Jimmy Butler thanks his 100,000 YouTube subscribers and answers fan questions about his competitive philosophy, personal interests like American football and music, and why family and teammates matter most. He credits former teammate Luau Deng's mentorship and shares a story about a risky jump into the sea in Greece.
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What's up, everybody? It's Jimmy Butler III. Thank you so much for 100,000 subscribers. Really appreciate it. I said I was gonna do a question and answer. I went through, I picked a couple of questions, and for the most part, I guess I have a couple of answers. Do whatever it takes to win, no matter what, and have fun. I think I'm— blessed, I'm fortunate to play this game each and every day, have it be my job at that. But whenever I go into it, I just want to be smiling. I want to have a free mind, be peaceful, and win. I didn't know what to expect. It was going to be brand new to me all over again. But I knew they were a really good team with some really good players, a really good coach, a great city behind the team. I was excited. I was ready to get going, ready to get to hooping again. I'm here. I'm loving it. I'm good to go. Ah, what other sports do I practice and/or watch? Football, number one. American football. And fútbol is number two, as in soccer. I'm probably a, I'm a tad bit better at soccer than I am at football, but you know, who's picking and choosing? It's crazy because he came up to me as a fan, but we actually started talking just about life. And those are the best interactions to me because I get so sick and tired of talking basketball all the time that he literally just, came up to me and was like, "Oh, you know, you went to school here and you're from Texas." And we got to talking and I got to learn just as much about him as he did about me. I hate talking basketball, so if you're a fan and you wanna talk to me, come with anything besides basketball, please. Please, anything but basketball. I'm so scared of losing my guys, like everybody that I'm with every day. You know, my family, my family family, and then the guys that are around me every day that I call family. I'd do anything for them, as they know. And I never want to let them down. Like, that's all that I ever think about. It's like, man, I gotta make sure that everybody's happy. Without those guys, I wouldn't be who I am. I want you to remember me as a realist. I'm always gonna speak my mind. I'm always gonna say what's right. Sometimes people may not like it, but I am who I am. That's how I want people to remember me, like, "Hey, he knew the point that he was getting across. He wasn't afraid to tell anybody how he felt because that's who he is." I've really got so many, But I go back to this past summer, we're in Greece, and I bet my homie Ernesto Plasencia, shout out to Ernie, if he would jump over this wall into the water, I don't know the name of the sea or whatever it is, but you know, he's like, "Oh, bet, if you gonna pay me, I'm gonna do it." Mm-hmm. He jumps over the wall thinking that he's just gonna land on the rocks and, you know, get his shoes wet and jump right back out. When he jumps into the water though, like, all the algae are on the rocks, so immediately, boom, falls like head to toe. Now he's soaked. He ended up pulling his calf. Well worth it. I'm sorry you hurt yourself. But the funniest part about it was there were two kids that were watching him jump in, and I'm laughing, like hysterically laughing. And it just made it funnier because the first thought of those kids were to spit on him. So they just started spitting on him over the edge and picking up rocks and throwing them. And it was so funny to me because he's hurt. And that was the first thought that those kids got in their head was, "Hey, I'mma spit on this guy," and I would throw rocks. Like, I don't know. It was, um, I couldn't even tell them to stop, I was laughing so hard. But, man. I'd figure out a way to make dominoes a profession because I am that good at dominoes. I am that good. That good at dominoes. That's tough. I'll go with MJ. Man, Michael Jackson was a bad, he was tough. I love Thriller, I like the whole. Justin Bieber, his Purpose album, forget about it. It's that amazing. We have an argument about it all the time here. I think it's one of the best albums of all time. From top to bottom, straight hits. Tell you what, JB, you did your thang. Luau Deng. He was always thrown the task of guarding the opposing team's best player. And I'm looking at it like, man, he gotta guard Kobe one night, D-Wade the next night, then Melo, then Bron, then KD. It's like, whoo! And then he gotta go on the other end and put up 20-plus. Like, that's hard to do on a nightly basis to give your team a chance to win. Man, Lou was clutch for me coming into the league. I learned a lot. I appreciate you, Lou. Thank you. I wouldn't be who I am without you, but if you get switched out on me now, I would destroy you. Just being honest. I love you, yo boy. Thank you everybody for sending your questions in. I appreciate it. I'll be doing this from time to time. If you haven't subscribed, please do now. Click the link down there. Click the link below.
