WASHINGTON (USA TODAY) — Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers has purchased a stake in the Milwaukee Bucks, the team announced on Friday between the first and second quarter of the Bucks’ Game 3 playoff win against the Boston Celtics.
Rodgers, along with his girlfriend Danica Patrick, sat courtside next to majority owner Wes Edens.
The Bucks said Rodgers joined the team as a limited partner.
“I’m a humongous sports fan, especially the NBA. Basketball is my first love actually before football so the opportunity to join the ownership group here in a state that I love, a region that I’m entrenched in and have been for a number of years, a team that I’ve followed and cheered for and attended games at for a long time – to be able to a minority owner now is pretty special,” Rodgers told Fox Sports Wisconsin.
Edens, Marc Lasry and Jamie Dinan are majority owners, and the team was purchased from Herb Kohl in 2014 for $550 million. In Forbes' latest team valuations released this season, the franchise was valued at $1.075 billion.
The Bucks built a new practice facility that opened at the start of this season, and a new downtown arena is under construction and will be open by the start of the 2018-19 season.
Milwaukee finished as the seventh seed in the Eastern Conference this season and is led by 23-yeard-old All-Star Giannis Antetokounmpo.
The Packers legend has been a frequent attendant at Bucks games. He was taking in Game 3 of the Bucks-Celtics series after Boston won the first two games at home.
Rodgers, a two-time NFL MVP, missed nine games for the Packers last season after he broke a collarbone in his left shoulder in a Week 6 game against the Minnesota Vikings.
