“It is a lot of stress,” Edens said. “But this could truly be a unique circumstance in my life, where you have two teams deep in the playoffs with massive consequences on either side of it — that’s kind of what you’re hoping for. While I’m definitely anxious about it, I’m also incredibly happy to have the chance to be here.”

Edens and Marc Lasry are in their fifth year as owners of the Bucks. The “hedge fund titans,” as they were described in a New York Times headline when they bought the team in April 2014, took control of the franchise, along with a third owner, Jamie Dinan, after a 15-67 record in Antetokounmpo’s rookie season. Antetokounmpo averaged a modest 6.8 points and 4.4 rebounds a game — and championship contention looked far-off.

Edens, whose interest in soccer began with the 1994 World Cup in the United States, and Nassef Sawiris, his Egyptian co-owner at Aston Villa, became the club’s majority shareholders in July 2018, mere days before the start of this season and not even two months removed from Villa’s crushing 1-0 defeat to Fulham in last season’s Championship playoff final at Wembley. Villa was in 15th place, heading for the bottom third of the 24-team Championship division on Oct. 3, when Edens and Sawiris sacked the veteran manager Steve Bruce and replaced him with Smith.

In the Bucks’ case, Edens is convinced it was the hiring of Mike Budenholzer as coach in May 2018 — to team with General Manager Jon Horst and the team president Peter Feigin — that provided Antetokounmpo with the blueprint and infrastructure he needed to make the most of his otherworldly gifts in his sixth N.B.A. season. Edens has pushed to copy the formula with Villa through the hiring of Smith, Christian Purslow as chief executive and Jesús García Pitarch as sporting director (English soccer’s answer to a general manager).

“Nassef and Christian, I’ve taken a back seat to those guys,” said Edens, who shares operating control of Aston Villa with the London-based Sawiris but spends much less time in England.

With Antetokounmpo flanked by 3-point shooters in shiny new Fiserv Forum, Milwaukee is on the rise in the post-LeBron James Eastern Conference and still getting acquainted with its growing prominence. One example: Quarterback Aaron Rodgers of the Green Bay Packers took in Milwaukee’s Game 5 defeat from one of Edens’s floor seats.