ESPN: The indispensable Jimmy Butler

[Tugg Speedman]

Latest accolade just another tracking point on Butler's upward trajectory
Jon Greenberg, Columnist, ESPNChicago.com
May 8, 2015

http://espn.go.com/blog/chicago/jon-greenberg/post/_/id/866/latest-accolade-just-another-tracking-point-on-butlers-upward-trajectory


In the corner of the United Center, Chicago Bulls general manager Gar Forman and coach Tom Thibodeau sat next to each other Thursday afternoon, chatting with other team officials, waiting for a news conference to begin.

This isn't unusual, as the two talk regularly despite all the "noise" (their words) about their professional relationship, a situation that spawns daily stories from national reporters.

But the scene made me think:

If there is one person who could bring peace to the warring factions on the West Side, it's Jimmy Butler, who was being honored at the United Center for winning this season's Most Improved Player award.

Because the 25-year-old Butler is the perfect example of what happens when everyone in a basketball organization does his job.

Forman and his staff had been scouting the 6-foot-7 Butler for years and were thrilled when he fell to them at the end of the first round of the 2011 NBA draft.

Thibodeau and his coaching staff then worked with Butler on improving his game, piece by piece, year by year.

"[Assistant coach] Adrian Griffin had to deal with me being unbearable because I was a rookie and I wanted to play," Butler said at his news conference. "I beat him one-on-one a lot my rookie year. He can't beat me to this day."

Butler's teammates helped him along. He specifically mentioned Luol Deng, who Butler said taught him how to be a professional.

Butler hired a trainer, Chris Johnson, who said he'd make him an All-Star. Butler says now he didn't believe Johnson, but he went to work anyway. He made the All-Star team this season.

Most important, Butler had to have the will to get better every year. Plenty of talented players flame out in the NBA because they just don't have it together upstairs.

Yes, it takes a village to raise a Jimmy.

A truly deserving winner of this award, Butler is essentially the NBA ideal. Living proof that hard work means more than draft status or reputation.

From tough beginnings, Butler was kicked out of his house in Tomball, Texas, by his mother at age 13. Thirteen! He stayed with friends and found a second family. He went to junior college, graduated from Marquette and was selected as the last pick of 2011's first round.

"I felt like at any level I was at, whether it be junior college or Marquette, I don't think I was supposed to be there," Butler said. "Somehow, some way, with the people that were in my corner, I found a way to get there."

Butler played sparingly as a rookie, then became a valuable role player in his second year. By his third year, he was a starter, playing big minutes as Thibodeau's defensive stopper. In his fourth season, he's an All-Star headed for a monster payday this summer.

"When you watch what he's done throughout the career, from high school to college to the pros, each year he's gotten better," Thibodeau said. "Obviously he's very talented; you can't do what he's doing without being very talented. But he's also very intelligent and he's very driven. When you combine those three things, usually those type of players always improve."

Butler's scoring average went up 6 points, 4.5 points, and 6.9 points, respectively, in the three seasons following his rookie year. His defense hasn't suffered.

"When you get to watch him play, you realize and recognize how special he is," Thibodeau said. "I believe he is one of the best two-way players in the league today. It hasn't happened by accident."

In his post-draft conference call with reporters back in 2011, not long after the Miami Heat dispatched the Bulls in five games in the Eastern Conference finals, Butler said, "I'm going to put in that work to be able to guard LeBron [James], Dwyane Wade, and all those guys so the Bulls can get to that championship."

Fast-forward to today, and Butler is charged with guarding James and helping the Bulls get to that championship.

Funny how it all works out.

While Butler was certainly confident when he was drafted, even he probably didn't imagine that he'd be leading the Bulls in scoring at 20 points per game during the regular season and 23.4 during the playoffs.

Now it's time for him to shine. He needs to have a big game against the visiting Cleveland Cavaliers on Friday if the Bulls are to take a 2-1 series lead. In three previous tries, the Bulls haven't won a second game against a James-led team. I can't think of a better time to break that streak.

Butler scored 20 and 18 points in the Bulls' two playoff games in Cleveland, but he's less efficient offensively, shooting 40 percent overall from the field and 30.8 percent from 3-point range. (In the first-round series against the Milwaukee Bucks, he shot 47.6 percent and 40.5 percent.) He frustrated James defensively in the first game, a Bulls victory, but had less success in the second game, won by the Cavs.

Butler is once again expected to defend James and carry the offense with Derrick Rose.

That's a tall task. But if anyone is up to it, it's Butler. He's come a long way from Tomball, and he hasn't reached his destination yet.

[77ncaachamps]

Man has come a long way from pink bunny suits and singing Miley Cyrus.

[chapman]

Man has come a long way from pink bunny suits and singing Miley Cyrus.

