FEATURE

from JIMMY BUTLER, Miami, December 2022 / January 2023

COVER STORY

When he makes this statement, there’s a certain kind of quiet glee to it. He’s proud of his daughter for the bad as much as the good. She’s a total chip off the old block, and he digs that. “My daughter is literally a sponge,” he boasts. “She says everything I do, she eats like I eat. She even drinks coffee with me — when I’m sitting down having coffee in the morning, we’ll make her a baby ‘cino with strawberry milk. She’ll sit and work with dada for a couple of hours, try to be part of the grown folks’ conversation, and act like she knows what’s going on. She doesn’t, but she still drinks her version of coffee with me every single morning.”

So maybe his time in the Magic City didn’t transpire exactly the way he anticipated, but as you can probably tell, 3-year-old Rylee is literally the light of his life, and she, more than anything, has made Miami home for him.

“I get to meet so many different people doing so many different things here. Whether it’s continuously exploring my love for coffee, or getting to be a dad, I’m making friends. I get to take my baby to the zoo, and to all the different museums.” He pauses. “And I’ve got special love for Miami, because this is where I really started to be a dad.”

As a father, he’s getting to see a different side of the city that he likely wouldn’t have otherwise. After all, Miami is a glamorous location for gorgeous people, with some of the world’s best nightclubs. There’s a sultry, hedonistic quality to it that athletes tend to gravitate to. But not Butler. To be fair, he says, “Even before I had a daughter, I didn’t really get a chance to see that side of it, either. Now, I just try to stay out of the way to the best of my ability.”

Despite that, the city is a part of him. “Miami is definitely home now,” he says. “I feel like I’ve really grown to love this city, and my life has definitely taken a turn for the better here. Honestly, I don’t think it can get any better than this. Obviously, the weather always helps, and being able to do what I love for a living, being able to hoop, that helps, too. I really love it here.”

The biggest personal challenge, he thinks, is separating Jimmy “Buckets” the player from Jimmy Butler the dad — finding the balance between work life and home life. “Separating the two is the one thing I really, really tried to focus on this offseason,” he admits. “What I found is that, when it’s time to give your all to being an athlete, do that. And then when it comes to being your everyday dad, be that, and let the basketball stuff go. And that was that — working on that switch, turning it on and off. Because sometimes, when I’m with my daughter, all I can think about is like, man, we’ve got to get back in the gym at 7 a.m. But then it’s like, man, you’ll always be able to get back to the gym. Honestly, that’s what it is. I work hard enough as it is, but I really have to master Hey, it’s daddy time; when you’re with your baby, let basketball take care of itself.”

halk it up to the love of his daughter, a summer of fun, or all that C Floridian sunshine, but whatever it is, Jimmy Butler is happy.

He says as much now. “Man, I’m in a really, really good headspace. I’m so comfortable with me being me. I don’t care what I do with my hair, I don’t care what I put on. I mean look, my guys are good. My family’s good, my baby’s good. I’m so happy, and so fortunate to be around and work alongside the people I get to work with. I literally have no complaints. I’m a kid from Texas playing for the Miami Heat on the highest level. I wouldn’t change where I’m at for the world.”

Let’s recap where Jimmy Butler is at, right now, at this specific moment in time. He is raising a mini-me, has one hell of a contract, unparalleled support of his fans, an ambassadorship with Swiss timepiece brand Tag Heuer, and an exciting and successful new business venture in BIGFACE Coffee, a brand born out of the 2020 NBA Bubble. Who can forget that he turned beans into lattes, as it were, operating his own “coffee shop” out of his hotel room with an espresso machine he brought from home? (And that he charged his fellow NBA players $20 for the luxury?)

I feel like he may need something stronger than coffee if his mini-me does become more and more like her dear old dad, and recall from our former chat that he has a deep and abiding love of wine. That still exists, he promises, though he has no intention of starting his own label or opening a café anytime soon: he’s too focused on the present to think about retiring to pursue other passions quite yet.

“Don’t ever get that confused — I still love my wine, but to me, coffee is a lot like wine. I have the same conversations over wine that I have over coffee now, and it could be any time of the day, too. Like, if I want to, I’ll drink a glass at 7 a.m., and so what? It’s 5 o’clock somewhere, so they say. But really, coffee is the same process as wine — there’s a story to tell. There’s so many people that help make a bottle come to life. The same thing goes for coffee — the farmers that are harvesting the product all the different type of washes, the altitude, the amount of rain… it’s literally the same as wine. I think that’s why I’m so intrigued by it, because no matter how much you know, you can never know enough, and you can never know everything.”

Maybe he has changed. Then again, maybe not. He tells me that right now, his focus is on learning how to create latte art, and for one very important reason. “I got into latte art so I can be better than everybody at everything. So for all the baristas out there that think you’re better than me at latte art, I’ll show you in a couple of years. I’m on the way!”

As for wine, well, that’s coming. “That’s in the future,” he says. “I want to win a championship first. I want to keep the main thing the main thing. I think there’s plenty of time to be able to do all of that after my career or towards the end of my career, but I’ve got a lot of basketball left. I’ve got a lot of winning left, and I’ve got a lot of things that I still want to do. I’ve got plenty of years left to be at the top of my game and help Miami win a championship.”

I can tell Butler needs to get back to his daughter; though she hasn’t thrown anything at him yet, she will, he promises. I believe it. But as we prepare to sign off, he abruptly declares, “It’s a good thing I can’t see you right now, because I know there’s a punchbuggy somewhere out there. And I’ll definitely see it before you saw it.”

I had reminded him earlier in our call that he’d actually done this to me, in person. When we first met a few years ago, he surprised me out of the blue by playing ye olde punch buggy game. I was not prepared, caught completely unawares, and, of course, he won. There are very few old VW Beetles speeding through the streets of Knightsbridge, after all.

But now, with the safety of Zoom between us, I feel bold. “Well, the next time I see you, I’m going to get one over on you,” I retort. “I will win.”

He clicks his tongue, and says with a tsk, “I promise you, that’s never going to happen. I’m always on the lookout.”

I think about it for less than a second, and tell him that if I were a betting woman (and I am), I would say he was probably right.

“See?” he says. “I’m already winning. Think about that.”

I’ve got to say, there’s definitely a comfort in consistency.

“I’M NOT GOING ANYWHERE.”

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