Like any college basketball player, James Butler had fantasized about the moment: a victory in a conference championship game, fans storming the court and — perhaps most important — a hug with his mom and dad.
Even so, Butler thought, “I’ve got a ring now, too.”
Butler comes from an athletic family. His father, Vernon, is Navy’s second-leading career scorer, trailing only his former teammate David Robinson. He is also second on the career rebounds list, again behind Robinson. In 1986, he and Robinson led the Midshipmen to the NCAA tournament region finals, something no service academy had done before or has done since.
James’s mother, Mary, ran track at Navy and was a third-generation midshipmen. Her father, Peter Blair, was a 1955 graduate who won NCAA wrestling titles in 1954 and 1955 and a bronze medal at the 1956 Olympics.
Wait, there’s more. James’s older sister, Natalie, played on Connecticut’s 2016 national championship team and set a record for rebounds in a season two years later as a graduate transfer at George Mason.
“I’ve had a lot to live up to,” James said with a laugh. “But playing and working out with my dad and my sister has been something I’ve enjoyed for as long as I can remember.”
Trying to match their accomplishments wasn’t something discussed at the dinner table, but it was, as Vernon put it: “Very much there. There was no escaping it. I’m not sure I even realized how much it meant to James until I watched him during the celebration after they won. It wasn’t a sense of relief for him; it was a sense of accomplishment.”
James was Drexel’s second-leading scorer this season, averaging 12.2 points, and the team’s leading rebounder, with 9.2 per game. He also shot 58 percent from the field, almost matching the 59.8 percent Vernon made as a Navy senior.
Vernon Butler served in the Navy for five years, Mary Butler for eight. They settled in Northern Virginia, and almost from the beginning, Vernon began working with his children to help make them basketball players. Both had their father’s size: Vernon is 6-foot-7, Natalie is 6-5, and James is 6-8.
Vernon was never a natural. He was cut as a DeMatha sophomore because Morgan Wootten’s team always had overwhelming talent. He transferred to nearby High Point and became a star as a junior and a senior. By then, he was being recruited heavily, and Lefty Driesell offered him a scholarship to play at Maryland.
“In a sense, that was a dream come true,” he said. “I grew up a Maryland fan. I loved John Lucas and Tom McMillen and Albert King. But deep down, I knew I wasn’t going to be an NBA player, and I thought Navy offered a unique opportunity. Plus, [assistant coach] Dave Laton must have been at every game I played as a senior. It made me feel very wanted by them. The day I committed, the entire coaching staff came to my house. I was pretty sure then I’d made the right decision.”
It couldn’t have turned out much better. Butler was a four-year starter. In his sophomore season, Navy went 24-8 but was left out of postseason play. Fueled by that snub, the Mids won the CAA title in 1985, with Robinson emerging as a big-time player. They routed fourth-seeded LSU, 78-55, in the first round of the NCAA tournament and led a Maryland team with Len Bias and Adrian Branch late before succumbing, 64-59.
A year later, led by Robinson and Butler, the Mids went 30-5, the highlight being a second-round NCAA tournament rout of Syracuse at Syracuse. They went on to beat Cleveland State in the Sweet 16 before losing to Mike Krzyzewski’s first great Duke team in the region final.
“There were 30,000 people in the Carrier Dome when we played Syracuse,” Vernon remembered. “With about four minutes left, I remember it being completely silent except for maybe a thousand of our fans, friends and families sitting in one corner.”
James learned of his father’s accomplishments from others.
“He never talks about it,” he said. “If anything, he plays down how good he was. But I heard from others, and I know his numbers.”
Vernon was insistent that his children focus on fundamentals in their family sessions, most held down the street at George Mason. Because Natalie was older, she was able to hold her own physically even as her younger brother grew and matured.
“It got pretty intense at times,” Vernon said. “I had to break them up on more than one occasion.”
Natalie and James were All-Met selections at Lake Braddock and drew a lot of attention from mid-major programs. Among the schools that recruited James was Army, then coached by Zach Spiker, now the coach at Drexel. Vernon wanted James to make his own college decision, but he admits now he probably pushed his son in the direction of Navy.
“I never actually said to him, ‘Go to Navy,’ ” he said. “But I’m pretty sure he knew that was what I wanted. I made a mistake, learned a lesson. Important decisions in your life should come from you, not from your parents.”
James decided to go to Navy. He had no major issues with plebe summer or with the academics at the school. But he wasn’t happy as a basketball player. He played little and felt as though the chances that he would play more in the future weren’t great. He went to his dad and told him he wanted to transfer.
“He was completely supportive,” James said. “He understood. Still, it was a tough time. You transfer from a place like Navy without having played much, people are going to see you as damaged goods.”
One person who didn’t see him that way was Spiker, who already knew he was a good student and thought he could play for Drexel. At Vernon’s urging, James finished his plebe year at Navy, sat out a year at Drexel and then became a three-year starter for Spiker’s Dragons, graduating a year ago with a degree in finance and playing this season as a graduate student. He got his 1,000th career rebound (in three seasons) in the CAA semifinals.
“I knew him as a player and as a person,” Spiker said. “I recruited him very hard, but he chose to go to another military academy I won’t name. I always loved his motor as a player. I was completely confident he’d be a good player for us. He’s gotten better every year.”
The only thing missing was that ring. Natalie, who is playing in Greece, had hers from Connecticut. Vernon had two CAA championship rings from Navy. Now, James will get his.
“It feels great knowing I’ll have that forever,” he said. “I’ll never forget getting back to campus on Wednesday and so many people coming out to greet us. The next day, I got to carry the CAA championship trophy around campus in the morning. That was an amazing feeling.”
The trophy will find a home at Drexel. The ring, though, will always belong to Butler.
