Fans at Kaseya Center react to Heat’s selection of Jaquez in the NBA Draft

Hundreds of Miami Heat fans gathered at Kaseya Center on Thursday night, where their team had just recently battled for a championship two weeks prior, for an NBA Draft party to witness who the Heat would select as their next young talent.

Before the draft began, a variety of predictions were made regarding who would sport black, red, and yellow next.

According to Newport Beach, Virginia, native and Heat fan Makai Randall, the Heat is in need of someone who can score.

“I think we need a wing scorer,” Randall said. “I think our defense is straight, but we need another scorer. We’re still contenders. We won a [conference] championship. We’re used to winning, [but] we need another scorer.”

On the other hand John Boza of Miami said the Heat desperately needs someone big enough to help Bam Adebayo.

“We need a big guy,” Boza said. “We really need someone to help Bam… There’s a lot of talk of possibly trading, but we definitely need someone big.”

There was a lot of mingling among fans for the first through 16th pick in the draft.

But as the 17th pick was announced, the environment suddenly became lively. Fans at the rear of the plaza started to move to the front, and many of them flipped out their phones to capture the huge projector screen as they awaited to hear Miami’s pick.

“All right Heat fans, we are now officially on the clock,” said the party announcer as fans began clapping and shouting.

And the name was called from commissioner Adam Silver: Jaime Jaquez Jr.

The only thing you could hear in the plaza was cheers.

“I like the pick,” Heat fan Douglas Rosen said. “UCLA guards are usually pretty good in the NBA. We passed up on some guys, but Jaime should be pretty good in the future so I like it.”

Jaquez Jr. was the oldest player to be picked at that moment in the draft. The 22-year-old played for four seasons at UCLA.

Sitting in the front row with Heat city edition jerseys on were two brothers.

“I’m really excited,” Justin Todd, one of the brothers, said. “They said he was a senior at UCLA, so he’ll bring that veteran presence on the team. He may be able to help Nikola Jovic out a bit. But I’m really excited to see how he fits in the team.”

At Heat president Pat Riley’s end-of-season news conference Tuesday morning, he said the Heat could possibly be looking for “wing size and length and multiple-position players, especially ball-handling players.”

And that’s just what they got with Jaquez, who stands at 6-6 with a 6-9 1/2 wingspan.

With an invigorating and optimistic message about what Heat fans can anticipate from their next player, Heat TV host and radio play-by-play announcer Jason Jackson wrapped up the celebration.

“The thing that stood out is that he can create offense anywhere,” Jackson said. “That’s the thing that you want most in the young player that shows up… The work that we’ve been able to see him do over four years is a beautiful thing that quite obviously most of us don’t want to do.”

“So, when he gets here tomorrow [and] the press conference happens… listen,” Jackson said. “Listen to the maturity. Listen to the readiness. Listen to the grace and humbleness that comes with being a player that’s played at a high level for a long time… He’s landing in the perfect spot for a player who’s ready to play right now [and] now he needs an opportunity to prove it. So, I hope you pay attention during Summer League and his press conference coming up. [He’s} another player for us to wrap our arms around and enjoy.”

This story was originally published June 23, 2023 at 1:33 AM.