Jimmy Butler has a long track record of using other sports to sharpen his basketball skills, and padel is his latest obsession. The Golden State player first linked up with Reserve Padel founder Wayne Boich after moving to Miami and quickly became a visible ambassador for the game. Butler has been playing padel regularly and helping promote big events that marry elite competition with celebrity culture, and his public enthusiasm has pushed padel into new markets in the United States and Europe.

Butler says the work around padel is more than leisure; it is deliberate cross-training that complements his NBA life. He has been involved in organizing showcase tournaments and exhibition nights that drew top pros and high profile guests, and those events also put real money into the sport. Butler’s involvement in padel reached a new level when he helped organize and fund the Reserve Padel Cup, an exhibition event featuring a $500K prize pool. As Butler balances NBA preparation with business ventures and charity work, padel has become a vehicle for athletic growth and community investment that he views as smart and practical.

CNBC Television ran a segment in which Butler explained why he considers his contribution to the sport an investment of time as much as money. “For me, my investment is a lot about the time, and for me, I also get to learn about these guys. I get to work on my Spanish too, but I get to be better on the basketball court because of this, I mean it. Now hear me out. I like to play so many different sports to train for whatever upcoming season. This is another one. So I would like to say that my biggest investment is I kind of get to get better at basketball throughout this entire thing for myself”.

The video also had Butler break down the athletic payoff in plain terms. “Hand-eye coordination, reflexes, being able to pivot when the ball comes off the wall. All the movement, all the conditioning that you do. Like seeing these guys work up a sweat. It is. It’s super incredible. I don’t know if I have that in me to do it for that many straight sets. I won’t lie to you, but it looks exhausting, and it can definitely help on the basketball floor, I promise you”.

Reserve Padel and Butler expanded the concept into a series that will feature multiple stops and larger total purses, and the organizers say the 2025 series will distribute more than one million dollars across events. The Miami Reserve Cup mixed top ranked padel pros with celebrity captains, and the tournament used novel rules and team formats to boost fan appeal and player engagement.

Butler is pragmatic about risk and training when asked about injury precautions and competitive balance. “Yeah, of course. I would never do that. I’m not going super hard. Okay? I don’t know the ins and outs of the game like these pros that I get the opportunity to be around, to learn from, and to watch and be a fan of. But yes, I do play. I’m not going all out. I’m not trying to hit the ball out of the arena thing. I’m not trying to run outside and hit it back in. But I do like to pretend that I’m a pro.”. That balance is central to his pitch for padel as a training tool that improves coordination and conditioning without jeopardizing NBA readiness.

For Butler, the payoff is multi-layered. He gets a conditioning sport that encourages quick hands and lateral movement, he helps grow a business that funds prize money and charity, and he creates a social platform that brings athletes and entertainers together. Reserve Padel founder Wayne Boich has used Butler’s profile to attract partners and venues, taking the Reserve Cup from Miami to Europe and adding Marbella as a host city for the Series. The tournament model now blends competitive integrity and hospitality in ways that can scale across markets.

Jimmy Butler’s padel push also has a pop culture bent, and that was on full display in New York in early September when Reserve Padel staged an exhibition at its Hudson Yards club. The celebrity night drew a who’s who of sports and entertainment and underscored the sport’s growing cachet in major cities.

Jimmy Butler and Owen Wilson headline celebrity night at New York padel event

Reserve Padel’s New York exhibition arrived as the US Open brought tennis attention to the city, and the Reserve club used that moment to showcase padel to a packed crowd at Hudson Yards on September 6. The night featured former world class players and marquee guests, and Butler moved from courtside fan to active participant by joining rallies with Reserve founder Wayne Boich. The event mixed exhibition matches with fan engagements and created visible energy around the sport in a major media market.

Actor Owen Wilson was another high profile presence who played and watched across the weekend, boosting the celebrity interest in padel and highlighting how the sport appeals to established racket players and newcomers alike. Wilson’s lengthy practice session with one of padel’s legendary figures signaled that the sport can attract committed amateur talent from outside the professional tennis world. The mix of names and faces helped Reserve position padel as both a serious competition and a lifestyle experience.

The Hudson Yards stop also demonstrated how Reserve leverages showmanship and A-list attendance to sell tickets and sponsorships, and that model complements the tournament purse structure that Butler helped underwrite. Celebrity nights drive media coverage and sponsorship interest, which in turn supports charitable giving and the local development work Reserve and partners pursue. That cycle is at the heart of Butler’s approach to growing padel without treating it as a purely commercial venture.

If Reserve Padel keeps scaling and Butler continues to lend time and profile, padel could well move from niche to mainstream faster than many expected. For Jimmy Butler, the value is clear on three levels of play, conditioning, community development, and cultural cachet. The Reserve Cup Series and the celebrity exhibitions show how one athlete’s curiosity can shift a sport’s trajectory while keeping the work grounded in training and smart precautions.