Jimmy Butler missed time last season due to the death of his father

“Before the game was to start, that doctor called me and said they had the test results back and that his father’s health problem would be terminal,” Lee recalled during Episode 5. “I thought to myself, Should I wait until after the competition to tell him this? Or if it were me, I’d want to know. I want to know right then and there. I couldn’t live with not telling him as soon as I knew. We walked into a shower room of the locker room and I just told him. I remember him just looking at me, thanking me for telling him and saying, ‘I’m going to do my job and then we’ll figure out what to do next.’” -via Miami Herald / October 9, 2024

After the death of his father, the Heat granted Butler a leave of absence due to what was then declared to be the result of the death of a family member. He then missed the Heat’s final three games prior to the mid-February All-Star break before returning after the break to play in the team’s first game. “Right after the All-Star break, they really need me to be a lot better,” Butler said during Episode 6 of “Starting 5” as he prepared to rejoin the Heat after that leave. “I always want to answer that call. But I don’t care about basketball right now. I don’t care. Yes, I train. Yes, I train because I enjoy it and it takes my mind off my father. From that moment on, I got lost in the game, in the art, in getting better. But once that ball finishes bouncing and I get back home, everything will be fine.” -via Miami Herald / October 9, 2024

With Jimmy Jr. the health issue was diagnosed during the Heat’s 2023 playoff run to the NBA Finals between the Heat’s second-round series against the New York Knicks and the Eastern Conference finals series against the Boston Celtics. “Jimmy’s dad wasn’t feeling great and we had to get him to see a doctor,” Butler’s agent Bernie Lee said during Episode 5 of the Netflix series. “He has undergone some tests.” The results of that test returned just before Game 7 of the East finals, as Butler and the Heat prepared to play one of the biggest games in franchise history at TD Garden in Boston. The Heat, who once led the Celtics 3-0 in that Eastern Finals, tried to avoid becoming the first NBA team ever to give up a 3-0 lead in a best-of-7 playoff series . -via Miami Herald / October 9, 2024