The NBA superstar known as the “Greek Freak” has given new meaning to the term “bank shot.”
Giannis Antetokounmpo, the two-time MVP who last year led the Milwaukee Bucks to their first NBA title since 1971, opened bank accounts with 50 different banks — each one of them holding $250,000, his boss, team owner Marc Lasry, told Bloomberg News.
The $250,000 sum is the maximum amount of cash that a depositor can hold in an account that would be covered by the Federal Despot Insurance Corp, or the FDIC.
FDIC protects depositors of insured banks against the loss of their deposits if that bank fails.
Lasry, the billionaire hedge fund manager and founder of private equity firm Avenue Capital Group, told Bloomberg that he gave Greek Freak and other Bucks players valuable investment advice.
“I spend a lot of time with them explaining where they should invest,” Lasry told a conference in New York.
“I’m like, ‘Giannis, you can’t be having accounts at 50 different banks. Let me tell you something, if JPMorgan goes under, your little dinky banks are going to go under too. Let me explain what you should buy, you should buy U.S. Treasuries, you should buy this’.”
Since entering the NBA in 2013, Antetokounmpo has earned a total of $146,344,870 — and that’s just from playing basketball.
His off-court endorsements are at least in the eight figures. Antetokounmpo raked in $47 million combined from his basketball salary and endorsements, according to Forbes.
Lasry, whose son, Alex, is a Democratic Party candidate for the US Senate seat from Wisconsin currently held by Republican Ron Johnson, became a co-owner of the Bucks after buying his stake in the team for $550 million.
His private equity firm, which specializes in distressed securities, manages $12 billion in assets.