Aboard the private jet of billionaire owner Marc Lasry as the Milwaukee Bucks are flying high (2024)

When we have finally reached our cruising altitude, Marc Lasry, the billionaire co-owner of the Milwaukee Bucks, rises from his custom leather seat to make the night’s one and only in-flight announcement.

“Red or white?”

Decisions, decisions. There is commercial air travel, and then there is traveling like this; aboard a luxury private jet and landing courtside to watch Giannis Antetokounmpo lead the Bucks to the second-best record in the Eastern Conference. It’s a dizzying seven-hour excursion from Teterboro Airport in New Jersey to Milwaukee and back that Lasry, usually accompanied by 12 invited passengers, makes approximately 25 times each NBA season since he and Wes Edens purchased the franchise for $550 million in 2014.

“This is the greatest country in the world,” says Lasry, who migrated from Morocco to the United States 52 years ago with nothing more than two loving parents, two sisters and a dream to make a better life. “Where else can you do this?”

This is real-life “Billions,” the critically acclaimed Showtime series, which last year featured Lasry playing himself in the Season 3 premiere. On this early January evening, Lasry is now playing leading man and host to a diverse group of passengers which includes daughter Emma (one of his five children), sister Sonia, nephew Sam, business associates, a Vice Chairman of Goldman Sachs, Bucks minority owner Dan Levene, David Robinson’s son and former Notre Dame wide receiver Corey, and one reporter from The Athletic.

Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers, who owns a minority stake in the Bucks, is not traveling with us. Hey, you can’t have everything.

The passenger manifest changes each trip simply because Lasry wants others to enjoy the once-in-a-lifetime experience of a private plane and a courtside seat at an NBA game. In fact, he prefers to attend games when his ownership partners—Jamie Dinan, Mike Fascitelli and Edens—take the night off. This way, he can use their courtside seats.

“I’ve always taken a lot of different people with me,” Lasry says. “We donate tickets to charities, and people may pay $20,000 to $25,000 to win the tickets in an auction. I’ve also learned that a lot of Greek families love Giannis. Everyone wants to see him. I’m constantly bringing friends and acquaintances to games. The other night, I celebrated my 35th wedding anniversary. The chef told me his son loves Giannis. I told him I’d be happy to make your son a ball boy. It’s a dream come true for a lot of people.”

Lasry’s first game of 2019 features the Utah Jazz and a difficult interior match-up for Antetokounmpo. Jazz center Rudy Gobert was the NBA’s Defensive Player of the Year last season and a force to be reckoned with in the paint, which happens to be the piece of real estate Antetokounmpo wants to control. The battle is old school NBA—plenty of banging and elbows. In fact, too much for Lasry’s liking.

“Hey ref. How about giving us one call,” he screams at the night’s officiating crew.

Lasry, wearing a Bucks pullover, jeans and tennis shoes, is animated but composed. His frequent complaints to the referees are devoid of profanity and never personal. The refs, who are accustomed to hostile working conditions, ignore the noise.

“We’re getting hit, and you’re not calling anything.”

Afterwards, Lasry reveals that he will contact the league to ask Kiki VanDeWeghe, the NBA’s Vice President of Basketball Operations, why Antetokounmpo isn’t receiving a favorable whistle. The man knows how to protect his assets.

“Giannis is getting beaten up and he can’t get a call, yet he’s getting called for a touch foul,” Lasry says afterwards. “I’ll write an email.”

After last year’s first-round playoff loss to the Boston Celtics, Lasry sent an email to the league office that was then forwarded to the Celtics owners for the sake of transparency.

“We lost. So, yes, I was upset.” Lasry said of the email he sent following the Celtics’ Game 7 victory. “I get emotional. I’m into the game.”

All 30 NBA owners see the game the same way and many—including the Mavericks’ Mark Cuban, the Clippers’ Steve Ballmer and the Suns’ Robert Sarver—are not shy about voicing their displeasure publicly. Lasry is no different. In fact, the only begging that Lasry’s ever done in his life is for a foul call.

