Menu
Forty Under 40

Forty Under 40: Joe Maczko

nba photos

Joe Maczko’s journey to becoming a key member of the NBA’s legal department is serendipitous given that the Michigan native began his career practicing commercial real estate law.

“It was not a direct path,” Maczko said. 

A former student manager for the University of Michigan football team, Maczko was five years into his real estate legal practice in 2013 when a friend passed along a job tip related to international media at the NBA. Interested, he interviewed and impressed, but didn’t get the job. Instead, he landed another role at the league that better suited his legal background.

“It was a job description that I would have written up,” he said. “I was incredibly lucky.”

Today, as senior vice president and assistant general counsel for the NBA, Maczko has a critical role related to a broad range of corporate and legal matters at the NBA, with a focus on corporate finance, team ownership transactions and arena-related financing and development.

He vets potential team owners and manages the overall process for anyone seeking to become an owner in the league.

Maczko has made his mark over the past year given the sale of the Brooklyn Nets to Joe Tsai and the formation of the Basketball Africa League. He continues to lead the legal efforts behind a possible capital vehicle that could allow the purchase of minority team stakes across multiple NBA teams.

“It is overseeing all aspects of the transaction,” Maczko said. “Most significant is preparing and presenting the transactions to our board.”

Senior Vice President and Assistant General Counsel, National Basketball Association


Age: 36

Born: Detroit

Education: University of Michigan, BBA; Columbia Law School, J.D.

Family: Wife, Vanessa; children, Ellis (5); Sydney (18 months)

Advice to my 20-year-old self: You’re not nearly as wise as you think. Listen more; talk less.  

Profession I’d most like to attempt: Food critic.

Guilty pleasure: Nestle Crunch ice cream bars.

Causes supported: NBA Cares; Alzheimer’s Association.

Person in the industry I’d most like to meet: Magic Johnson.

Sports industry needs to do a better job of … : Appointing women CEOs and naming them to other senior leadership positions. More women CEOs across the board would be a great thing.

Sports business leaders should be more mindful of … : Avoiding groupthink.

Ideal day off: Spend the morning hanging with my kids; play 18 holes at Pinehurst #2 with friends in the afternoon; and finish the day at dinner with my wife at Alinea in Chicago.

Most adventurous thing I’ve done: Zip line over the Costa Rican jungle at 2,000 feet.

You would be surprised to know that I … : Played soccer against Steve Nash in a New York City men’s league.


SBJ Morning Buzzcast: March 25, 2024

NFL meeting preview; MLB's opening week ad effort and remembering Peter Angelos.

Big Get Jay Wright, March Madness is upon us and ESPN locks up CFP

On this week’s pod, our Big Get is CBS Sports college basketball analyst Jay Wright. The NCAA Championship-winning coach shares his insight with SBJ’s Austin Karp on key hoops issues and why being well dressed is an important part of his success. Also on the show, Poynter Institute senior writer Tom Jones shares who he has up and who is down in sports media. Later, SBJ’s Ben Portnoy talks the latest on ESPN’s CFP extension and who CBS, TNT Sports and ESPN need to make deep runs in the men’s and women's NCAA basketball tournaments.

SBJ I Factor: Nana-Yaw Asamoah

SBJ I Factor features an interview with AMB Sports and Entertainment Chief Commercial Office Nana-Yaw Asamoah. Asamoah, who moved over to AMBSE last year after 14 years at the NFL, talks with SBJ’s Ben Fischer about how his role model parents and older sisters pushed him to shrive, how the power of lifelong learning fuels successful people, and why AMBSE was an opportunity he could not pass up. Asamoah is 2021 SBJ Forty Under 40 honoree. SBJ I Factor is a monthly podcast offering interviews with sports executives who have been recipients of one of the magazine’s awards.

Shareable URL copied to clipboard!

https://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/Journal/Issues/2020/03/16/Forty-Under-40/Maczko.aspx

Sorry, something went wrong with the copy but here is the link for you.

https://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/Journal/Issues/2020/03/16/Forty-Under-40/Maczko.aspx

CLOSE