NBA bans Butler from chewing straws

One of the more bizarre headlines to come across from NBA news.

NBA executive vice president Stu Jackson phoned Butler on Tuesday and told him to leave his straws at home.

His Mavericks teammates, including Dirk Nowitzki, poked fun at their teammate by chewing straws during warmups earlier this week.

Instead of drinking Mountain Dew, he found chewing straws to be a better addiction:

"I was going through withdrawals," Butler said 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."

There's a headline if ever I heard one.

Seriously though, what's the actual harm? It's probably better that he's chewing on straws than drinking soft drink during warm-ups.

Clearly the most pressing issue face the NBA today...although in all serious I suppose it's fair enough if it's a safety issue as Mark Cuban says. Still, this is Butler's eighth year in the league, you'd think something would've been said before now.

So under-the-table deals are fine (Z going back to Cavs if it happens is a disgrace to the league) but chewing straws & listening to iPods are not

Is it really a disgrace when it happens every year?

Whatever happened to chewing on cat placenta in moments of stress?

In these economic times?