In this YouTube video, 4th‑grade teacher Annie Schmidt from St. Paul, Minnesota, explains how she leverages basketball to motivate her students, especially those facing daily challenges. After the class creates a video invitation, NBA star Jimmy Butler responds and visits the classroom. The footage captures the students’ excited greetings, a brief Q&A where Butler asks each child to share personal details before asking his own questions, a quick basketball‑related game, and a heartfelt motivational speech. Butler emphasizes perseverance, self‑acceptance, and the power of mindset, urging the kids to chase their dreams and never give up. The teacher reflects on how the visit validates her basketball‑centric teaching approach and highlights the lasting impact of a celebrity’s personal connection with young learners.
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My name is Annie Schmidt, and I teach 4th grade in St. Paul, Minnesota. And I have a lot of students in my class who go through a lot of tough things every day, and I notice that they're very motivated they're very motivated by basketball. And so I try to use basketball every day when planning my lesson plans to try to engage them and interest them. And a lot of the time we use basketball as a reward. And I noticed they're very into the Timberwolves and their favorite player is Jimmy Butler. So I reached out on Instagram and we made a video.
Please come to our school. Well, I hope I get to meet you someday if you come. A good time with us. We wanna show you our moves.
Go!
We sent the video in and it just so happened that they replied and he said he would come to my classroom. What would you do if Jimmy Butler walked in this room when we were done with reading?
I would ask him if I could have his jersey. Why he was injured.
Why he was injured.
Ooh, you would scream?
Yes. When I saw the video that Miss Schmidt and the kids sent me, it touched me, you know. You take that much time out of your day to make a video for me to come through and spend some time with y'all, I can't say no to that. Is this the classroom? Is it?
Is it?
Oh, cool.
You wanna knock?
Yeah, hold on. I don't know if I'm supposed to knock or not. What's up, y'all?
Jimmy Butler! Jimmy Butler! Jimmy Butler! What is this? I knew it was gonna be Jimmy Butler.
Oh, you knew it was gonna be me?
She was asking people what would happen if— —above the rocket.
I remember these books.
The Magic School Bus.
Miss Frizzle.
I'm telling you, Miss Frizzle.
All right. How tall am I?
You're 6-something. Like 6-something? 6'5". 6'3". 6'3".
6'4".
6'4".
6'5".
You said 5'8". Who's next? Who's Ruth?
Her.
Her. Ruth, please read me the book. Ruth, please. Do I need to—
Ruth, I gotta get on my knees.
Look, we're all cheering for you right now. Come on. There we go. What team is that?
Your team.
I thought it was, but you know, I just had to ask to make sure that everybody knew. It's not about the money, man. It's about being happy. If you have a question, raise your hand. You gotta say your name first and you gotta tell me something about yourself. My name is— You opened up to me. A lot, and it was fun to get to know them, what they like outside of basketball. When they were asking me questions, I made them tell me something about themselves before they could ask me a question. So yeah, you get to know something about me, but you know, you gotta tell me your favorite color, your favorite number, where were you born, what's your birthdate, I gotta know something.
Why choose this school?
Why choose this school? Because y'all are awesome.
Because y'all are awesome.
And y'all sent me a nice video. I wanted to stop by and say hello. Hello to y'all. And I'm just excited to meet each and every one of you. Instantly, it was like, no-brainer. Of course you have to do this. Like, look at these kids, how joyful they are to see you, and sitting down reading books, and having their jerseys on. And it was huge for me, you know, from a kid from a small town, and being in the position that I am now. That is just what it was. I was back to being that kid from that small town, from Tomball, Texas. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] Defense!
Defense! Defense! Defense! I was not good at basketball. Sola! Sola! Sola! Get up! Get up! Get up! Defense! Defense!
They love basketball, but first of all, they truly love you as a human being, and being here, to me, is just such an amazing experience. I have chills, you being here, so thank you, we appreciate you, please come back again.
You almost beat him.
I know, I was so close. I wanted to win so bad, he's just too tall. I had fun playing with him. It was a good experience. Thank you, Jimmy Butler, for coming, and thank my teacher, Ms. Smith. It was the best, and watching my friends get to play with him, so, and yeah. If you come up with an obstacle, you can do it. Like, you can do anything you possibly want to do.
Athletes, entertainers, there's always bumps in the road. But I've had so many difficult times that it's not always gonna be easy. But if you don't give up, I'm telling you, you can do whatever you want to do. Never, ever, ever give up. Never let anybody tell you what you can and can't do. Only you get to dictate that. If you wanna beat me one day, you'll be able to beat me one day. You got me? Come on, man. Give me something. My guy. The message that I hope that I left with the kids at the end of the day, you can try whatever you want to try. In your mind, that is your strongest tool. If you think you can do something, you really can. Nobody's stopping you except for you. And then on top of everything else, be comfortable with who you are. You're unique. You were made that way. Nobody else is like you, and it's okay. It's okay to be different. You are who you are. Be comfortable in your own skin and chase those dreams. You're the best I can do.