Yeah, now he dances while half dressed and sings Taylor Swift. 

http://espn.go.com/sportsnation/post/_/id/12459212/jimmy-butler-says-bulls-teammates-he-listens-taylor-swift

[warriorchick]

Speaking of him getting kicked out of his house at 13: I recently attended a Bulls game where it was Kids' Day.  As part of the theme, they showed pictures of the players as youngsters on the Jumbotron.  Most of the team members had baby or toddler pictures; Jimmy's photo was of him as a young teenager.  It's sad to think that  pictures of him before that may not even exist any more.

Jimmy is one class-A human being, and I am proud to be a fellow Marquette Alum.

[Warrior Code]

Dang, chick. That is a hash dose of reality.

I'm not crying, you're crying.

[jesmu84]

Ah, had to start your own thread for the clicks huh? Couldn't just go along with the other Jimmy thread with this story posted in it?

[Tugg Speedman]

Bulls' Jimmy Butler has come a long way, and he's still rising

Jeff Zillgitt, USA TODAY Sports 7:26 p.m. EDT May 9, 2015

http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nba/playoffs/2015/05/09/jimmy-butler-most-improved-bulls/27058909/

he short answer to how Chicago Bulls guard Jimmy Butler got from there (Tomball, Texas) to here (the NBA's 2014-15 Most Improved Player) is easy: Tomball to Tyler Junior College to Marquette to the last pick of the first round in the 2011 draft to 2015 NBA All-Star to — as Bulls coach Tom Thibodeau calls him — one of the best two-way players in the league.

That's the easy answer, but it doesn't do Butler's remarkable story justice.

"I feel like I've come a long — a long, long, long — way from Tomball, Texas," Butler said after accepting his Most Improved trophy on Thursday at the United Center.

The metaphorical miles outdistance the physical miles.

Already a dedicated basketball player, Butler focused on his offense last summer, pulling the plug on cable and the internet. It was practically eat, basketball, sleep, basketball, repeat. Maybe the occasional movie and back to basketball.

"It started early in the summer," Butler told USA TODAY Sports. "We were in the gym all the time. We shoot jumpers. We work on my ballhandling, mid-post a majority of the time. Your confidence really does come from your work. As long as I kept seeing the ball go in the basket, my confidence continued to grow."

The work translated into results: Butler averaged the same amount of minutes this season as he did last season (38.7) but increased his scoring from 13.1 points to 20, boosted his shooting percentage from 39.7% to 46.2% and his three-point shooting from 28.3% to 37.8%. His free throwing shooting percentage moved up 6½ percentage points to 83.4%.

"When you get to watch him play, you realize and recognize how special he is," Thibodeau says. "It hasn't happened by accident. The way he's worked, it's a testament to his character and who he is as a person. Obviously, to get where he is today, you have to have a lot of talent, which he does have. But when you combine that with his intelligence, his drive, then you get something special.

"I don't want to put a lid on it. I don't think any of us do. We don't know where it's going. All I know is if you study his career, every year he has gotten a lot better."

Not only did the Bulls ask Butler — whose 38.7 minutes a game led the league — to guard the opponent's best perimeter scorer, they need him to score 20 points per game. It is a difficult assignment game in, game out.

"We wouldn't be in the position we are today without him," Thibodeau said. "Whatever we've asked him to do, he's excelled in that role. He came in primarily as a defensive player, a great effort guy. He's made himself into a great scorer and, most importantly, a winning player."

Butler has been fantastic for the Bulls during the playoffs. He's averaging 23 points, 5.3 rebounds and 3.6 assists and in the Eastern Conference semifinals, and he has to guard LeBron James, who is shooting 39.5% from the field and 8.3% on three-pointers and has committed 13 turnovers in Cleveland's two losses.

The indefatigable Butler is averaging 41.1 minutes against the Cavaliers, and Thibodeau makes sure that Butler is on the floor when James is in the game.

"I take a lot of confidence from my teammates and my coaches that they think I can guard the best players in this league," Butler said. "I have to be able to do that because that's part of my role on this team."

Butler's story is more impressive when you learn that he had a difficult upbringing — his dad wasn't around and his mom kicked him out of the house when he was 13. Butler drifted from house to house until a friend's family adopted him.

"You look back at Jimmy's story, and it really is amazing that we're here today," Bulls general manager Gar Forman said.

Butler played well in high school but didn't play much AAU basketball and wasn't recruited by Division I schools. He started at Tyler Junior College, and during his speech after winning the KIA Most Improved Player award, Butler thanked the people crucial to his development on and off the court.

—His junior college coach Mike Marquis. "He was seeing something in me that I didn't see that age," Butler said.

