Not many people would peg Chicago Bulls guard Jimmy Butler as a Broncos fan — he grew up in Texas, went to Marquette and now plays in Chicago — but thanks to a special bond with Broncos wideout Demaryius Thomas, that’s exactly what he is.
And he said as much before the Broncos game on Sunday.
Now, why have Demaryius Thomas and Jimmy Butler become such good friends? Well, that’s a good question, and it all revolves around their troubled beginnings.
As most in Broncos country know, Thomas spent the majority of his childhood and adult life with his mother and grandmother behind bars; it wasn’t until last Sunday’s game that his mother was able to watch Thomas play in person. What many people don’t know, is that Butler faced similar challenges while growing up in Texas.
As ESPN’s Chad Ford detailed back in 2011, the last words Butler remembers hearing from his mother before she kicked him to the curb were, “I don’t like the look of you. You gotta go.” At the age of 13, Butler was left homeless. Fortunately, he was taken in by a friend’s family, but the moment remains with him.
And when he heard how Thomas had battled similar adversities on route towards athletic stardom, he knew he had to get in contact with the All-Pro wideout.
“It’s just how all the odds were stacked against him to not make it, to do wrong,” Butler said, via Ben Swanson of DenverBroncos.com. “He did what he wanted to do and he turned his life to be successful and he’s here now at the top of his game and he really deserves it.
“Every time I always talk to him over the summer like ‘Hey, what’s up? Where you at?’ he always says ‘I’m here, training, getting ready,'” Butler says. “And for me, I really look up to that because I did the exact same thing. It’s the offseason but I’m always working because this is what I love to do. This is what he loves to do and it shows. He’s not the player he is because he took a couple days off; he’s the player he is because he works so incredibly hard.”
And for Thomas, the feeling is reciprocated.
“It’s good to have a person that knows your background, his background and you both work hard toward something that you really love,” Thomas said back in September, when Butler had come to Denver to watch the Broncos in their home opener. “It’s my first time really being around him a lot, yesterday. It touched me to see how big a fan he is of me, and it’s the same with me. Now he’s my favorite basketball player.”
Today, in 2016, Demaryius Thomas and Jimmy Butler are widely recognized as two of the greatest athletes in America today. A remarkable story for to remarkable guys.
