Selena Gomez Hoping To Spend ‘More’ Time With NBA Player Jimmy Butler & Explore Romance Potential

Despite recent speculation and reports tying Selena Gomez, 28, to Miami Heat player Jimmy Butler, 31, the pop star is not in a full-blown relationship. “Selena thinks Jimmy is pretty cool,” but “she is not exactly ready to dive into a relationship with him,” a source close to the “Rare” singer EXCLUSIVELY tells HollywoodLife. However, Selena is still interested in a potential future with the NBA player, our insider claims. She “would like to hang out with him more and see what happens,” our source adds.

The future is still uncertain, though. “[Selena] doesn’t know what can happen with it all since he is about to embark on the new NBA season this month,” our source continues, referring to the fact that the 2020-2021 NBA season will kick off on Dec. 22. Since Jimmy’s team is based in Florida while Selena lives in California, she “isn’t really interested in anything long distance so she is trying to protect her emotions,” our source says, adding, “It is not serious at all right now, she is playing it as it comes but she thinks he is very nice. Only time will tell if anything comes out of it.”

But how does Jimmy feel? “Jimmy is much more interested in Selena than Selena is interested in him, but he is eager to see if it goes anywhere,” a source close to the Miami Heat forward and shooting guard EXCLUSIVELY tells HollywoodLife. The insider adds, “Getting back to the finals and his career is very important but finding someone special is also very important. He hopes to take her out more and actually make something out if it.” HollywoodLife has reached out to Selena’s and Jimmy’s rep for comment.

Dating speculation about Selena and Jimmy first began swirling in mid-November, when Twitter user Chris Piro — who claims to be an “NBA insider” — wrote, “Jimmy butler and selena gomez weird couple man Sources: Dude just trust me.” The tweet has gained nearly 700 likes. Around the same time, Selena and Jimmy were allegedly spotted at the Lucien restaurant in New York City on what “seemed like a date,” which an anonymous source told popular gossip Instagram account @deuxmoi (The Miami Herald reported the claim). There was no proof behind these reports, however, and HollywoodLife also cannot independently confirm these claims.

Selena did reveal, however, that she was looking forward to new love during an interview in Oct. 2019. “I’ve been super, super single for two years and I want to know what the love will look like next for me,” Selena said a year ago on The Zach Sang Show, following the end of her entanglement with Justin Bieber in early 2018.