What you need to know
When Jimmy Butler suffered a torn ACL, his first concern was how the injury would affect his future plans with his two children.
On Monday, January 19th, the 36-year-old NBA star and the Golden State Warriors faced off against the Miami Heat. Late in the third quarter, Butler went to catch the ball and fell, twisting his right knee and tearing his anterior cruciate ligament.
ESPN reported that the player fell to the floor in pain clutching his knee and remained on the court for several minutes. He was then helped to his feet and taken to the locker room. The next day, the Warriors announced that Butler was scheduled to undergo surgery, but a date has not yet been set.
Inside the locker room, Butler began weighing up all the implications of his new injury, teammate Draymond Green said on “The Draymond Green Show” podcast.
Arthur Dong/Xinhua via Getty
“The first thing he said when we sat in the locker room was, ‘I’m going to take the kids to the arcade in the morning,'” Green, 35, said on the Thursday, Jan. 22 episode.
Butler has a 6-year-old daughter, Riley, and a 3-year-old son, Breanne, with girlfriend Caitlin Nowak.
“He said four times, ‘I can’t take the kids to the arcade in the morning,'” Green recalled, noting that the two then “talked some more,” and Butler repeated the same thing again.
“‘Hey, I have to take the kids to the arcade,’ that’s all he kept saying,” Green said. “He was just in a state of delirium. Completely in a state of delirium. I can only imagine what he was feeling, but he just kept saying, ‘I have to take the kids to the arcade.'”
Netflix
Never miss a news. Sign up for PEOPLE’s free daily newsletter to stay up to date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to human interest stories.
Before his ACL injury, Butler was vocal about his dedication to his children.
In a heartfelt interview with ABC News in June 2023, Butler revealed who he truly plays for, saying Riley and Brayan are his “why” and the driving force behind everything he does. “Just like what I’m doing right now, I want to go back to them. I want to make sure they’re safe.”
That same year, when asked by Bleacher Report what the first thing he would do after the 2023 NBA playoffs, he replied, “I’m going to play with my daughter. I love her to death and I’m going to miss her. We’ve been apart for a long time.”
He continued, “We’re going to go get ice cream, go to the park, and do a lot of things.”
