Jimmy Butler, the hair stunt king, strikes again

Butler’s Miami Heat media day hair is making headlines once again and garnering him the nickname “Ball Out Boy.”

Some may recall last year when Jimmy Butler, a forward for the Miami Heat, showed up to the NBA’s media day last year in locs. 

The look on paper isn’t very shocking; locs have been a protective style for hair for centuries. However, days prior to his new do, Butler didn’t have hair nearly as long as his new locs. He also enlisted a team to record his process of getting his hair done, which clearly showed even during the process, his hair was barely past his ears. And yet he maintained for months that he didn’t have extensions. Every question he received from the press, he insisted that his hair wasn’t fake. 

It wasn’t until his hairstylist, Jessica “Diamond” Dart, confirmed to the Ringer how the locs came to be that the public received the full story of the style that garnered him headlines and the nickname “Dread Head Jimbo.” She told the publication, “He has some crazy requests.” 

Butler is also known to do two things: troll just about everyone he knows and drastically change up his hairstyle. So, it’s hardly surprising that on Monday, during the Miami Heat’s 2023 Media Day, Butler arrived with an eyebrow ring and his hair in a slick press reminiscent of the styles of the mid-to-late 2000s “emo” craze. 

When pressed by reporters about his hair, Butler, whether trolling or not, said he was essentially feeling emo. 

“I feel like I’m very emotional right now,” he said. “This is my emo state, and I like this. This is me. This is how I’m feeling as of late.”

When asked if his new emo aesthetic was here to stay, Butler said, “You never know how I’m going to wake up. This is how I feel today. We’ll see tomorrow. Tomorrow [I] might be in all yellow.”

The look quickly became a hot topic on social media, with many creating new memes and jokes and even anointing him with several new nicknames, including “Ball Out Boy,” a play on the name of the alternative rock group Fall Out Boy. 

One question that remains unanswered is whether or not this style is a silk press or a chemical relaxer. Considering Dart has rejected a Jheri curl idea from Butler because of hair health concerns (and lack of modern appeal), one could assume he didn’t go full-on with the relaxer. Then again, Dart also told the Ringer, “He’ll tell you that, ‘If I’m going to do it, I might as well do it big, might as well just go all out.’”  

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