—Buzz Williams, his coach at Marquette. "He taught me that your confidence only comes from your work. Without Buzz constantly pushing me and challenging me to be great, I don't think I'd be standing here."

—His personal basketball trainer Chris Johnson. "He was the first one who said, 'I'll make you an All-Star.' Of course I didn't believe it."

He thanked Thibodeau, Forman, his teammates, the Bulls organization and his adopted family. "I wouldn't do it without everybody that I named, and I'm so grateful and thankful that all of them are in my life," Butler said. "All those people helped me along the way, and made me the person on the court and off the court that I am."

Just before the season began, Butler turned down a four-year, $40-42 million extension, and said he was going to bet on himself. Butler went all in and is going to get paid. He's a restricted free agent but could be looking at a deal that starts out around $15 million next season.

[Tugg Speedman]

Jimmy Butler: From Homeless Texas Teen To NBA's Most Improved Player For Bulls
Thursday, May 7, 2015 11:52 pm
Written by: Jeffrey Eisenband

https://www.thepostgame.com/blog/eye-performance/201505/jimmy-butler-chicago-bulls-nba-most-improved-player-basketball-texas



Back in February, 24 of the NBA's best played in the All-Star Game in New York City. The rosters featured one-time high school prodigies, sons of former NBA players and No. 1 overall picks.

Only one player played on a junior college roster. Only one player spent part of his high school life homeless. Only one player came from Tomball, Texas, population 11,124.

The 2014-15 season was Jimmy Butler's time to tell his underdog story, and his acceptance of the NBA's Most Improved Player Award on Thursday was the freshest chapter.

"I feel like I've come a long, long, long way from Tomball, Texas, and couldn't be more proud," Butler said at the start of speech at Chicago's United Center. "I feel like the Bulls are just as proud of me."

Butler's father, Jimmy, left Butler's childhood before it began in Tomball, which is approximately 40 miles from Houston. When he was 13, Butler's mother, Londa, kicked him out of his house. In 2011, Butler told ESPN.com she put him on the streets because "she didn't like the look of him."

Butler moved in with a friend, Jermaine Thomas, whose father spent most of his time on the road as a truck driver. Before his senior year of high school, Butler met Jordan Leslie, a freshman, at a basketball camp. Leslie, who was born to a white mother and African-American father, previously lost his father in a car accident. Before his senior year at Tomball High School, 16-year-old Butler and Thomas moved in with Leslie, his three siblings, and his mother, Michelle Lambert. Lambert is the woman Butler calls, "Mommy."

Although Butler found a mother figure, his basketball game still needed work. He lacked college offers and resorted to stay close to home below the NCAA level.

"You look back at Jimmy's story and it really is amazing that we're here today," Bulls General Manager Gar Forman said. "You go back to high school where Jimmy was basically a non-recruited player, he goes to Tyler Junior College. Jimmy swears that it's the garden spot of Texas, but I've been there 3-4 times and I don't know."

Butler averaged 18.1 points and 7.7 rebounds in his one season at Tyler. That was enough to catch the eye of then-Marquette coach Buzz Williams. Williams brought Butler to Milwaukee to play behind such Golden Eagles stars Wesley Matthews and Lazar Hayward. He did not start a game in his sophomore season. Getting minutes was Butler's goal, not making the NBA.

"Buzz brought me to Marquette and he taught me your confidence, it only comes from your work," Butler said. "This summer, I put in a lot of work to get to where I am today. Without Buzz constantly challenging me and pushing me to be great, I don't think I'd be standing here."

Butler progressed at Marquette. After averaging 5.6 points his sophomore year, Butler bumped those figures to 14.7 and 15.7 points in his junior and season seasons. His visible and statistical improvements at Marquette put him on NBA radars. Forman grabbed him with the Bulls' first-round pick (30th overall).

In Butler's rookie year, the lockout-shortened 2011-12 season, he only played in 42 games with no starts. Butler averaged 8.5 minutes and just 2.6 points.

Butler attributes Luol Deng and Adrian Griffin as two of the individuals who helped him push through a frustrating rookie season. "Luol had a lot do it to tell you the truth, teaching me to be a professional and teaching me the ropes," he says of the former Bull, whose role as the team's go-to swingman was essentially handed to Butler.

Griffin, the Bulls assistant coach, worked on Butler's isolation play. "I beat him one-on-one a lot my rookie year and he can't beat me to this day," Butler says of the Bulls assistant who he says absorbed Butler's "unbearable" complaints for more playing time.

Butler had his coming-out party in 2012-13 when a Deng injury allowed the second-year player more playing time. He averaged 8.6 points in 82 games (20 starts) and 26 minutes a game. As time has passed, Butler's role has widened. He started all 132 regular-season games he played in from 2013-14 to 2014-15. Butler averaged 13.1 points in 2013-14 and 20.0 points (and 5.8 rebounds) in his All-Star 2014-15 campaign.