Otherwise, everything Lasry has is the residue of hard work and, as he likes to say, “luck.” Before striking it rich, Lasry, 59, started at the bottom. His family settled in West Hartford, Conn., in the late 1960s with Lasry sharing a bedroom with his two sisters. Their father, Moise, was a computer programmer, and their mother, Elise, was a schoolteacher. The elder Lasrys stressed education and solid work ethic. Marc worked at Burger King in his teens and then took a job in the dining hall at Clark University. At 21, he began driving a truck for UPS and figured that within 10 years he could get a senior management position and pull in a salary of $150,000.

“I told my mother, ‘This is it for me, I’m going to work for UPS,’” Lasry says while sitting in the owners suite near the Bucks’ locker room. “I loved the job. Driving around, delivering packages and meeting different people. But my mother slapped me in the back of the head and said, ‘You’re going to law school.’ I told her, ‘You can’t tell me what to do,’ and then she slapped me again in the back of the head.”

In 1984, Lasry graduated from New York Law School, eventually landing a position in the bankruptcy branch of the law firm Angel & Frankel before going into business with Sonia. Brother and sister turned out to be good with money, very good in fact. Together they founded Amroc Investments in 1989 and then Avenue Capital Group in 1995. Today, Lasry’s net worth is listed at $1.7 billion.

“You have to be talented, smart and work hard, but luck has a lot to do with it,” Lasry says. “Sometimes you have to recognize that outside factors, whatever they may be, are part of your success. I was in the right place at the right time.”

When it comes to owning a professional sports franchise, luck is buying an NBA team 10 months after the Bucks’ front office drafted a relative unknown athletic freak from Greece. In the superstar-driven league, Lasry and Edens, whether they knew it or not, inherited one.

Antetokounmpo is a humble, driven, low-maintenance, franchise-altering player devoid of an entourage. He has the DNA of a player who could dominate the league for the next 10 years. The Bucks then built Antetokounmpo and the city a venue benefitting a star and a blue-collar sports town. Fiserv Forum, a 17,500-seat arena designed solely for basketball, opened in September. It is the jewel of a revitalized downtown project that includes new entertainment, residential and commercial properties. The Bucks are hoping to land the Democratic National Convention and the NBA All-Star Game. The additional hotels being built will help.

Across the street, the Bucks practice in their new state of the art training facility. Team president Peter Feigin handles the business side, and general manager Jon Horst, one of the league’s youngest executives, is in charge of the day-to-day basketball operations, which includes a daily phone call with Lasry. Last spring, the Bucks pulled off one of the most underrated free-agent signings of the season when they hired coach Mike Budenholzer. The power structure and the facilities are all impressive, but everything tends to function more efficiently when a team has a generational talent on the roster.

“Giannis has the same attitude that I have; this is a phenomenal country,” Lasry adds. “Only here could this happen for both of us. He could have made money playing in Greece but not the type of money he’ll make in the NBA. I love hard-luck stories. The players who make it to the NBA because of hard work. Khris Middleton is a second-round pick. Brook Lopez signed a mid-level exception. Malcolm Brogdon is a second-round pick. We’re not a team with a lot of superstars. We’re not like the Warriors. We still have work to do, but I think we are building a team that can win a championship.”

Lasry grew up loving the sport and played one season of college basketball. On his plane, Lasry will talk business but he prefers to discuss all topics related to the NBA—the game, its players, the league and contracts. (The Greek Freak will be happy to know that his boss thinks he’s underpaid.) Lasry is guarded when the conversation shifts to his relationship with fellow owners. He respects the competition, but he admitted to being annoyed at one unnamed fellow billionaire a few years ago for not being forthcoming about a potential trade.

“There was a player they were thinking about trading, and I said, ‘Before you do anything, can you talk to us first,” Lasry recalls. “I was told, ‘I can guarantee you we’re not trading’ the player. The next day, he was traded.”

Lasry sees the Golden State Warriors as a model franchise, although he did chuckle when Warriors owner Joe Lacob told New York Times Magazine three years ago that the organization is “light years ahead” of the other 29 teams.

