Learning that a loved one has passed away can damage a player’s mental health.
In February, A Miami Heat superstar found out he’d lost his father and knew he’d never be the same individual.
“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,” Jimmy Butler said during the Starting 5 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.”
Before Game 7 of the 2023 Eastern Conference finals, Butler’s agent, Bernie Lee, informed Butler that his father was dealing with a terminal illness. Lee wasn’t sure if breaking the news to the six-time All-Star was appropriate, but he followed his intuition.
“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 said. “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.”
In the series' final and most important contest, Butler notched 28 points, grabbed seven rebounds, and handed out seven assists in the Heat’s dominant 103-84 victory.
After hearing the tragic news about his father's passing last season, Butler went on an offensive tear in Miami, scoring 20+ points in five consecutive games and guiding the Heat to a strong regular season finish.
It wasn’t easy for Butler to play with a heavy heart in the 2023 playoffs and toward the end of the 2023-24 regular season, but it was the best way for him to blow off some steam during a troubling time in his life.
Hopefully, Butler enters the 2024-25 campaign in a positive headspace.
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