Jackie Butler (born March 10 1985 in McComb, Mississippi) is an American professional basketball player formerly in the NBA, currently a free agent. Butler is 6'10" and weighs 260 pounds.
Butler attended McComb High School and originally committed to play at Mississippi State University but failed to qualify academically. He later enrolled at Laurinburg Institute, then transferred to Coastal Christian Academy prep school in Virginia Beach. He went undrafted in 2004 and was cut by the Minnesota Timberwolves in training camp.
Butler played briefly with the New York Knicks for the 2004-05 NBA season. He scored ten points over three games, by successfully making all four of his field goals and both free throw attempts. Butler finished the 2004-2005 season with the Continental Basketball Association where over 40 games with the Great Lakes Storm he averaged 18.1 points (tenth in CBA), 10.7 rebounds (third) and 1.45 blocks (third) per game. He later was drafted in the 2005 AAPBL Draft. However the league folded soon thereafter.
When Larry Brown was hired as the New York Knicks head coach, it was unclear what sort of role Butler would have. After the pre-season, Brown publicly commented on how happy he was with Butler, and considered him his fourth rookie (along with Channing Frye, Nate Robinson and David Lee). After a rocky start, Butler was soon praised as being the Knicks' best center, with Eddy Curry and Jerome James having disappointing starts to their Knick careers. For the 2005-06 NBA season Butler played in 55 games averaging 13.5 minutes, 5.3 points (54.4% field goal percentage) and 3.3 rebounds per game. He earned $641,748 with the Knicks.
In July 2006 Butler signed a three-year, US$7 million contract with the San Antonio Spurs. He was considered a long term project. Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said on Oct 26, 2006 "...most of his playing time in the initial part of the season is going to be in practice, learning what a work ethic is day in and day out and what it takes to play at this level."
On July 12, 2007 the Spurs traded Butler and the rights to Luis Scola to the Houston Rockets for Vassilis Spanoulis, a 2009 second-round draft pick and cash.
Scouts consider him a gifted offensive player but a questionable defender. Popovich and Butler's first high school coach have both stated that Butler resembles legendary big man Moses Malone.
