The locals greeted Isaac Butts with nicotine. 

“They had never seen a black guy before,” remembered Butts. Built like an oak wardrobe at 6-feet-10 and weighing near 300 pounds, Butts stands out in any crowd, but in rural China, he was a sunflower in a bed of tulips. “They were so happy to see us; people came up to us in the street and put cigarettes in our mouths, trying to get us to smoke. We didn’t want them, but our translator told us it was a sign of respect.”

Basketball has taken Butts from his hometown of Milledgeville to the Aichi Prefecture in Japan, with stops in Boone, North Carolina; Moncton, Canada; Vechta, Germany, and many others along the way. 

Otsukaresama — it’s Butts’ favorite word in Japanese; there is no exact English translation but it embodies Butts’ have game will travel career.  

“What it means is like ‘thank you for your service today,’” Butts said. “We don’t have a word like that [in English]. The culture is so respectful: They bow to one another; they have respect for everything.”

 “As far as being a professional overseas, if you are going to be away from home for 10 months out of the year, you want to be in a good situation,” Butts added. “That’s the thing about Japan — it’s a good market; they pay you well; it’s a very safe country; it’s a place you can really grow in your career.” 

Butts, 29, has the perfect name for a traditional back-to-the-basket center. His specialty: collecting errant jumpers and blown layups. For the third consecutive season with SeaHorses Mikawa of Japan’s B.League, Butts averaged more than 10 rebounds per game — slightly down from the 15 he grabbed in Canada back in 2013. 

“It’s interesting to see how the NBA shifted to a more one-through-five style of game where guys are interchangeable (by position),” Butts said. “As far as Japan goes — it’s a league where they have a lot of guards. If they are looking for imports they are always going to bring in bigger guys.” 

Among the names familiar to an NBA audience that battled Butts in the post this past season are Hasheem Thabeet, Nick Fazekas and Joshua Smith. 

“I wouldn’t trade him for any player in our league,” said J.R. Henderson, Butts’ teammate with SeaHorses Mikawa. “He rebounds at a prolific level — giving us so many second chances at the basket. To add three to five more possessions (per game) to our offense could be the difference between a win and a loss.”

“For a lot of guys, basketball here is an adjustment,” Butts said. “On some teams, the Japanese guys are good, but they aren’t as good as the Japanese guys on other teams, so you have a lot more responsibility as the American player — the team is going to go as you go; the better you do the better the team does.”  

…

A multi-sport athlete at Georgia Military College Prep, Butts was a natural left tackle on the football field.

“I played football because I was big — I was good at football,” Butts remembered. “I enjoyed basketball more. I enjoyed the challenge: learning the game.” 

Butts’ size — 6-feet-3 at age 14 — caught the attention of local coach Bill Hodges, who once upon a time coached Larry Bird at Indiana State.   

“In middle school I was pretty tall,” Butts said. “[Hodges] saw me and said ‘you have good feet and hands. If I can work with you I think I can make you into a good player.’ I spent a summer working out with him and my skill set really improved. He helped me out a lot; coaching Larry Bird at Indiana State, to being back in Milledgeville, he taught me the game from a different perspective.”  

A late bloomer on the court, Butts sprang up 7 inches between ages 14 and 16. By his junior year he had developed into an immovable force under the basket to the tune of 19 points, 12 rebounds and four blocks per contest. He was even better his senior year, raising his scoring and rebounding averages to 26 and 17. 

“I was one of the bigger guys in the school (freshman year), but I wasn’t strong; I was very slow; I wasn’t athletic,” said Butts. “As each year passed, I grew into my body. I didn’t dunk until I was a junior because I was carrying around so much excess weight from football. Suddenly, I was one of the more athletic guys in school.” 

After graduating in 2007, Butts attended Appalachian State University, becoming the first GMC Prep hooper in more than a decade to be awarded an NCAA Division I basketball scholarship.

Butts’ time at Appalachian State included a revolving door of coaches and almost as many losses as wins. In his five years in the program, the Mountaineers went through three different head coaches, compiling an 84 and 77 record, and failed to advance to the NIT or NCAA tournaments. 

Despite the tumult, Butts did what he does best on the hardwood: He grabbed boards, 805 of them to be exact, good for eighth all-time in school history. 

“I could always rebound,” Butts said. “(At Appalachian State) I got better fundamentally. I developed a foundation for my footwork and got better around the basket. My basketball I.Q. developed and I learned how to use my body.”  

One memorable moment that stands out for Butts came in the 2009 Southern conference tournament, when conference rival Davidson ended the Mountaineers season, on the strength of future NBA elite Steph Curry’s 43 points on a blistering 11-of-18 shooting. 

“I don’t think anybody thought he’d be as good as he is now,” Butts said of Curry. “But back in college he was a great player. I remember a game where he didn’t score in the first half and he might have finished the game with 40 points. It was unbelievable to watch — the shots he was hitting.” 

…

Entering the sixth off-season of his professional basketball career, Butts said there are three things he does every summer: a home cooked meal from his mother, “first things first.” Then, a stroll around the GMC campus and a few pickup basketball games at the Baldwin County Recreation Department. 

“The memories of being a kid refuel me a little bit,” Butts said. “In high school, I would go to the recreation department and play against grown men and win the whole day. I have to get there because it just reminds me that I come from there to playing professional basketball.” 

In mid-August, Butts will head back to Japan for a fourth season with SeaHorses Mikawa.

“I just turned 29, my body feels great,” Butts said. “If I can get 10 more years, I’ll go for it.”