NBA superstar Jimmy Butler known for operating outside the norm. You may remember when he showed up at NBA media day with straight hair and a brooding attitude with the nickname Emo Jimmy.
“Yeah, yeah, laugh,” he told reporters. “I'm very emotional right now. This is my emo state and I like it. This is who I am.”
“i'm emo”
– Jimmy Butler
(Via @ByTimReynolds ) pic.twitter.com/IrL9Nqqvyv
— NBACentral (@TheDunkCentral) October 2, 2023
Given his penchant for stunts, people wondered if his statement that he wanted to be the “best bartender” in 2020 was another joke served up with a dead delivery.
Turns out it wasn't. What started with NBA stars playing in the Covid bubble selling $20 cups of coffee he brewed with an espresso machine in his hotel turned into a real business. Brand Bigface coffee. It started as an e-commerce play, and now Butler opened its first brick-and-mortar coffee shop in Miami last week.
The store offers the brand's signature mix of coffee and merchandise, such as hoodies, t-shirts, hockey jerseys, coffee mugs and totes.
Butler told CNBC that this is the real deal — not a case of an athlete slapping his name on a product to make an easy cash grab. “I want to be on every Zoom call, every meeting, every resource trip, no matter where it is, anywhere in the world,” Butler explained. “Just because I want to let people know, yeah, my name's on it, on it, it's a part of it, but I'm actually in it, I'm actually with it, I'm going to these places and Yeah I learn more and more every day.”
At the store's grand opening in Miami, Butler told CBS News that it was a dream come true.
“I got to come in here, chill out, meet people, get a feel and make friends,” Butler said. “Coffee is life. This is how I start my mornings, watching my daughter play while I enjoy a cappuccino. For me, this is the quintessential coffee experience.”