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Jimmy Butler’s journey to the NBA Finals began when his mother kicked him out of the house as a teenager.
The 31-year-old Texan with a taste for country and western music will lead the Miami Heat on Wednesday when they face LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers in Game 1 of the NBA Finals in Orlando.
For Butler, it is the biggest sporting event yet in a lifetime fighting, and often prevailing, against all odds.
At the age of 13 and growing up in the Houston suburb of Tomball, her mother told her that she had to leave home. “I don’t like your appearance. You have to go, ”that’s how Butler recalls her mother’s parting words.
For years he was homeless, spending a few days or weeks at a time sleeping on his friends’ couches before moving on.
In high school he finally found a permanent home, being welcomed into the family of a friend, Jordan Leslie, also a talented athlete who would later become a wide receiver in the NFL.
With a stable home life, Butler was free to focus on his basketball and, although he was not considered a prized high school recruit, he would eventually win a scholarship to Marquette University in Wisconsin.
‘Don’t feel sorry for me’
Despite his troubled youth, Butler doesn’t like to see his unusual backstory framed as the classic sports narrative of triumph over adversity.
“Please, I know you’re going to write something,” he told an ESPN interviewer in 2011 shortly before the NBA draft. “I’m just asking you not to write it in a way that makes people feel sorry for me. I hate that.
“There is nothing to feel sorry for. I love what happened to me. It made me who I am. I am grateful for the challenges I have faced. “
Those challenges have made Butler the fierce competitor who has helped lead Miami to its first appearance in the NBA Finals since 2014.
It has taken Butler the better part of a decade to find his preferred environment.
Selected by the Chicago Bulls as the 30th pick in the draft nine years ago, Butler spent six seasons at Windy City before being traded to the Minnesota Timberwolves in 2017.
But tension with teammate Karl Anthony-Towns left Butler heading for the exit, and after a single season in Minnesota, he was traded to the Philadelphia 76ers in November 2018.
In theory, it should have been perfect for Butler, a high-quality addition to an emerging power that complements the likes of Joel Embiid and Ben Simmons.
However, after the Sixers exited the playoffs in the second round last season, Butler was packing his bags too.
In July of last year he was signed by Miami in a multi-team trade. In Florida, where he’s clicked with Heat coach Erik Spoelstra and franchise president Pat Riley, Butler is finally home.
‘Happy to be home’
“I think this all comes down to being loved, being appreciated for what you bring to the table, as I’ve said over and over again,” Butler said of his move to Miami.
Spoelstra says his and Riley’s mission to lure Butler to Miami ended quickly, recalling a dinner the three men shared last June as “one of the most incredible recruiting visits we’ve ever had.”
“It was so conversational, and you felt like after 20 minutes we were so aligned on how we viewed the competition, the job and the culture, everything,” Spoelstra said.
“We were talking business and he interrupted Pat and me after dinner, probably five minutes into just one conversation, and said, ‘By the way, I’m in.’ We think that? We haven’t even given them our speech yet. ‘
Butler, who had been briefed on the team’s culture by Heat legend Dwyane Wade, says he needed a little persuasion.
“D-Wade told me. I wanted parts of it, the job; culture, the word that everyone uses, ”Butler said.
“More than anything, they wanted me to be here. They told me, like, ‘Hey, you’re the guy we want. We are going for you. It was like, say no more.
“Being loved, that’s what everyone wants in the world, not just basketball. I’m happy to be home. “
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