Giannis Antetokounmpo Already Owns the NBA and Now He Owns a Piece of the MLB After Buying a Stake in the Milwaukee Brewers
Giannis Antetokounmpo is fresh off celebrating the Milwaukee Bucks‘ NBA Championship. Actually, he’s still celebrating the Milwaukee Bucks’ NBA Championship. Antetokounmpo went from Fiserv Forum to a downtown Milwaukee parade. From there, he went to Greece to celebrate with his family and compatriots. Then he showed up in Vegas to celebrate his younger brother, Alex, winning an NBA Summer League Championship with the Sacramento Kings. Right now, the finals MVP owns the NBA. He apparently isn’t stopping there, though, as he now owns a piece of an MLB franchise too.
The Greek Freak has made it clear Milwaukee is his adopted home city. He arrived there as a 19-year-old and re-signed with the Bucks to stay for the foreseeable future. Just when it seemed like Wisconsinites couldn’t love him any more, Antetokounmpo went and joined the ownership group of the Milwaukee Brewers.
Antetokounmpo is joining principal owner Mark Attanasio as part of the Milwaukee Brewers’ ownership group
According to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Antetokounmpo is the first new individual investor to join the ownership group since Attanasio bought the Brewers in 2005, but there’s no one more fitting to be the first for a Milwaukee sports franchise.
Both parties weighed in after the announcement:
“We are honored to have Giannis join our team of Milwaukee Brewers investors. Giannis is a great athlete, a world champion and a true local hero with international renown.”
Milwaukee Brewers’ owner Mark Attanasio on Giannis Antetokounmpo joining the team’s ownership group
“The city of Milwaukee means so much to me. I am honored to be joining the Brewers ownership group to further my commitment and dedication to this great community. I take great pride in my city and I’m excited about what we can build together.”
Giannis Antetokounmpo on his purchase of a minority stake in the Milwaukee Brewers’ franchise
After the news was announced, the two-time MVP also got to facetime with another Milwaukee MVP in Brewers’ outfielder Christian Yelich.
Antetokounmpo is buying into a franchise that’s made a similar turnaround to his own
The Milwaukee Brewers went 25 seasons between playoff appearances. The team made a world series run in 1982, eventually losing in seven games to the St. Louis Cardinals. The Brewers didn’t return to the playoffs until 2008 when a young core headlined by Ryan Braun and Prince Fielder won a pennant. Milwaukee was buoyed by a trade deadline deal for Cy Young winner C.C. Sabathia, who made an epic run of starts down the stretch to push the Brewers over the hump.
Antetokounmpo’s own Bucks franchise went through a dark period of its own before he arrived. The team went seven seasons without a playoff appearance during the 1990s before Ray Allen, Glenn Robinson, and Sam Cassell led Milwaukee to a spot in the Eastern Conference Finals. After that, the Bucks didn’t make it out of the first round of the playoffs for 17 years until 2018-19, the first year Antetokounmpo brought home his first NBA MVP Award. The franchise didn’t win a title, though, until it made its own Sabathia-like acquisition of Jrue Holiday.
Now, the Bucks are NBA Champions and the Brewers are in the midst of the best stretch in franchise history with three straight playoff appearances and a fourth seemingly on the way as the team leads the National League Central by 8.5 games.
Giannis Antetokounmpo is having the celebration of a lifetime
The Greek Freak won Milwaukee its first NBA championship in 50 years on July 20. Since then, he’s carried around two different trophies in two different countries, partied with fans, family, and friends. He’s been adored across the state of Wisconsin and the country of Greece. He’s attended parades, chugged champagne, and taken selfies with strangers. 31 days after lifting the Larry O’Brien Trophy, Antetokounmpo signed on the dotted line to buy into a baseball franchise.
Heck of a summer.
Maybe after leading the Bucks to a title for the first time in 50 years, Antetokounmpo’s winning ways could translate from the court to the diamond and bring the Brewers their first-ever World Series championship.
All NBA statistics courtesy of Basketball-Reference and MLB stats courtesy of Baseball-Reference.
