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Butler knows family values
Bulls' 1st-round draft pick appreciates structure from extended family
By K.C. Johnson, Chicago Tribune reporter
7:31 PM CDT, June 25, 2011
There likely will come a time during Jimmy Butler's rookie season with the Bulls when the first-round pick will dive for a loose ball or extend for a difficult rebound in traffic.
Fans might nod their head in appreciation for another hard-working part to the Bulls' competitive engine.
They have no idea.
"Jimmy and my son Jordan are so highly competitive," Michelle Lambert says on the phone from Tomball, Texas, a town outside Houston.
"One time Jimmy said, 'I bet you won't go to Wal-Mart in this pink bunny suit.' And then Jordan said, 'I bet you won't go to Wal-Mart with your clothes inside out and turned the other way.'
"And so these two fools get in the car, drive to Wal-Mart and walk around Wal-Mart wearing a pink bunny suit and clothes inside out and turned around. They're just so much alike."
Such strong kinship surely must be comforting after Butler's lonely upbringing. His story swept through the NBA after ESPN.com's Chad Ford first profiled him June 18.
Butler's father drifted out of his life when he was an infant. His mother kicked him out of the house at age 13 for reasons Butler said he doesn't know.
Homeless, he bounced from friend's house to friend's house, sleeping on couches and floors for most of his first three years at Tomball High School. The summer before his senior year, Lambert's son Jordan Leslie, just a freshman, challenged Butler to a shooting contest. A bond formed. Jordan Leslie started bringing Butler home to spend the night.
Lambert had three children with her first husband, who died. She subsequently married Michael Lambert, who had three kids from a previous marriage, and they had a child together. That's enough kids for starters and a bench.
And then this shy, uncertain basketball player started hanging around.
"I told Jordan, 'He's a sweet kid. But we have so many kids.'" Lambert said. "Kids are outrageously expensive. My grocery bill was already $400 a week. I was working two jobs for awhile. My husband finally said, 'OK, he can't spend the night more than two times a row.' We were on Night Three and Jordan said, 'He's not spending the night with me. He's spending the night with Brad (a different son).' Then I'm thinking, 'OK, these kids love him.'"
The easy comparison of Butler's story is drawn to "The Blind Side," Michael Lewis' best-selling book and later a movie about Michael Oher, the Ravens' first-round pick in 2009.
Butler bounced around on his own for four years, but he spent his senior year of high school and then breaks and summers from Tyler (Texas) Junior College and Marquette University with the Lamberts.
Unlike Oher, Butler never talked about his situation until predraft interviews with NBA executives. He shared it sparingly with others throughout his teenage years. His high school coach didn't know Butler's situation until he moved in with the Lamberts. Marquette teammates didn't ask him much about his upbringing until Michelle Lambert, who is white, and Michael Lambert, who is black, showed up for Senior Night.
"I'm not used to people knowing my story. When people ask me, I'm still hesitant to talk about it. … I just wanted to be a normal person with a normal family."
The Lamberts, whose children range from 9 to 24, made sure of that. Michelle Lambert enforced curfews and encouraged "sibling" activities.
"I'm an extremely strict mom," Lambert said. "I'm in your face and need to know everything. … He liked the rules and structure.
"Even after he got drafted, he said, 'Mommy, what should my number be?' I said, 'You pick your number.' He said, 'No, you pick it.' He likes that guidance."
Through it all was Butler's relationship with Jordan. It's why he met the Lamberts. It's why he never left.
"Jordan helped him. They're amazingly close," Lambert said. "Jordan lost his father too, so they had that separation bond.
"Jimmy didn't trust many people so when they got together and they had their sports, they would trust each other better than anybody in the world."
Butler was Buzz Williams' first signee after Williams took over Marquette's program when Tom Crean left for Indiana. Williams was recruiting Butler in Texas when Crean resigned. When Butler accepted the scholarship, Williams said he faxed his letter of intent from a fast-food restaurant.
"When I signed him, I had no idea he'd be a first-round pick," Williams said.
"He's not, 'Let's play Y2K' or whatever those video games are for 22 straight hours. He never missed a practice. He never missed a game. He never dropped a class. I've never coached a player with those stats. He shows up every day and does what he's told and tries to improve."
When the Bulls extended Butler's basketball journey Thursday, relief joined the celebration.
"I saw him cry at Senior Night," Lambert said. "This was the second time.
"I don't have words to describe it. Someone just gave him a chance. That's the main thing. No matter what anyone told me — you know, 'Why did you take in another kid? That's just trouble.' — I just knew in my gut he was special. I want to scream to the world and tell everybody what he's going to do."
Well, Jimmy Butler is going to NBA.
And he will have his family right there with him.
kcjohnson@tribune.com
