When Miami Heat fan Shant Solmaz attended Wednesday’s matchup between the Miami Heat and the Philadelphia 76ers, he likely didn’t have any expectations other than enjoying the experience of watching his favorite team play. But thanks to the trade of star forward Jimmy Butler during the game, Solmaz quickly became an overnight sensation on social media.
When news of the trade that sent Butler to the Golden State Warriors emerged, Solmaz, who was sitting behind the Miami Heat bench, shared the details of the trade to the Heat bench. This was all captured in a video that has since gone viral on social media.
“We got Kyle Anderson, Dennis Schroder, and Andrew Wiggins,” Solmaz said as Kevin Love, Tyler Herro, and Jaime Jaquez Jr. among others listened on. “We robbed them. A first-round pick protected, they didn’t give out the year.”
A fan sitting behind the Miami Heat bench broke the Jimmy Butler trade news to the team. pic.twitter.com/MoH6VnTtqK
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) February 6, 2025
We now know that Solmaz wasn’t entirely accurate when breaking down the details to Heat players. Solmaz left out what the other two teams involved in the trade, the Utah Jazz and Detroit Pistons, are getting in the deal. And Dennis Schröder was actually traded to the Utah Jazz (and quickly flipped to the Pistons) instead of Miami.
Regardless, it was cool to see how invested the Heat players were about the trade all while the game was actively going on.
On Thursday, Solmaz spoke with CBS News Miami about his viral moment, detailing how it was a spur-of-the-moment decision to get the attention of Heat players and inform them of the move.
“Honestly, I just got the notification on my phone and I looked at my girlfriend and said ‘Hey, pull up your phone. I’m about to tell the boys that Jimmy got traded.’ I look at Tyler (Herro) and his neck broke. He was like ‘What happened?’ I told him Jimmy just got traded to the Warriors. Kevin Love was just invested into hearing what the trade details were. And that was pretty funny. Kevin Love did thank me after. And then he just turned around and looked at the game.”
“Hey, pull up your phone – I’m about to tell the boys that Jimmy got traded” – we’re talking about *that viral #Heat moment last night, as @shantsolmaz_ walks us through his story🏀 #MiamiHeat #GoldenStateWarriors #NBATradeDeadline pic.twitter.com/snqQ0sKFgv
— Samantha Rivera (@JSamanthaRivera) February 7, 2025
As far as how Solmaz actually feels about the move, he outlined how he “didn’t respect” how Jimmy Butler carried himself in the lead-up to being traded and is eager to see how Wiggins and the rest of the new Heat players help the team moving forward.
“I have a lot of respect and love for Jimmy. But honestly, the way he went about things I just didn’t respect. It was unprofessional and I just wanted the toxic relationship to end. So I’m glad we’ve got a new chapter starting with Wiggins and I think he’ll do some good numbers for us.”
