How Jami Gertz went from actress to Hawks owner to NBA lottery good luck charm
A familiar face will be on the (virtual) podium for the Atlanta Hawks at the 2020 NBA draft lottery on Thursday night.
It’s Jami Gertz, one of the 14 representatives who hope the odds are in their favor for the No. 1 overall pick.
You may recognize her from acting roles including Less Than Zero, Seinfeld (“I don’t have a square to spare!”), ER and Entourage.
If you’re here, you’re probably wondering how she went from stage and screen to the Atlanta Hawks. So here’s the answer!
Gertz is married to Tony Ressler and the pair were part of a group that bought the franchise in 2015. Gertz became the public face of the ownership group. This Hollywood Reporter story from 2018 tells the tale:
His division of duties is by design: Gertz is all smiles out front, while Ressler furiously works behind the scenes to lift the Hawks out of the cellar. “I think it’s fair to say that she makes a better impression on our fan base than any of us in the organization,” Ressler says. “I’m very active on the business and player personnel decision-making. But Jami steps in when it comes to so many parts of the business that I did not appreciate or have any experience in.”
For the past three lotteries, that’s included representing the team, something she’ll do again Thursday night.
She was there in 2018 when the Hawks got the No. 3 pick:
In 2019, there was a Less Than Zero joke made on the broadcast:
Ressler has said this about her being a good-luck charm:
And here’s what she had to say about her appearance in 2020, via the Atlanta Journal-Constitution:
“I think we have such an amazing young core right now, with Trae (Young) and De’Andre (Hunter) and Cam (Reddish) and Kevin (Huerter) and John Collins,” Gertz said. “Those five are all 22 years (old) or younger, so we have a very young core, and this lottery pick is going to add to our young core. And this, my prayer is that this is my last season picking the lottery because I think we have all of the elements there and we are developing all of our young players. It was cut short this year.”