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On Monday night, the Heat pulled off the blockbuster trade that will send Giannis Antetokounmpo to Miami. Jamie Jaquez Jr. is one of the players who will be shipped off to the Bucks once the deal is finalized, and someone captured the moment he learned he’ll be heading to Milwaukee from a guy he was playing pickup basketball with.
There’s been a fair amount of trade rumors swirling around Giannis Antetokounmpo over the past couple of seasons, and that speculation turned into a cyclone after the Bucks failed to sniff the playoffs with a 32-50 record this year, which came in the wake of a first-round exit in 2025.
That obviously had something to do with the fact that he was hampered by injuries that limited him to 36 games, but it was still pretty obvious the Bucks needed to shake things up. Over the past few weeks, more and more signs surfaced to suggest that adjustment would involve the Greek Freak being treated to a change of scenery, and the Celtics and the Heat emerged as the primary suitors for the two-time MVP.
On Monday night, we learned Miami had won the war to secure his talents with a trade that will reportedly be finalized on July 6th.
BLOCKBUSTER: The Milwaukee Bucks are trading franchise icon Giannis Antetokounmpo and Bobby Portis to the Miami Heat for Tyler Herro, Kel’el Ware, Jaime Jaquez Jr., Kasparas Jakucionis, 3 first-round picks (including No. 13), 1 pick swap and 1 second-rounder, sources tell ESPN. pic.twitter.com/NQT5ZhdJU9
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) June 23, 2026
Jaime Jaqeuz Jr. is one of the players who will be shipped off to the Bucks in exchange for the superstar, and he apparently found out that would be the case just like the rest of us.
Someone captured the moment Jaime Jaquez Jr. found out he was being traded while he was playing pickup basketball
Jaquez is a California native who played college basketball at UCLA before he was selected by the Heat with the 18th overall pick in the 2023 NBA Draft, so it’s safe to assume there will be a bit of an adjustment period when the man who’s spent the past eight years in Los Angeles and Miami is forced to relocate to Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
It appears the 25-year-old was somewhere on the West Coast on Monday night when you consider he was playing pickup basketball at an LA Fitness when the news of the trade broke just before midnight on the opposite side of the country.
How do we know that was the case? Well, someone who was in the gym where he was hooping captured the moment he learned he was part of the deal, as it does not appear he got the news from his agent or someone in the Miami front office but rather a guy who pulled out his phone to presumably show him Sham’s tweet.
Jaime Jaquez Jr’s reaction after finding out he got traded for Giannis Antetokounmpo pic.twitter.com/fr51gp5ACE
— Ahmed/The Ears/IG: BigBizTheGod 🇸🇴 (@big_business_) June 23, 2026
It appears he responded to that development with a “Damn, bro” followed by an expletive, but he didn’t seem visibly shocked by a development he probably had to know was in the realm of possibility based on the amount of chatter that’s been surrounding Giannis.