Jimmy Butler Is Selling $20 Cups Of Coffee To The NBA Bubble

It’s one cup of coffee, Jimmy, what could it cost? $20?

Real, actual playoff NBA basketball in the bubble officially starts today, and I am so excited, but also hesitant: should we even be playing sports at all during a pandemic?

Big questions aside, we’ve learned this month that playing—and living—in the basketball bubble at the EPCOT Center in Orlando, Florida has created quite the coffee conundrum: what is provided inside the bubble is bad. Sacramento Kings head coach Luke Walton got around this by toting seven pounds of coffee in his carry-on, which he is certainly out of by now (he’s also out of the bubble, because well, the Kings kinda suck). But where Walton saw a personal need, Miami Heat and Marquette University alum Jimmy Butler saw a deficiency in the market, with the star guard/forward selling cups of coffee to fellow NBA players for $20.

As reported by ESPN, the Houston native brought with him to the bubble a French press, which he has utilized for a side gig as a bona fide coffee professional with his own cafe of sorts. Big Face Coffee, as it reads on a dry erase board hanging outside his hotel room, is offering up lattes, pour-overs, cappuccinos, Americanos, espresso, red eyes, mochas, macchiatos, and cafe au lait served in your choice of small, medium, or large, which is an impressive if not entirely facetious menu given that Butler’s only reported piece of coffee equipment is the aforementioned French press. A cup of Butler Select will cost you $20. Cash only. No IOUs.

So apparently Jimmy Butler wasn't kidding about the up-charge for the use of his French Press at Disney. (From Meyers Leonard's Twitter): pic.twitter.com/1s1em6flRG
— Ira Winderman (@IraHeatBeat) August 15, 2020

In an interview with ESPN’s Rachel Nichols, Butler explains the price structure as simple supply and demand and knowing your clientele:

“You can’t get coffee nowhere here,” Butler said in the interview. “So I might bump it up to 30 bucks a cup. People here can afford it.”

There is no word yet on what coffee Butler is using at his high-end coffee concept, but one this is for certain: with the publicity this scrappy upstart coffee company is receiving from big name entities like ESPN and Sprudge, there is about to be a whole new wave of folks knocking on Butler’s door (literally) to get their hands on some Big Face Coffee. Soon the star will need to hire a few extra staff to meet demand.

So Jimmy, if you are reading this, there are some very talented coffee professionals out there who may be willing to help this brand really take off.