"He comes to the Bulls and he continues with the same focus, the same energy" Forman says of drafting Butler in 2011. "[He] goes from being a role player initially to becoming a starter to becoming today, the most improved player in the NBA and an NBA All-Star."

When Butler was drafted, the Bulls were rich with talent. Derrick Rose had won the MVP award the previous season. Deng and Carlos Boozer were still there, and Joakim Noah was continuing to develop. Butler was not supposed to be the guy. Four years ago, imagining Butler being the leading-scorer on a Bulls team with a shot at an NBA title would have been ludicrous.

But rapid progression is a recurring theme in Butler's basketball life.

"I felt like at any level I was at, whether it be junior college or Marquette, I didn't think I was supposed to be there," Butler said. "Being from Tomball, and somehow, in some way, with the people in my corner, I found a way to get there. Now that I'm here, I'm just as confident as when I was in junior College or when I was at Marquette. As long as I continue to work, I'll continue to stay and I'll continue to get better."

Bulls coach Tom Thibodeau thinks Butler can get better too. "I don't want to put a lid on it," he says. "I don't think any of us do. We don't know where it's going. All I know is if you study his career, every year he's gotten a lot better."

Thibs himself is a bit of an underdog. After 21 years as an NBA assistant under coaches such as Jerry Tarkanian, Jeff Van Gundy and Doc Rivers, Thibodeau finally got his head-coaching shot in Chicago in 2010. His first season, was highlighted by Rose's MVP, an NBA-high 62 wins and the Coach of the Year Award for Thibs, But the past four years have been a challenge. Rose, Noah and Deng all suffered injuries that hurt Bulls' playoff chances. Boozer fizzled out and the Bulls shipped off Deng. Remarkably, Thibodeau still has an overall win percentage of .647.

"We wouldn't be in the position that we are today without him," Thibodeau says. "Whatever we've asked him to do, he's excelled in that role. He came in primarily as a defensive player, a great effort guy, and he's made himself into a great scorer, and most importantly, a winning player. He's very, very unselfish and very, very efficient. He scores in a lot of different ways and he'll guard anybody and he's a fierce competitor."

Beyond physical appearance -- they both look more like NFL linebackers than basketball coaches -- Williams and Thibodeau share the ability to inspire Butler. Butler attributes both of them for pushing him beyond his talent love. The coaches have led Butler to focus on the mental aspects of the game just as much as the physical aspects.

Last summer, Butler turned off all Internet and cable services in his home in Houston. He shut out the non-basketball aspects of his life–something he had done so well already despite the hardships life has given him–and worked day-in, day-out with trainer Chris Johnson.

"He was the first one who said I'll make you an All-Star," Butler said. "Of course, I didn't believe it."

Butler's summer focused worked. From day one of the 2014-15 season, Butler has been among the top players in the league. It is what got him an All-Star nod and has made him the Bulls' No. 1offensive (and defensive) option.

"I believe he's one of the best two-way players in the league today," Thibodeau says. "It hasn't happened by accident. The way he's worked, it's a testament to his character and who he is as a person. Obviously, to get where he is today, you have to have a lot of talent, which he does have, but when you combine that with his intelligence and his drive, you get something special."

Forman adds that Butler's presence on the court is far from his only positive. He works similarly as hard off the court.

"Jimmy is a very special person," Forman says. "Anybody who's been around him knows he goes out of his way each and every day to interact with everybody that he's around. He's always willing to give himself before others, which is really a great trait."

These are kind words from a general manager who lost a lot of money with Butler this past fall. In October, Forman tried to finalize a four-year, $40 million contract. Butler chose to bet on himself. Now, he is in the running for $70 million over four years. As a restricted free agent, the Bulls can match any offer sheet Butler signs, which Forman and Bulls' VP of Basketball Operations John Paxson have insisted the team will do.

"Do I feel like I won the bet?" Butler asked Thursday. "I think it's a tie. I think we both won. I did my job and what I'm supposed to do and I think they are happy with where I am right now."

This is a diplomatic answer, but it is false. Butler's humble confidence earned him an All-Star season in a contract year. It also propelled the Bulls into a title run, although it will cost the team financially, come this summer.

While it is not all in Butler's hands, the Texas native suggests he wants to stay in Chicago. Asked about his future as a Bull, Butler smiled and gave a straight response.

"To be a Bull [next year], I think so," he said. "I think this is a place for me. I love playing with the guys that we have. They continue to bring in great high character guys that fit the team role. I love it here and I'm happy to be here."

He'll be even happier with the Larry O'Brien trophy.

"I want to help this team win," he said. "I want to get antoher trophy and I want to win a championship. That's the final goal."