“Every athlete, in order to make it, you’ve got to have a why, you’ve got to have a reason you’re playing the game of basketball,” Johnson said. “Our guys, there’s a lot of things they go through in their life where they have a why, where they put blood, sweat and tears in — not only for us, their teammates, but their family, friends, people that are counting on them.”
So it was, then, that Butler’s shot carried additional freight when it went up.
A year ago, one of his sisters, Asasha Hall, was shot and killed in her home in Hemet, Calif. Hall had been a regular at San Diego State home games, sitting about four rows behind the Aztecs’ bench, cheering when Lamont played well and scolding him when he didn’t.
“I think about her every day, every day since she passed,” Butler said on Sunday. He wears a necklace with her initials and has a photo of Asasha on the home screen of his phone. “She was one of my biggest supporters. I know she’s up there happy right now watching me play the game that I love. I think she was with me that shot. I think she guided the ball in a little bit.”
Her death gave Butler reason to contemplate a lot about his life.
He took time with his parents and sisters. He had long talks with Johnson, one of his roommates. And he allowed himself to lean on the shoulders of his teammates and coaches.
Basketball had always been his love, and he loved to work at it. The dribble move he used to extricate himself on Saturday night was a move he had worked on over the summer. But in the last year, he came to the conclusion that, as he grieved, he needed the game.