Jimmy Butler is launching hiscoffee brand BIGFACE.- Butler sold $20 coffee in the
NBA bubble and developed a passion for all things coffee. - The coffee is sold through a $500 NFT, and Butler jokes he is going to charge his teammates more.
Jimmy Butler's coffee business wasn't just confined to the NBA bubble.
Butler famously sold his own coffee in the NBA bubble for $20 a cup, no matter the size or type of drink. Now, with the help of Shopify, Butler has turned his side-hustle into BIGFACE, a coffee brand with several distinct blends that are available for consumption.
In true 2021 fashion, the coffee is sold through a limited, $500 NFT that will come with two different blends. It will also come with stories about the sourcing and farmers who harvested the coffee, instructions on the best brewing methods, plus future access to new releases.
Butler told Insider that while traveling during his offseasons, he found that he could often connect with a stranger over a cup of coffee. Those connections inspired him to get into the coffee business.
"I realized how much we had in common, and it was all over a cup of coffee," Butler said. "So I'm thinking, like, how can I bring that experience to let everybody know that you actually have a lot more in common with people than you think if you just sit down and talk to them."
Butler told Insider that he and his partners at BIGFACE tasted "a ton" of different roasts and origins before settling on their favorites.
"I would never get sick of having coffee ... I really enjoy tasting coffee," Butler said.
He has even been practicing latte art, though he said it is not going as well.
"It's going absolutely as you think it would be going: terrible," Butler said. 'It's very difficult to do. I want to insert myself into one of these barista competitions so I can humble myself and get dead-last, and everybody can just laugh at my terrible art at the top of a latte.
"But it's fun. I study it. I watch so many videos. I've traveled around the world and watched other individuals do it and try to mimic what they do. Still can't do it. But practice makes improvement, so I'm doing it every single morning, every single afternoon, every single night. Sooner or later, I'm going to get this heart and this, and - what is it, a tulip? - figured out."
If Butler's Heat teammates weren't happy about the prices of his coffee in the bubble, they won't be happy about the prices of BIGFACE, Butler joked.
"My teammates, the price is going up," Butler said. "I think - who said that? I think it was Fat Joe. Yesterday's price is not today's price. Yeah. A couple-years-ago's price is not today's price, so it's damn sure going up for them."
Butler's basketball career helped lead to his second passion
Of course, this journey did not even begin a couple of years ago, as Butler said - it was just one year ago that Butler and the Heat were battling the Los Angeles Lakers in the bubble.
Butler said it is weird for him to look at how time has gone since then.
"Two seasons have went by, basically. Like, one ended and a full 'nother one happened and another one is about to begin now," Butler said. He noted that he turned 31 in the bubble and now he is 32, preparing for a third season in that same time frame.
Indeed, while speaking to Insider, Butler was staring down a landmark of a new season: the famous
It's a necessary evil for the Heat, an organization that prides itself on being one of the most well-conditioned in the NBA.
After all, it was less than a year ago that Butler dueled LeBron James down the stretch of Game 5 of the Finals, trading four back-and-forth baskets. At a whistle, Butler walked under the basket and doubled-over, an image that has become borderline iconic for the physical toll of high-level basketball.
What does Butler think when he looks back on a fairly recent image that feels so long ago?
"I don't think about it," Butler said. "I don't get locked into what was. I'm just focusing on what it is now: how can I be the best version of myself now? How can I help my team get to where we want to get to now and not comparing today to last year to yesterday? You gotta lock in on the right now and hopefully what we have planned on in the future."
Butler has put the bubble experience and those grueling Finals behind him to focus on what's next: an upcoming season and a new business. But without that bubble experience, Butler might not have realized his second passion. He said he one day wants to open a cafe.
"I think that it's it's a blessing to say that we were in a bubble and that we get to play basketball. And that's when this whole Big Face coffee thing originated and started."