*Miami Heat superstar Jimmy Butler has downplayed Morgan Wallen using the N-word, calling it a “mistake.”
In a new interview with Rolling Stone, Butler admitted he hadn’t seen the controversial video of the country music star, but noted it “Wasn’t no controversy for me,” the Miami Heat star said of his good friend Wallen.
“I didn’t look much into it, and I’m not going to look much into it,” Butler added.
“I don’t think he’s a bad human being in any way, shape or form. He is a friend of mine, and I don’t know what happened,” Butler continued, Fox News reports. “Obviously, it was a mistake, I think he learned from it, I think he knows better, and I don’t know what was said and in what context, but I think he’s an incredible human being who made a mistake.”
TMZ posted the footage in 2021 of Wallen referring to one of his friends as a “p**sy ass n**ga.” After the clip went viral, Wallen sent a statement to the outlet issuing an apology, noting that he’s “embarrassed and sorry,” and that there are “no excuses” for the language he used.
Several months after the incident, Wallen reportedly failed to donate much of the $500K he pledged for using the N-word.
During an appearance on “Good Morning America” in July 2021, Wallen addressed the N-word video and pledged $500,000 to Black organizations and activism groups.
“Before this incident, my album was already doing well. It was already being well-received by critics and by fans. Me and my team noticed that whenever this whole incident happened that there was a spike in my sales. So we tried to calculate what the number of–how much it actually spiked from this incident,” Wallen said at the time, as reported by Complex. “We got to a number somewhere around $500,000, and we decided to donate that money to some organizations—BMAC [the Black Music Action Coalition] being the first one.”
In September 2021, Rolling Stone reported that BMAC received some money.
“While we are appreciative of the money, which has been used to make grants directly to Black musicians through our COVID Emergency Relief Fund, we remain disappointed that Morgan has not used his platform to support any anti-racism endeavors,” said the group in a statement at the time.
BMAC called Wallen’s $500,000 pledge “exceptionally misleading.” Wallen reportedly donated $165,000 to the group.
“56 other Black-led or Black-founded charities across the country have yet to report receiving any money from Wallen,” wrote Complex in Sept. 2021.
READ MORE: Morgan Wallen Asks Fans to Stop Defending His Use of N-Word [VIDEO]
