Jimmy Butler

Jimmy Butler III (born September 14, 1989) is an American professional basketball player for the Miami Heat of the National Basketball Association (NBA). Nicknamed "Jimmy Buckets" and "Playoff Jimmy", he is a six-time NBA All-Star, a five-time All-NBA Team honoree, and a five-time NBA All-Defensive Second Team honoree. He won a gold medal as a member of the 2016 U.S. Olympic team. Butler played one year of college basketball for Tyler Junior College before transferring to Marquette University. He was selected with the 30th overall pick in the 2011 NBA draft by the Chicago Bulls. In 2015, he was named the NBA Most Improved Player. After six seasons in Chicago, he was traded to the Minnesota Timberwolves in June 2017. Butler was again traded in November 2018, this time to the Philadelphia 76ers. In July 2019, he signed with the Heat. During his first season with the team, Butler reached the NBA Finals. In 2021, he led the league in steals. In 2023, he led the eighth-seeded Heat to their second NBA Finals in four years. Early life Butler was born in Houston on September 14, 1989. His father abandoned the family when Butler was an infant. By the time he was 13 years old and living in the Houston suburb of Tomball, his mother kicked him out of the house. As Butler remembered it in a 2011 interview, she told him, "I don't like the look of you. You gotta go." He then bounced between the homes of various friends, staying for a few weeks at a time before moving to another house. Despite all of this, Butler maintains a close relationship with his parents, saying, "I don't hold grudges. I still talk to my family. My mom. My father. We love each other. That's never going to change." In a summer basketball league before his senior year at Tomball High School, he was noticed by Jordan Leslie, a freshman football and basketball player at the school, who challenged him to a three-point shooting contest. The two immediately became friends, and Butler began staying at Leslie's house. Although his friend's mother and stepfather, who had six other children between them, were reluctant at first, they took him in within a few months. Butler would later say, "They accepted me into their family. And it wasn't because of basketball. She [Michelle Lambert, Leslie's mother] was just very loving. She just did stuff like that. I couldn't believe it."