The story behind Jimmy Butler’s love for padel is to understand the essence of Jimmy Butler
To understand how Jimmy Butler grew to love the racket sport of padel is to understand the essence of Butler.
Butler began playing padel — a cross between tennis and squash that’s usually played in doubles on an enclosed court— during an offseason trip to Brazil while visiting friend and soccer superstar Neymar in 2019. That’s the summer Butler joined the Miami Heat.
Soon after his move to the Heat was completed, there was a welcome dinner for Butler in Miami. While at the dinner, he overheard businessman and former tennis player Wayne Boich speaking to a group of people about padel.
“I didn’t know Wayne,” Butler recalls. “I just know somehow someway, padel starts getting talked about at the table. I’m not even in the conversation. But I’m like, you know what? I just got through playing like a month ago, I think I’m pretty good.”
So Butler injected himself into the conversation.
“I’m like, I’ll whoop your [butt] in padel,” Butler said. “He kind of like ignored me. I was like, ‘No, for real. I’m like that.’ He was like, ‘OK, show up at my house tomorrow at 10 a.m. and come play.’”
Butler showed up to Boich’s house the next morning and realized there were top padel players preparing to compete.
“I was like, ‘You know what, I’m going to sit this one out,” Butler said with a laugh. “That’s when I knew he was real about this sport. He could definitely play it at a high level.”
Butler’s interest in the sport continued to grow from there, enough to partner with Boich to bring the inaugural Padel Reserve Cup tournament to the Reserve Miami padel club. The three-day event featuring 14 of the world’s top padel players started Thursday and ends Saturday.
Butler is one of the two team captains for the tournament, along with Baseball Hall of Famer and former Miami Marlins executive Derek Jeter.
“It means a lot for this community just because it’s another way for Miami to be great at something and to bring something new to Miami that everybody gets to enjoy, love, have a good time, meet new people and watch competition at its finest,” Butler said of the event. “As you know, I’m always for that.”
Butler considers himself a “superfan” of padel. He also loves to watch and play tennis, but he’s grown more comfortable playing padel.
“I feel like it gives me a little bit more of an advantage if I was to play doubles, which is how you play the game,’ Butler said. “I think it’s just so cool because it’s new, it’s rapidly growing. I feel as though me being tall, lanky, being able to move like a basketball player helps a lot more in this particular racket sport. So I think that’s what’s drawing me to it the most.”
How good is Butler at padel?
“I can beat everybody,” Butler said. “You ain’t never going to hear me say that I can’t beat somebody. No, that’s just not in my DNA.”
Butler, who is in his fifth season with the Heat, has made that clear during his time in Miami. He has helped lead the Heat to three Eastern Conference finals appearances and two NBA Finals appearances in his first four seasons with the team.
That extended time spent in South Florida has allowed Butler to build a connection with Miami.
“More than anything, I love the fact that the people are the people,” Butler said of Miami. “They’re not trying to be somebody they’re not. I’m talking about Miami natives. I’m not talking about the people who move from New York or L.A. The Miami people is Miami’s people. They’re going to support their sports teams through and through. They’re going to support their heritage or their culture, whether they be from a Latin country, whether they be from the islands. They are who they are. They’re just that in Miami.
“I absolutely adore that, respect that and love that. And I get the opportunity to be around that in so many different ways, whether I’m playing dominoes with Cubans and Jamaicans or drinking coffee with whoever else, different types of food. That’s what I really love and enjoy about Miami is all the different types of people. But not only the different types of people, but those different types of people are not trying to be nobody else. They’re trying to be them and they love being them. I think that’s why I fit in so well because I’m going to be me no matter what.”
One thing that Butler doesn’t love that’s popular in Miami is Cuban coffee. Butler, a coffee enthusiast and the founder of Big Face Coffee, calls it “too strong.”
“It’s too strong for me, I’m not going to lie,” he said. “Then it’s like if it’s too strong, they just put a bunch of sugar in it. Whether it’s a colada, cafecito, it’s strong. But you know the one thing that I do like about it, though, is you’re supposed to share it. That’s what coffee is supposed to be for anyways. So I actually do like that part of Cuban coffee culture.”
Butler is days away from the only extended break during the NBA season, when he’ll be able to drink plenty of coffee, play a lot of padel and spend chunks of time with family and friends. The Heat has three games remaining, starting Sunday against the Boston Celtics at Kaseya Center, before the All-Star break begins next week.
Butler is looking forward to the time away, which is one of the reasons he doesn’t mind the fact that he wasn’t voted into the NBA All-Star Game for the second straight year despite being considered one of the league’s top players. He has already been named to an All-NBA Team in the same season that he didn’t get voted into the All-Star Game twice during his Heat career.
“Be with my kids, my babies mean the world to me,” Butler said of his plans for the break. “I want to be able to spend as much time with them as I can, with my family, with my boys. I think everybody knows that I don’t care to be an All-Star, I don’t care about being All-NBA. I don’t care about any of that. I just want to win, I mean it. I am who I am, man.”
Whether it’s padel or basketball, Butler is who he is.
This story was originally published February 9, 2024 at 10:39 AM.
