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What's up NBA.com! It's your boy Caron Butler a.k.a. Tough Juice (you will learn more about my nickname later). Welcome to my blog, The Real Juice. Through this blogging experience you will get to connect with me on a more human level, find out my personality and discover who the real Juice is. I'm an extremely nice person but I'm also determined and driven. I've got lots to talk about and I'm going to be real detailed with everything so get ready.

This season, "It's Our Time"

This year everybody is really trying to see how this thing, this team is going to come together. With Gilbert back on the floor and Brendan Haywood and DeShawn Stevenson we look strong. Then we got new additions with Randy Foye, Oberto and Mike Miller. And then you got this whole new coaching staff with Flip Saunders.  It's a different game this time around. Don't worry though, I'm going to keep you updated and let everybody know what's going on.

Our motivation for this year is "It's our Time" and I strongly believe that. With all the new additions and guys returning, it's a chance for us to really capitalize on a great opportunity while we are all in the prime of our careers. We want to make the best of it.

The main goal this season, at worse is to reach the Eastern Conference Finals. Making the playoffs is not JUST the goal anymore. Especially with this bunch that we have.  When I first got here going to the Playoffs was huge! People were cheering in the streets, balloons all through the city and everything.  We were excited but at the same time that should just be normal and expected from this squad.

Flashbacks of last season...

Sixty-three losses is a big motivator for us and all we got to do is win this season. You can't go nowhere but up from where we were last season. No joke. Me and Antawn Jamison were out on the court last season just shaking our heads saying 'this team needs a psychiatrist'. I was just floored.

Every time you went out there you knew the results. The results of your win-loss record and the results your team was going to produce no matter what you did.  We had young guys who we knew were going to make mistakes. And you can't teach them on the fly, so we knew these things were going to keep happening.

Myself and Antawn as captains we didn't know what to say to them either because we had never been through anything like this. After a loss I would just be sitting there looking at Antawn looking at me and we would just say to the team "young fellas keep working hard". That is basically all you can do. But it was html_removed killing us inside.

I think now they have learned over the season to be more professional and to take the craft more serious. But last season, we all were going through stuff as men and we just couldn't help them grow up as fast as we wanted to.

Un-Doing the Dew This Summer

I lost 11 pounds this summer by giving up Mountain Dew. That's right Mountain Dew. A lot of people don't know I'm a Mountain Dew addict so I guess this is my confession.

To try and give this up was CRAZY for me! I was going through withdrawals. I was in the bed sweating. My wife would turn over in the bed and ask "Are you OK?" .Honestly, those first two weeks without The Dew was the roughest two weeks of my life. I'm talking headaches, sweats and everything. Before that I drank at least six 12 ounce Mountain Dews a day.

It was so bad at one point that I had to have a cold one right there at the night stand before I went to bed. I had to get the coasters and let it drip a lil' bit and just have it waiting on me. Come 2 a.m.., I'd wake up out of my sleep, I'd pop one open and hear the fizz sound...and just down it!  Then I always had to have another one in the morning when I woke up. Before practice I had one too and before games I would knock back two.

The Last Straw: My other quirk.

Now that I don't have Mountain Dew in the picture, I'm going to probably fall back more heavily on one of my other funny quarks, straw chewing. Yeah, with The Dew out of my life, the straw chewing thing is probably going to get worse. Chewing straws is a habit that I developed to calm me down. It's good for my nerves. Sometimes, I'm so anxious to get out there and play and if I sit in one spot before a game and have nothing to do I'll just sweat out and psych myself out. I get so hype and I pump myself up so hard and the straws calm me down. (I prefer McDonald's straws over any other. And you better believe I know the difference!)

Before the game, the referees would even say "take the straw out your mouth because they were worried about my safety. I would have it hanging out my mouth at first when I put it in. But after a while, I would get it to the point where I'd chew it down to small piece and it's like gum. So I have become used to just having straws in my mouth during the game and I think the refs have become accustomed to it too. It's been about seven or eight years of this habit, so now when they see me with the straws they are like, "Well he is going to chew it down in a second. So he cool," and they don't bother me.

During the preseason you might have seen me without a straw because I wasn't that anxious about exhibition games. But once the regular season starts the straws will make a comeback, trust me.

Tough Juice for All-Star 2010.

Oh yeah and let's not forget that this season I am motivated to be an All-Star more than ever. I made it in 2007 and 2008 but not last season because obviously a lot of the All-Star stuff is based on how successful your team is. Because I had the best stats of my career last season (20.8 ppg, 6.2 rpg, 4.3 apg) but it was a bad year for the Wizards. But I know how that goes. I wasn't bitter at all; I took it on the chin. Like OK this is just one season, but next season watch out! Now we're here. So let's get it!

Check back for a video of me withdrawing from this Mountain Dew. We are going to have fun with this blog and rock it out!