Heat’s Jimmy Butler opens up about heartbreaking grief in Netflix series

MIAMI — The debut of the Netflix series “Starting 5,” with all 10 episodes released Wednesday, offered greater insight into the time Miami Heat forward Jimmy Butler missed last season and some of the heartbreaking background behind those absences.

The series chronicles the 2023-24 seasons of Butler, Boston Celtics forward Jayson Tatum, Sacramento Kings center Domantas Sabonis, Minnesota Timberwolves guard Anthony Edwards and Los Angeles Lakers forward LeBron James, whose production company was involved in the project.

The storyline around Butler included details that the Heat forward previously had chosen to remain private, regarding time missed last season due to the illness and passing of his father.

Multiple times last season, with Butler missing 22 of the Heat’s 82 regular-season games, Butler was listed as missing time due to personal reasons.

In the Netflix series, some of that time off was explained.

In recent seasons, as Butler, 35, worked to find treatment for his father, Butler and his representatives requested privacy in the matter, leading the team only to list “personal reason” as the background for the absences.

Then, in the middle of last season, Jimmy Butler Jr., died on Feb. 8 due to a terminal illness, after his son had arranged ongoing hospice care.

During the middle episodes of the 10-part series, Butler opened up about what previously had been requested to remain private.

“When you lose somebody who’s that dear to you and that’s taught you so much, that has seen you grow from a kid to a young adult to a star to the man that I am today, as a father, and then all of a sudden he’s not there anymore, I didn’t know what to do,” Butler said of what proved to be a particularly trying season. “No amount of money in the world could bring him back. Basketball, no matter how much I played it, it couldn’t fix that.”

Butler’s agent, Bernie Lee, who had sought to keep private reports about the illness of Butler’s father, offered background in the series on trying times for the Heat forward that included distressing news about the condition of Butler’s father prior to the decisive Game 7 of the 2023 Eastern Conference finals against the Celtics.

“Before the game was supposed to start, that doctor called me and said they got the results back from the test and that his father, his health issue was going to be terminal,” Lee said in the series. “I thought to myself, ‘Do I wait until after the game to tell him this?’ Or if it was me, I’d want to know. I want to know in that moment. I couldn’t live with not telling him that the second I knew it.

“We walked into a shower area of the locker room and I just told him. I remember he just looked at me, he thanked me for telling him and he said, ‘I’m going to go do my job and then we’ll figure out the things that have to come next.’ ”

The Heat went on to win that game, advancing to the 2023 NBA Finals against the Denver Nuggets, with Butler scoring 28 points that day in Boston, voted the Eastern Conference finals’ Most Valuable Player.

Butler revealed he then handed the MVP trophy to his father.

“It gave him a different type of energy of like, ‘Yo, we’re going to beat this,’ ” Butler said.

Butler opted to play in the Feb. 7 home game against the San Antonio Spurs hours before his father died, recording a triple-double in the victory.

“The game ended and he took the shoes that he had and he wrote the date of the game on the shoes,” Lee said in the series. “He took those shoes and he took them to the hospital to give them to his father.”

Heat president Pat Riley and general manager Andy Elisburg then were among those who attended the funeral for Butler’s father, with the Heat continuing to respect Butler’s privacy, not announcing the passing or the funeral that had Butler away from the team.

“Now, more than ever, I really don’t take anything for granted, because you never know when they will not be here anymore,” Butler said during the series. “My dad was special. He’s not here. But I know he’s always going to be here. I know my pops is proud, man.”

During the series, Butler also addressed the injuries that limited his 2023-24 season, one that ended with Butler missing the playoffs with a knee injury.

Included in the series was when Butler rolled an ankle against the New York Knicks, saying at the time, “Playing through pain is part of the game.”

But he also acknowledged of his ailments, “If my body’s banged up, I’m just not able to hoop.”

Later, he said in the series, “If somebody’s not fit to hoop or their body’s not right, how can you be mad at them?”

He also said of attempting to push past injuries, “I got to take care of my body, but one thing can lead to another.”

The show also offers a rare glimpse into Butler’s family life, including rare footage of his son and daughter, with, at one point, Rylee Butler offering her own take on the emo look Butler arrived with at 2023 media day, saying, “I don’t like his hair.”

There also was insight into Butler’s extensive entourage and training staff.

In the midst of what could be a contract year, with the right in the offseason to opt out of the 2025-26 final year on his Heat contract, Butler has vowed to get on the court more often this season. That included an appearance in Tuesday night’s exhibition road loss to the Charlotte Hornets, Butler’s first preseason appearance in two years.

The Heat are idle until Sunday’s 3:30 p.m. exhibition against the New Orleans Pelicans at Kaseya Center, with Thursday night’s home exhibition against the Atlanta Hawks postponed until next week by Hurricane Milton.