How Jimmy Butler Built BIGFace Coffee

Jimmy Butler makes millions playing in the NBA. But one of the most interesting things he’s ever done didn’t happen on the basketball court.

It started as a joke inside the NBA bubble. Something small, almost random. And somehow, it turned into a real business.

Jimmy Butler has built a reputation as one of the toughest competitors in basketball. A six time NBA All Star with multiple All NBA and All Defensive selections, he’s led teams on deep playoff runs and built his name on intensity and discipline. But off the court, he’s always been a little different from the typical NBA star.

He leans into things people don’t expect. He loves country music. He shows up to interviews in full cowboy fits. He once pulled up to NBA Media Day with an emo look just because he felt like it. He’s always found ways to make ordinary situations more interesting.

That mindset showed up in a pretty unexpected way during the 2020 NBA bubble.

When the pandemic shut down the world, the NBA moved its season to a controlled environment in Orlando. Players were isolated at a resort for months with strict rules on where they could go and what they could do. The games were handled well, but day to day life inside the bubble felt repetitive. There wasn’t much to do outside of basketball, and players started noticing the little things that weren’t quite right.

One of those things was the coffee.

So Butler did something about it.

He brought his own setup. An espresso machine, a grinder, specialty beans. And once players arrived, he started making coffee himself. But he wasn’t giving it away. He was charging twenty dollars a cup.

At first, it felt like he was just messing around. But the environment inside the bubble made the idea work. Players were receiving two thousand dollars a day in spending money, with nowhere to go and very little to spend it on. Butler realized he didn’t need a huge customer base. He just needed a few people willing to pay.

It caught on quickly.

Players from different teams started stopping by his room before games. Some would text him their orders. Butler would make the drinks himself and deliver them around the hotel. What started as a joke turned into a small coffee operation running out of his room.

Eventually, he gave it a name. BigFace Coffee.

The name itself came from the joke. Big face was a reference to one hundred dollar bills, and Butler would say that if someone paid with one, he probably wasn’t giving change. At the time, it felt like just another funny story from the bubble.

But Butler saw something more.

When the season ended, he decided to turn it into a real business.

In 2021, BigFace Coffee officially launched online. He started selling premium coffee beans and merch, but more importantly, he became deeply involved in the craft itself. This wasn’t just about putting his name on a product.

He wanted to understand it.

He attended coffee auctions, where specialty companies compete for high quality beans, and spent thousands on premium selections from El Salvador. He traveled to coffee farms in Costa Rica to learn how beans are sourced, grown, and processed. He took the time to understand every part of the process from the ground up.

It was his way of making sure BigFace Coffee wasn’t just another celebrity brand. It had to stand on its own.

Instead of rushing into opening cafés, the company focused on building the brand through pop ups and events. BigFace started showing up at sporting events and temporary locations, giving people a chance to actually try the coffee and experience what it was about. It built curiosity and demand before locking into a permanent space.

Then in 2024, BigFace Coffee opened its first official café in Miami’s Design District. It wasn’t a random location. The area is known for luxury retail, surrounded by brands like Gucci and Louis Vuitton. That placement said a lot about how Butler saw the brand and where he wanted it to sit.

And despite the famous twenty dollar cups from the bubble, the pricing today is much closer to a typical specialty coffee shop. Espresso drinks are accessible, while premium tastings and coffee flights can go higher depending on the beans.

The joke stayed in the story, but the business became real.

Jimmy Butler will always be known for what he does on the court. But BigFace Coffee shows another side of him. Inside the bubble, while most players were just trying to get through the season, he saw an opportunity.

What started as twenty dollar coffee in a hotel room turned into a brand built on curiosity, quality, and timing.

And like a lot of the best ideas, it started with something small that most people would have overlooked.

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