The Player Who Tried to Help Jimmy Butler Get His Joy Back with the Miami Heat

Last year, right before the NBA trade deadline, Jimmy Butler had a very interesting press conference. He said he had “lost his joy” for basketball.

At the time, it was easy to brush it off, just frustration, just a rough stretch, something the Miami Heat would figure out like they always do. That was the moment where you could start to see it, the beginning of the end. The writing was already on the wall that Butler’s time in Miami wasn’t going to last much longer.

Zache Lowe had a conversation with the Miami Heat's Jaime Jaquez Jr. Lowe said that on the way home from that press conference, Butler got a call. And the crazy part? The only teammate who reached out that night was Jaime Jaquez Jr.. "What I heard was the message from Jaime was ‘hey, we can fix this. Come back to us we got a good thing going here"

Zach Lowe and Jaime Jaquez share story of Jaime being the only Heat teammate to call Jimmy Butler the night of his “I lost my joy” press conference last season:

Zach: I talked to someone who was in the car with him on the way back from that press conference, Jimmys phone rings… pic.twitter.com/E2Vo3Zyu10
— NBA Courtside (@NBA__Courtside) April 2, 2026

Jaime responded to Lowe "Yeah I did call him After one of those press conferences. I was like ‘hey man, whatever problems you got, we’re here. We want you to feel like we got your back’ type of thing”

That Says A Lot About Jaime and the Locker Room

First off, that’s big-time from Jaime. He’s a young player, still finding his way in the league, and he’s the one picking up the phone, trying to keep the group together? That’s not normal, that’s leadership.

The whole Jimmy Butler saga and ordeal were rough and a big distraction for the Heat. This kind of tells you everything about where the Heat were at. Because if he’s the only one calling, what does that say about everyone else? And looking back now, it feels like that moment wasn’t the start of the problem; it was just when it became public.

The “Divorce” Was Already Happening

Fast forward to today, and the split between Butler and the Heat doesn’t feel shocking at all. It feels like something that had been coming. The Heat are in a tough spot, still competitive, still tough, but not quite contenders. And Butler, for as great as he’s been, was older, banged up a lot, and carried a huge burden every season. The Heat also could not trade for another star to help Jimmy Butler, and that was the icing on the cake.

One Call That Says Everything

At the end of the day, that phone call didn’t change anything. Jimmy still drifted away. The relationship still ended. The trade still happened. One guy tried to pull it back, but it just wasn’t enough.