Heat’s Jaime Jaquez Jr. embracing Mexican roots and what he represents: ‘I take a lot of pride in it’
As Miami Heat rookie Jaime Jaquez Jr. sat down for his scheduled media availability ahead of Friday night’s Rising Stars event to kick off NBA All-Star Weekend in Indianapolis, the first three questions came to him in Spanish.
That’s because Jaquez wasn’t just representing Heat culture at All-Star Weekend, he was representing his own culture as only the sixth person with Mexican citizenship to play in the NBA. The five who came before Jaquez are Eduardo Najera, Horacio Llamas, Gustavo Ayon, Jorge Gutierrez and Juan Toscano-Anderson.
Jaquez is the first of those six players to be selected in the first round of the NBA Draft.
“I take a lot of pride in it,” Jaquez said to the Miami Herald. “It wasn’t anything I was trying to do. I wasn’t like, ‘I’m going to try to be the best Mexican or the first Mexican,’ you know what I’m saying. But it’s great that a lot of people see it that way and it’s great that a lot of people feel inspired by that and appreciate that.”
A dunk over Shaq and a dunk honoring his Mexican roots not enough for Heat’s Jaime Jaquez Jr.
On Saturday night, Jaquez became the second in that group of six Mexicans to take part in the NBA Slam Dunk Contest. Toscano-Anderson was the first when he finished as the runner-up in the event in 2022.
But Jaquez didn’t become the first to win the Slam Dunk Contest, as he was eliminated in the first round. Before Jaquez was ousted, he used one of his two first-round dunks to honor his Mexican background by wearing a black “El Heat Cultura” jersey — translated in English to “Heat Culture” — while the names of the five Mexican NBA players who came before him and the Mexican flag were shown on the LED glass court during his turn.
“I think it was all about showing love to the people who came before me,” Jaquez said. “As you guys saw, all the Mexicans who ever played in the NBA were shown. It’s just talking about continuing that legacy, continuing to build and move forward. Here I am now, but there’s going to be plenty more coming after me.”
Jaquez, who turned 23 on Sunday, was born in the Los Angeles area to a mother of Norwegian descent and a father with Mexican roots. His father’s family is from Guadalajara and Jaquez says he still has “a lot of family there.”
Jaquez visited Mexico often as a child before basketball games starting filling up his schedule. The last trip he took to Mexico was last summer to visit family and celebrate a cousin’s baptism.
Despite being born in California, Jaquez played for Mexico’s national team at the Pan American Games as a dual citizen when he was 19 years old. He still hasn’t ruled out again representing Mexico on the international stage in the future.
In other words, Jaquez’s ties to Mexico may be inherited but they are very real.
“He gets to shine, but it’s not about him,” Jaquez’s father, Jaime Sr., said of his son’s All-Star Weekend opportunity. “It’s about the people that he’ll be able to touch or inspire. Like when he goes to the Rising Stars, a lot of the Mexican people can go, too, and watch him and see what that’s all about.”
Jaquez’s combination of Latino blood and star potential has quickly lifted him into the global spotlight.
Jaquez has already established himself as one of the NBA’s top rookies this season after the Heat selected him with the 18th overall pick in last year’s draft, winning two of the first three Eastern Conference Rookie of the Month awards handed out this season. For perspective, none of the five Mexican players who came before Jaquez earned that honor once.
Among the five NBA players with Mexican passports who came before Jaquez, Najera had the longest and most notable career. Najara averaged 4.9 points and 3.7 rebounds per game in 619 regular-season games.
Llamas played in 28 regular-season NBA games, Gutierrez appeared in 47 regular-season NBA games, Ayon played in 135 regular-season NBA games and Toscano-Anderson has appeared in 202 regular-season NBA games.
That puts Jaquez on a track that could make him the best player in this small group, as he’s averaging 12.9 points, 3.9 rebounds, 2.6 assists and 1.1 steals per game in his first NBA season while becoming an important part of the Heat’s rotation.
“Pressure to live up to? I don’t really see it as that because I love basketball,” Jaquez said. “I wasn’t trying to be the first Mexican, you know what I’m saying. It just happened. So everything that comes after it, it’s just a plus. I just wanted to do this because this is what I wanted to do. The fact that everybody sees it as something much bigger, that’s great, that’s awesome and I’m happy that people can see that and they can feel inspired and feel proud that they have somebody they can look up to.”
The Jaquez effect is real, especially in a city like Miami with a large Hispanic population. Even Heat executive vice president and chief marketing officer Michael McCullough was taken aback by the crowd Jaquez drew during an appearance at The Miami Heat store at Dadeland Mall in Kendall early in his rookie season.
“The store appearances that we’ve done, particularly the one in Dadeland Mall, was just really phenomenal,” McCullough said. “What struck me about that particular appearance was the youthfulness of the fan base that was there for Jaime that day, including the ethnic makeup of that audience, and just how excited they were that Jaime was on the Heat. They really feel that Jaime can represent them. I think he’s embracing that and I think he’s willing to take on that mantle.”
Off the basketball court, Jaquez leans into his heritage.
Jaquez listens to a lot of Bad Bunny and Peso Pluma, who are currently two of the most popular Latin artists.
Jaquez remembers dancing to “Suavemente” by Elvis Crespo during Christmas celebrations while growing up in California. He was even seen singing it during halftime warmups in a November game against the Bulls in Chicago.
“I love that song,” Jaquez said. “We always played all that and danced during Christmas and had a great time with me and my cousins.”
Jaquez loves eating Mexican tamales, which is a dish made with a corn-based dough mixture that is filled with various meats or beans and cheese.
In Miami, Jaquez has grown to love Cuban sandwiches but has yet to give Cuban coffee much of a shot because he’s “not a coffee person.”
“I don’t know if that’s basic. But I love it,” Jaquez said with a smile when discussing his admiration for the Cuban sandwich. “That’s my favorite thing.”
And Miami is growing to love Jaquez and everything he represents as a Latino NBA player. His sister, Gabriela Jaquez, is working to have the same effect on the women’s side as a sophomore basketball standout at UCLA.
“My idol was Magic Johnson,” said Jaime Sr., who played college basketball at Concordia University in Irvine, Calif. “To see Magic Johnson play for the Lakers, that’s incredible. Then I started looking for people who kind of looked like me or had a last name like me and I didn’t see anybody in the NBA.
“As a basketball player, I’d love to look up to somebody who is like me, has my first name, has my last name. That would have been cool, but obviously that didn’t happen. So I think for the younger generation, they’re going to get a chance to see themselves be represented in the NBA, which I think is pretty cool.”
While understanding the language well when a person speaks to him in Spanish, Jaquez wants to become a more fluent Spanish speaker. He’s working on it and feels like his Spanish has improved since arriving in Miami because he’s using it more.
“Uber rides. A lot of Ubers,” Jaquez said when asked when he finds himself using Spanish the most in Miami. “Uber drivers, when I’m ordering food. And also people come up to me, sometimes they don’t speak English. So I try to hold conversations with them in Spanish.”
But there’s a universal language that’s shared, regardless of whether Jaquez can hold full conversations in Spanish or not. It’s the lessons he learned growing up in a Hispanic family.
“It was a lot of hard work and pride and dedication,” Jaquez said. “You got to work for what you want and nothing is going to be given. That’s always what was preached in my household and that’s what I took with me.”
