Jimmy Butler officially began his media day hair-do prank in 2022 when he arrived with ombre faux locs. Last year, he elevated it a notch by showing up as ‘Emo Jimmy’ — with straight hair, and clad in piercings and eyeliner. Butler, however, turned up with no special props this time around.
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“I’m here. Normal hair. No shenanigans,” the 35-year-old had said on media day ahead of the 2024-25 season.
While fans were disappointed, the Miami Heat star has more than made up for it by brandishing new hair colors almost every week since then. Through 17 appearances, Jimmy has already displayed four different colors this season.
‘Blonde Jimmy’ was the first look. It lasted for just three games — between the 5th and 9th of November. Notably, the Heat lost all the three games during that stretch. Butler also suffered from an ankle injury, forcing him to miss the next four games.
When he returned, the six-time All-Star was feeling fiery hot in red hair. From the 19th to the 30th of November, the Heat won four of their five games with Jimmy the red-head in the line-up.
At the start of December, against the Toronto Raptors, Butler switched his hairdo again. He appeared up north with his hair colored blue. This lasted from the 2nd to the 9th of December. His team secured a winning record in that period too.
Finally, last night, we saw Jimmy’s fourth hair color of the season. He showed up for the home game against Toronto in bright orange hair. Miami won 114-104.
With a relatively laxed schedule over the next 10 days, we’ll have to wait to know how long Butler maintains his current style.
Is Butler trying to say something through his hairstyle?
After the game against the Raptors last night, Butler was asked if there was any particular thought process involved in his frequent change of hair color.
“I can change my hair to whatever color I want to, and there is no subliminals in my hair. I’ve just been changing it a lot lately. Orange is the brightest color that they had so that’s what I went with,” the five-time All-Defensive wing explained.
His clarification, however, did not deter fans from finding subliminal messaging in Butler’s choice of colors. Some of the more conspiracy-inclined members of the Heat community suggested that Jimmy’s hair through this season might reflect his preferred trade destinations.
Shams Charania reported that Pat Riley is officially taking calls for Butler now, and listed a few teams as his ideal landing spots. The Golden State Warriors, Dallas Mavericks and the Houston Rockets were on the ESPN reporter’s list.
Fans connected Jimmy’s blonde hairdo to the Warriors, his blue hairstyle to the Mavericks, and of course, the red to the Rockets. The recently added orange was associated with another contending Western Conference Team — the Phoenix Suns.
When the trade deadline drama truly picks up, we can expect less conjecture and more insider reports about where the NBA’s biggest names will end up come February. That could include Butler, hair color notwithstanding.
