to speak to Pat Riley.
O’Neal himself shared his reaction to being traded from the Lakers to Miami in the September 19 episode of “Legacy: The True Story of the Los Angeles Lakers.”
“Mr. Buss called me and said, ‘Hey man, I love you. Understand that you don’t want to take less money; Miami is interested,” O’Neal said. “Ok, I’ll go to Miami. Thank you, sir, cool with me. …Business of basketball!”
The episode featured former Lakers owner Jerry Buss commenting on whether he had any regrets about trading O’Neal to the Heat.
“None! That’s a franchise decision done, in my opinion, for the best health of the franchise,” he said. “I think he took it more personally than it was intended.”
Caron Butler on Shaquille O’Neal Trade
Another Heat player, Caron Butler, talked about his reaction to the O’Neal trade in 2004 and how excited he was until he found out that he was included in the deal.
“I’ll never forget coming back from Antigua,” Butler recalled during the October 27 episode of the “All the Smoke” podcast. “I was doing a Basketball Without Borders camp or clinic for the Miami Heat. … I’m walking through the airport, and they like, ‘Shaquille O’Neal coming to the Miami Heat.’ I was like, ‘Damn, we about to be dope.'”
Butler’s excitement didn’t last long. The trade details came out, naming Butler as one of three players and draft picks being exchanged for O’Neal.
“I was like, ‘Oh, s***, that’s how this worked?'” Butler continued. “‘I thought I was here forever. I just bought a crib. I can’t sell my crib.’ It was like all that emotional attachment. But that was just a crazy experience.”
Butler played with the Lakers for just one season before being traded to the Washington Wizards. He last played for the Sacramento Kings in 2016 and retired as a player in 2018 but joined the Heat in 2020 as an assistant coach.
D-Wade on the Heat Team With Shaq
Butler didn’t get to be part of the Heat team that he was excited for, and that team saw the continued growth of Dwyane Wade into the mega-star and Heat legend that he became. Wade talked with hosts Evan Turner and Andre Iguodala in an August 2022 “Point Forward” podcast about how that Shaq trade helped raise his game to another level and made him one of the greats.
“When Shaq came, it really inserted that level of confidence in me that I could be one of the greats. I mean, I needed somebody that was a great to be able to show me what it’s like to be great. When Shaq says, you’re going to be one of the greats, I don’t need no more juice than that,” Wade said.