Jimmy Butler Kept Telling Teammates He Was ‘Supposed to Take My Kids to the Arcade’ After Tearing His ACL

When Jimmy Butler suffered an ACL tear, the first thing he worried about was how the injury would affect his upcoming plans to spend time with his two children.

On Monday, Jan. 19, the NBA star, 36, and the Golden State Warriors took on the Miami Heat. Toward the end of the third quarter, Butler went to catch the ball, but he fell, and his right knee twisted, tearing his ACL. 

The athlete fell to the floor in pain, holding his knee, and remained on the court for a couple of minutes, ESPN reported. He was then assisted to his feet and brought to the locker room. The following day, the Warriors said Butler will undergo surgery at a date to be determined.

Inside the locker room, Butler began to reckon with all the consequences of his new injury, his teammate Draymond Green said on his podcast, The Draymond Green Show.

“First thing he said, sitting in that locker room was, ‘Man, I’m supposed to take my kids to the arcade in the morning,’” Green, 35, said on the Thursday, Jan. 22 episode. 

Butler shares daughter, Rylee, 6, and son Brayan, 3, with girlfriend Kaitlin Nowak.

“He said it four different times: ‘I’m not going to be able to take my kids to the arcade in the morning,’” Green recalled, before noting that they “talked a little more” and Butler repeated himself again. 

“ ‘Man, I’m supposed to take my kids to the arcade.’ That’s all he kept saying,” Green said. “He was just in this state of delirium. Completely delirious. I can only imagine what he felt, but he just kept saying, ‘I’m supposed to take my kids to the arcade.’”

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Before the ACL injury, Butler has been vocal about his devotion to his children.

In a heartfelt interview with ABC News in June 2023, Butler revealed Rylee and Brayan are his “why,” the driving force behind everything he does and who he’s really playing for. “Like everything I do now, I want to make it home to them. I want to make sure they’re safe.”

That same year, when the Bleacher Report asked about the first thing he’ll do after the NBA playoffs in 2023, he said, “I’m gonna play with my daughter, man. I love her to death, I miss her — I’ve been away for a very long time.”

He continued, “We’re going to get ice cream, we’re going to the park, we’re doing a lot of different stuff.”