By: Samuel Lin
“Five seconds remaining, Butler looks like he’s going for the win, Butler heaves. . . and hits! With 4/10 of a second remaining, Butler delivers for his new squad” the announcer said as Butler scored the game winning shot for his NBA team.
Jimmy Butler, voted to the NBA All-star team and Most Improved Player in 2015, came from humble beginnings. Butler played through homelessness and mediocrity to earn himself a spot on the national stage playing for the Miami Heat.
Butler was born in 1989 in Tomball, Texas. When Butler was an infant, hsis father abandoned him, and when was a teenager, his mom said to him, “I don’t like the look of you. You gotta go,” and he was kicked out of the house. After jumping around from friend’s house to friend’s house, Butler was invited to permanently stay at his good friend Leslie Jordan’s house
After finishing high school, Butler was a run-of-the-mill player to the scouts who watched him. “He was ranked 73rd in the state of Texas coming out of high school,” former college coach of Butler said, “Not in the country, in the state. . . He was an afterthought in every possible way.”
With no offers or scholarships, he went to the nearby small Tyler Junior College. In his first year there, Butler became a leader, scoring 30 to 40 points per game. In addition, he spent long, hard hours in the gym, working on his footwork to improve his game.
After a year, college scouts began to notice him, and he received offers from bigger schools including Kentucky, Clemson, and Marquette. He eventually chose Marquette but did not immediately shine there
Butler was a benchwarmer when he arrived at Marquette. He watched and learned from two future NBA players Wes Matthews and Lazar Hayward.
“I was tutored by the best, those guys taught me so much about how to play and how to be a man,” Butler said. “I knew that to be successful, I had to be more than a scorer. I had to become a leader. It’s not about scoring. It’s about doing what my team needs me to do. I wanna be that glue guy, I want to be a guy my team and my coach can count on. That’s what I want to be.”
Subsequently, Butler became a starter and became the “Glue guy” he yearned to be, not only scoring but defending and rebounding. This impressed many NBA scouts.
“He did everything, He guarded Marshon Brooks. He was special,” said one scout. “So many guys come into the NBA with role-player talent and think they’re a star. I knew this kid could come in and fit, right away, on a good team. That’s the appeal.”
Butler was drafted to the NBA in the first round of the 2011 draft and was 30th pick by the Chicago Bulls. He is thriving in the NBA: he was voted 5x All-Defensive 2nd Team, and 4x All-NBA 3rd Team, and 6x NBA All-star; had the most steals in 2021; and is still going strong this season.
Sources:
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/27/sports/basketball/nba-jimmy-butler-miami-heat.html
https://www.espn.com/nba/draft2011/columns/story?columnist=ford_chad&page=Butler-110618