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Jimmy Butler missed time last season due to death of father

Jimmy Butler missed time last season due to death of father

October 9, 2024 /Posted byadmin / 3 / 0

The Wednesday release of Netflix’s NBA series “Starting 5” offered a glimpse at what Butler has dealt with away from basketball since the 2023 playoffs. It was a personal issue that eventually forced him to take a leave of absence in February last season. As revealed on Episodes 5 and 6 of the 10-part Netflix series, Butler’s father, Jimmy Butler Jr., died on Feb. 8 because of a terminal illness. “When you lose somebody who’s that dear to you and that’s taught you so much, that has seen you grow from a kid to a young adult to a star to the man that I am today as a father and then all of a sudden he’s not there anymore, I didn’t know what to do,” Butler said during Episode 5 of the Netflix series. “No amount of money in the world could bring him back. Basketball, no matter how much I played it, it couldn’t fix that.”
Source: Miami Herald

What’s the buzz on Twitter?

Anthony Chiang @Anthony_Chiang
Halftime: Heat 62, Hornets 58. Bam Adebayo with 13 points on 2-of-5 shooting on threes. Jimmy Butler with 11 points, 3 rebounds, 2 assists, 1 steal and 1 block. – 8:10 PM

Anthony Chiang @Anthony_Chiang
Heat opens the preseason tonight in Charlotte with a starting lineup of Terry Rozier, Alec Burks, Jimmy Butler, Nikola Jovic and Bam Adebayo. – 6:31 PM

More on this storyline

“Before the game was supposed to start, that doctor called me and said they got the results back from the test and that his father, his health issue was going to be terminal,” Lee recalled during Episode 5. “I thought to myself, do I wait until after the game to tell him this? Or if it was me, I’d want to know. I want to know in that moment. I couldn’t live with not telling him that the second I knew it. We walked into a shower area of the locker room and I just told him. I remember he just looked at me, he thanked me for telling him and he said, ‘I’m going to go do my job and then we’ll figure out the things that have to come next.’” -via Miami Herald / October 9, 2024

Following the death of his father, the Heat granted Butler a leave of absence for what was then explained to be because of the death of a family member. He went on to miss the Heat’s final three games prior to the mid-February All-Star break before returning to play in the team’s first game after the break. “Right after All-Star break, they really need me to be a lot better,” Butler said during Episode 6 of “Starting 5” as he prepared to rejoin the Heat after that leave of absence. “I want to always answer to that call. But I couldn’t care less about basketball right now. I don’t care. Yeah, I work out. Yes, I train because I love to do it and it takes my mind off of my dad. From that moment, I’m lost in the game, in the art, in getting better. But as soon as that ball is done bouncing and I’m back home, it will all settle in.” -via Miami Herald / October 9, 2024

Jimmy Jr. was diagnosed with the health issue during the Heat’s 2023 playoff run to the NBA Finals between the Heat’s second-round series against the New York Knicks and its Eastern Conference finals series against the Boston Celtics. “Jimmy’s dad didn’t feel great and we needed to get him to go see a doctor,” Butler’s agent Bernie Lee said during Episode 5 of the Netflix series. “He went through some testing.” The results of that test returned just before Game 7 of the East finals when Butler and the Heat were preparing to play one of the biggest games in franchise history at TD Garden in Boston. The Heat, once up 3-0 over the Celtics in that East finals, was trying to avoid becoming the first NBA team ever to give up a 3-0 lead in a best-of-7 playoff series. -via Miami Herald / October 9, 2024

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