He joined the Great Lakes Storm of the Continental Basketball Association (CBA), and won Rookie of the Year whilst also being named to the All-CBA First Team.

He enrolled at Laurinburg Institute in North Carolina for academic purposes but he departed after a reported altercation with a teammate.

[6] On February 27, 2005, Butler signed with the New York Knicks for the rest of the 2004–05 NBA season,[5] scoring ten points over three games.

After the preseason, Brown publicly commented on how happy he was with Butler, and considered him his fourth rookie (after Channing Frye, Nate Robinson, and David Lee).

[4] On July 12, 2007, the Spurs traded Butler and the rights to Luis Scola to the Houston Rockets for Vasileios Spanoulis, a 2009 second-round draft pick and cash.