“I don’t know if they can be light years ahead if they traded Steph Curry to the Bucks for Andrew Bogut,” Lasry says of a proposed trade before he purchased the Bucks, which has been reported as both fact and urban legend. “That was the deal. But the Bucks’ medical staff didn’t think Steph’s ankle would hold up. That killed the deal. So, I don’t know if that’s being light years. It’s luck. And that’s fine.”

Lasry then smiled and added, “I think we got rid of that medical staff when we bought the team.”

There is constant talking on both legs of the trip, which is exactly how Lasry wants it. He can’t tolerate anyone staring at a tablet or an iPhone. It’s a pet peeve. Therefore, the plane, which has just about anything you’d want, does not offer Wi-Fi service.

That executive decision surprises some and annoys a few. Lasry told a story of a close business associate accusing him of being “cheap” for not having internet service.

“We should have flown your plane,” Lasry told him.

“My plane? What are you talking about? I don’t have a plane.”

“Exactly. When you get your own plane, you can have Wi-Fi. Until then, just be quiet.”

When Lasry purchased the Bucks, he considered an expensive makeover for his Gulfstream 450. But the price tag to detail the plane in Bucks colors and team logo was in the neighborhood of $1 million, so Lasry passed. Instead, he spent $50 for a few stickers that are randomly placed inside the cabin. Next to Giannis, it is the most impressive flying machine representing the Bucks.

“I’m glad he didn’t paint it green,” says Sonia, sitting next to her brother. “The stickers are fine.”

Sonia is sleeping for most of the return trip while Marc begins breaking down the Eastern Conference and wondering what it will take for the Bucks, who haven’t been out of the first round since 2001, to win their first title since 1971. He reveals that the Bucks tried to acquire Kyle Korver before the Cavaliers traded him to the Utah Jazz. When it is suggested that J.R. Smith is available, Lasry makes sure to avoid any tampering rules and declined comment.

Still, he is encouraged by the progress of the team under Budenholzer, who was Edens’ first choice. Lasry was advocating for Spurs assistant coach Ettore Messina but eventually realized that hiring a coach with previous NBA head coaching experience was the prudent decision.

“Wes said, ‘Let’s not risk it,’ and he was right,” Lasry said. “You can’t have an organization where no one makes a decision. He has the final say.” When the Bucks’ season ends, Lasry will have the final say when he replaces Edens on the Board of Governors.

Thirty minutes before tip-off, Lasry invites four guests to meet Budenholzer, who tells his boss he might make a future return flight one night.

“If we have an off day, maybe I’ll spend it in New York,” Budenholzer says before the Bucks rally to defeat the Jazz 114-102. “Why not.”

With the flight 20 minutes outside Teterboro, Lasry is still talking basketball. He marvels at the longevity of LeBron James and envisions what the future holds for the Bucks with Antetokounmpo, who, at 24, is 10 years younger than James.

“He is the player you build around,” Lasry says. “I’m sure he wants to be here, and it’s up to us to do everything we can to put the right players around him. A great player like Giannis would only think about leaving if he doesn’t feel he has a chance to win.”

The plane arrives in New Jersey at approximately 12:15 a.m., and the mood, thanks to the Bucks’ comeback victory, is light. It’s been a long day for Lasry, who in the morning met with Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) about a possible presidential run. Having Lasry’s support and resources is crucial.

Lasry is a major donor in the Democratic Party. He is good friends with former President Bill Clinton, himself an alumnus of the Lasry Shuttle to Milwaukee. In fact, Lasry does a spot-on Clinton impersonation and even had Greg Monroe impressed when Lasry used Clinton’s voice during a free agency meeting four years ago.

After saying goodbye to his guests, Lasry drives himself back to his Manhattan residence. His driver was given the night off, plus Lasry prefers to be behind the steering wheel. After a few hours in bed—Lasry sleeps just four hours a night—he will be back in his New York office for morning meetings and, in two days, he’ll return to Teterboro for a trip to Houston for a game against the Rockets.

And why not? Lasry has it all—a superstar player, a contending team, a jet and a dozen new passengers to entertain. This is exactly the type of traveling every basketball fan would approve of.

(Top photo: Jayne Kamin-Oncea / Getty Images)