Golden State’s All-Star forward has joined a consortium investing in FA Cup champion Crystal Palace.
Golden State Warriors forward Jimmy Butler has found an investment for some of his two-year, $121 million extension. If he’s successful, they may start serving Big Face Coffee at Selhurst Park.
A consortium of sport and entertainment executives, which includes the NBA star Jimmy Butler, is expected to make an offer in excess of $200million to purchase Eagle Football’s 43 per cent stake in Premier League soccer club Crystal Palace, sources briefed on the proposed deal… pic.twitter.com/Iq8xbKI1nD
— The Athletic | Football (@TheAthleticFC) June 11, 2025
Butler has joined a financial consortium which is trying to buy 43% of Crystal Palace, the South London football team in the English Premier League. Crystal Palace is a very old club, a founding member of the Football Association who played in the very first FA Cup tournament in 1871 and finally won it for the first time this season. The team is known as the Eagles and they seemed to clearly be the model for AFC Richmond in the show “Ted Lasso.”
Crystal Palace’s FA Cup win is what prompted one of their primary owners to sell his shares. John Textor owns 43% of Palace, but he also owns the French club, Lyon, who are competing in next year’s Europa League. Thanks to winning the FA Cup, so is Palace. UEFA rules may have kept Palace out thanks to a rule that no one could own multiple clubs in the competition.
The primary owners of the Philadelphia 76ers, Josh Harris and David Blitzer, are two of the three other primary owners of Crystal Palace. If this bid goes through, it would reunite Butler with the executives who traded for him in 2018-19 — and then picked Ben Simmons over him.
Butler’s group is headlined by a former Morgan Stanley guy named Benji Esmaili and a former Roc Nation attorney named Wajid Mir. The consortium used to include the Bay Area’s Jason Kidd, but Kidd joined a group that bought Everton instead. Even the Premier League loves NBA transaction drama!
Textor has an interesting background. He’s a distant cousin of the duPont family who was a world-class skateboarder, until he got a severe head injury. He still skates, as seen last year in an event for another soccer team he owns, Botafogo.
John textor detonando no skate na Casa do Surf em Saquarema @informafogo @EspacoGlorioso @lance_botafogo @CentralBotafogo @ge_botafogo @bernardogentile @fogaonet @EspacoGlorioso @CanalESolitaria pic.twitter.com/6zA0RCZk2Z
— Vinicius Lima (@AdViniciuslima) April 21, 2024
Later Textor made bank with a website called BabyUniverse. He bought a digital effects company with director Michael Bay and NFL great Dan Marino, which won an Oscar for “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” and also created “Hologram Tupac” for Coachella. Textor executive produced the movie “Ender’s Game” and then bought FuboTV. Basically, Jimmy Butler could probably learn a lot from this guy, and if this acquisition goes through we expect him to be able to at least do a frontside 180.
How will this affect Butler with the Warriors? Getting up early to watch Palace’s matches should be no problem, because Butler gets up at 3:30 AM to work out anyway. He’ll probably bring his own French press. Perhaps his interest in soccer will allow him to bond with teammates from places with strong soccer cultures, like Quinten Post from the Netherlands and Brandin Podziemski from Santa Clara.
Besides, if there’s anyone besides James Harden and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander can draw fouls with minimal contact like Jimmy Butler can, it’s a member of a European soccer team. This could unlock a whole new dimension to Butler’s game, which will be great as long as Adam Silver doesn’t decide to bring VAR to the NBA.
Butler’s winning spirit should inspire even the perpetually downtrodden Eagles. And if it doesn’t work out, he’ll just demand a trade to the ownership group of Nottingham Forest.