Jami Gertz Represents Atlanta Hawks at NBA Draft Lottery 2019

Jami Gertz

Getty Actress Jami Gertz is part-owner of the Atlanta Hawks.

Jami Gertz is hoping she can bring good luck to Chicago as she represents the Atlanta Hawks at the 2019 NBA lottery. Gertz is an actress and part-owner of the Hawks.

Atlanta has a chance to leave Chicago with two top 10 picks if the Mavericks selection falls outside of the top five. Gertz has appeared in a number of movies including Twister, The Lost Boys and Still Standing. Gertz’s husband Tony Ressler purchased the team in 2015 as Hollywood Reporter detailed.

Today, the 52-year-old actress is starring in a new role: She’s the public face of the Hawks, the team her 59-year-old billionaire husband, Tony Ressler, purchased in 2015 for $720 million. The notoriously press-shy financier is nowhere to be found at the moment — he made a brief appearance in the morning then slipped out before camera crews started arriving — but his wife, it turns out, is indisputably good at working a room, even one the size of a sports arena.

Gertz admits to being a bit superstitious and is wearing a red ribbon hoping it can help the Hawks win the lottery. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution detailed Gertz mindset heading into the lottery.

Gertz wore a black dress with red carnations for her television appearance. She secured a red ribbon to her bra strap – a superstition handed down from her mother – for good luck again this year. And she ate another piece of chocolate cake.

“I thought these were the colors of our team right now, the red, the black, the green,” Gertz said before the event. “So I just thought I’d be thematic this year. Being the actress, I thought I’d bring a little color.”


The Atlanta Hawks Are Hoping to Have 2 Top-10 NBA Draft Picks

What would be the perfect night for Gertz and the Hawks? Atlanta wins the NBA lottery and lands the Mavericks pick. A good night for the Hawks means their own pick lands inside the top-five and the Mavericks pick ends up at six or later meaning it also heads to Atlanta.

Some have argued that the Hawks could be the perfect landing spot for Williamson. Atlanta has a nice young core with Trae Young and John Collins. Williamson could immediately push Atlanta into a playoff contender next season.

Last year, Gertz admitted she felt “a lot of pressure” as the Hawks representative. Things worked out as Atlanta was able to move up one spot, and the Hawks are hoping she can have even more luck in 2019.

“A lot of pressure,” Gertz explained to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “And I’ve had a lot of pressure in my life. I’ve done live theater. You’ve got to come up with the goods night after night, which is a lot of pressure. Tony Ressler seems to feel like I’m his gal.”

Here is a look at Gertz’s message to Hawks fans before the lottery.

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