Imagine getting drafted to the NBA and meeting your girlfriend on the same night.
Heat forward Jaime Jaquez Jr. lived it after Miami selected him with the No. 18 overall pick in the 2023 NBA Draft — however, things took a turn for the worse when the tequila hit.
During an appearance Monday on the “Straight to Cam” podcast, Jaquez recalled meeting his girlfriend, Dominique Ruotolo, in New York after the draft, and asking her to get pizza before begging her to take him back to his hotel because he drank too much tequila.
“So, I met her in New York on draft night. I was having the time of my life. My dream came true,” Jaquez said. “And I bump into her, literally bump into her, like straight out of a movie. We start talking and chatting, and then as the night progresses, we were having a great time, talking and getting to know each other.
“And I’m like, ‘Let’s get out of here. Let’s go get some pizza or something.’ She was like, ‘Okay, let’s go.’”
The party came to a screeching halt once Jaquez hopped into his ride-share.
“As soon as I got in the Uber, and the loud music and the lights stopped going, I realized, ‘Oh wow. I can’t go get pizza. I need to go home,’” he recalled.
“She was like, ‘What do you mean?’ I was like, ‘I’m not okay. Please take me home.’
“… She’s like, ‘Wait, what do you mean? You’re taking me to your hotel? Who are you? I don’t know you,’ and I said, ‘Please, just take me home.’”
Ruotolo, a model with Wilhelmina Miami, helped Jaquez get back to his hotel room, where his brother was sleeping.
“She ends up taking me to my hotel. She takes me up to my room, my brother is asleep and he’s like, ‘What is going on?’ And I end up making a beeline for the bathroom,” Jaquez said.
“You guys can put the story together from there. I ended up dying, and she was like, ‘What the hell?’”
Jaquez explained that his friend Justin, who walked in while he was sick on the bathroom floor, got Ruotolo’s phone number for him.
“She was like, ‘Yeah, I gotta leave. I don’t know who this guy is. Thanks, but no thanks.’ I’m like, ‘Alright, cool,’” he recounted.
“So I texted her the next morning, like, ‘Hey, I’m very sorry. Thank you so much for helping me.’
“She replied, ‘Of course. No problem. It happens to the best of us.’”
After three months had passed, Jaquez invited Ruotolo to hang out with him and his friends in Los Angeles. Ruotolo was a track and field standout at USC.
“After that, we didn’t talk for about three months. I’m living my life, she’s living hers,” Jaquez said. “Then I came back to L.A., and one night, we were going out with friends. My roommate says, ‘Yo, you should invite that girl from New York. Didn’t she go to USC?’
“I was like, ‘Yeah, she did.’ So I hit her up, ‘Hey, can I make it up to you? We’re going out tonight. Bring whoever you want.’ She came, brought her friends, and the rest is history. We hit it off that night. Fell in love so quick.
“She forgave me for my dark moment. And yeah, we hit it off.”
Ruotolo, who specialized in the triple jump, transferred from the University of Oregon to USC, where she earned All-American honors and Pac-12 titles.
