The new Netflix series “Starting 5” — which stars five NBA players in Jimmy Butler, Jayson Tatum, Anthony Edwards, Domantas Sabonis and LeBron James — was released on Wednesday.
The Miami Heat forward revealed in the show that his father passed before last season’s All-Star break.
Butler admitted that he had a hard time focusing on basketball in light of his dad’s passing.
“Right after All-Star break, [my teammates] really need me to be a lot better,” Butler said. “I wanna always answer to that call. But I couldn’t care less about basketball right now. I don’t care. … It sucks to hurt. It sucks to lose people.
“I didn’t know what to do. No amount of money in the world could bring him back. Basketball, no matter how much I played it, it couldn’t fix that.”
According to Butler, his father passed away back on Feb. 8, and his cause of death was a terminal illness. Butler took a leave of absence from the Heat after his dad’s death, as he did not suit up in any of Miami’s last three contests prior to the All-Star break.
The 2023-24 campaign is now behind Butler and the Heat, though, considering the start of the 2024-25 regular season is approaching. Miami wrapped up its training camp at Baha Mar in the Bahamas a few days ago and played its preseason opener against the Charlotte Hornets on Tuesday.
In Butler’s first game in a Heat jersey in quite a while — he didn’t play for the Heat at all in the 2024 NBA Playoffs — he played well in limited minutes. He totaled 11 points, three rebounds and two assists in a game Miami lost by three points.
Miami has four preseason contests remaining on its schedule — against the New Orleans Pelicans, San Antonio Spurs, Atlanta Hawks and Memphis Grizzlies — before the games really start to matter.
Butler and the Heat will kick off the regular season with a showdown against the Orlando Magic at Kaseya Center on Oct. 23.
Heat fans are fortunate that the team’s season opener projects to be an entertaining watch, as the Magic are fresh off a playoff appearance in 2024 and seemingly have a better roster on paper than they did last year thanks to the acquisition of Kentavious Caldwell-Pope.
Additionally, the Magic have one of the best young forwards in the NBA today in Paolo Banchero, who averaged 22.6 points per game last season.