Chicago Bulls guard Jimmy Butler has overcome the odds and worked hard to become the player that he is today. Knowing that he still hasn't reach his full potential, Butler pushed himself in the offseason, even waking up at 5 a.m. for the first of three daily workouts. Butler didn't just decide to wake up this early everyday in the summer; he made this decision after watching actor Mark Wahlberg train over the course of a month.
Butler and Wahlberg became good friends when they met in 2013 while the actor was filming Transformers: Age of Extinction in Chicago. Their friendship has since blossomed as the two have vactioned in Paris twice and spent a month together there this summer. Paris was where Butler got a first-hand look at how Wahlberg maintains his magazine cover physique, which motivated him to train even harder than before this past offseason.
From Bryan Smith's profile on Butler for Chicago Mag:
One thing that impressed Butler about Wahlberg, in addition to the actor’s commitment to his wife and kids, was his work ethic: “I just saw the way he got after it, the way he would train. I was like, You know what? That’s probably something a lot of people aren’t doing. Which is why I started waking up at 5 a.m. to start working out. He was doing it.”
Says Wahlberg about his bromance with Butler: “We just kind of clicked. For me, it’s exciting to see a young 20-something-year-old kid, who’s got the world basically in the palm of his hand, controlling his own destiny. Just to see the excitement in his eyes, but also a good, strong head on his shoulders. There are a lot of people who will try to come around and get on his good side to get something from him. And he knows that I don’t need anything from him, that all I’m trying to do is point him in the right direction.”
It’s not random that Butler chose staying in as his crew’s sacrifice. Explains Wahlberg: “I told him, ‘Look, I was lucky. I got it all out of my system when I was younger. When I was your age, I was not disciplined, but if I had been, I think I’d be a lot further along in what I’ve wanted to accomplish. If you don’t give it your all now, you’re going to regret it. You’ll look back on that time you wasted going out and having fun, spending all hours of the night out instead of all hours of the morning at the gym.’ He just got it.”
For someone like Butler, who doesn't want to focus on the past, Wahlberg may seem like an unlikely source of inspiration. But Wahlberg is a highly successful actor, and just like Butler, worked hard to get where he is today. And if Butler is able to expand on his game this year and build on his play last season, then he will have Wahlberg to thank for inspiring him to wake up early everyday in the summer.
