Jimmy Butler used to tell us all the time, a bit of the down home corn pone that you kind of knew was a mask for the bursting confidence and relentless striving that enabled him to rise from the most unlikely of environments to star in the NBA.
“I never was going to make a million dollars back then,” Butler would say. “I wasn’t going to be a big time NBA player, an All-Star. You never could tell me I’d be in this position.”
But he was, and he earned his way there, a three-time NBA All-Star, gold medal winner with USA Basketball in the 2016 Olympics, perennial all-defensive team player, owner of some of the highest scoring games in Bulls franchise history, friend to Hollywood stars like Mark Wahlberg, late night TV show guest, commercial endorser, celebrity, multimillionaire.