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NBA's Board of Governors to formally approve Celtics sale this week
The NBA’s Board of Governors is expected to approve Bill Chisholm’s bid to buy the Celtics when it meets here this week. A group led by Chisholm agreed to purchase the team from the Grousbeck family at a valuation of $6.1 billion. Fifty-one percent will be sold once the deal is final, with the balance closing in 2028. Lead governor Wyc Grousbeck is expected to remain in control until then.
But Stevens said Chisholm has remained upbeat and has been a supportive voice during this challenging stretch. “Wyc is obviously still the governor and has been obviously very, very active,” Stevens said. “But I think Bill has been in pretty much every meeting or Zoom that we’ve had with the governors and ownership and everything else. So, he’s been great. I’m a big fan and he’s got a great way about him. I think he’s very smart. He loves the Celtics. He didn’t take over at the easiest of times when you talk about the second apron issues that we talked about the other day, and Tatum’s injury, and everything else. But he’s so level-headed and he’s got such a good way about him. I’m really excited to have him around.”
Wyc Grousbeck on Luka Doncic trade: If we traded anyone of that caliber, we would call everybody first
When you see things happen like the Luka trade, right—it catches everybody off guard. What the f***. I was going to ask—what was your initial reaction to that? And it’s just like... do y’all hop in the owners’ group chat like, ‘Hey yo, what’s really going on?’ ’Cause y’all really kind of set the tone of how everybody has to conduct business going forward." Wyc Grousbeck "Well, I—you know—I hate to... I don’t want to really pick on anybody, but I’ll give you an honest answer. I think if we traded somebody of that level—which we’re not—but if we were, we would call everybody. And it would probably leak out, but you just got to take it. And then you get five picks back. Or six. I mean, Bane got four picks and a swap. And they got like one pick—or maybe two. So, I mean, it just feels like... you know... Now they’re ending up with Cooper Flagg, but it’s not... it’s not all connected really that way. I don’t know. I just... I guess I feel like it must have been painful for them to do it. So, they didn’t want to let everybody know about it, probably. And that’s kind of human nature, I guess."
Wyc Grousbeck: I regret trading Kendrick Perkins
Now, is there any move that you regret not doing?" Wyc Grousbeck "Oh, I’m sure. Well, I do regret trading Perk, to be honest. That was one we all thought about, and there were discussions around the table. And I’ve got to sign off on the trades as the governor, lead owner. And I feel like I got kind of talked into it—but I did sign off. It’s not... you know, we’re all in it. And Jeff Green came back, and then he had a health problem. And—nothing against Jeff Green—he just won a championship, you know. But anyway, our team didn’t feel the same after Perk was gone. So, not everything goes perfect. Not that everything can go perfect—this year, you know, JT lost his Achilles. So yeah... You go for the highs, and you get through the lows, and you have a brotherhood that lasts for life."
Wyc Grousbeck on why Kendrick Perkins wasn't invited to Celtics parade: Some players' family members told us they wouldn't attend if he was there
"That’s interesting that you say that, because a lot of people see Kendrick Perkins on TV and have different opinions about him. But if he’s not hurt in 2010—y’all win that chip." Wyc Grousbeck: "We probably did. And I love Perk to this day. *He wasn’t invited to our parade last year—that is true—because he had been giving people a lot of s**. And so I had family members of players saying, ‘If that guy’s in the parade, we’re not in the parade.’ I said, ‘Well, that’s... you know... okay, you win.’"
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Wyc Grousbeck: "Not always. Not always. I had one coach who told me—I’m not going to mention who—but one coach, who told me years and years ago: ‘We see you working out in the gym at our old practice facility.’ You wouldn’t have liked it—it wasn’t very nice. And I’m like, ‘Yeah, I’m working out at 8:00 a.m., and the guys come in at like 10:00, you know, or whatever.’ And he goes, ‘Well, it’s players only. That’s the NBA way.’ And I’m like, ‘But there’s nobody here. And it’s my gym. And I’m going to work out.’ And the next day, I come in and there’s a sign that says, ‘Players Only.’ So, that guy ended up departing. I was like, ‘He won’t be coaching very long.’ And I didn’t ask anybody. That’s the thing.
Wyc Grousbeck on when he first bought the Celtics: It was 2002, back when you could mortgage your house and buy an NBA team
What’s it like being able to purchase your favorite team?" Wyc Grousbeck "I’m the luckiest guy. I was 41 years old. It was 2002, and that was back when you could mortgage your house and buy an NBA team. And that’s what I did. I never had any money, but I didn’t do it for money—I did it for love. I did it for love. Jeff Teague was on our team. A great person, a great player. But the Celtics are a way of life, and I’m very lucky to be able to have my hometown team."
Wyc Grousbeck: "It started when I went to the Garden. I’ve been born and raised there. I went there, and it was half empty in 2002. The team wasn’t playing well, and I’m like, ‘This is half empty.’ And I wondered, ‘Who’s the owner?’ They said, ‘Oh, he lives down in New York. Turns out to be a very nice guy.’ I went to find him. They said he hadn’t been here in three and a half, four years. He hadn’t come to the games. So I’m like, ‘Wonder if he might be interested in selling.’ So I go down, find him, shake his hand, and say, ‘What do you want?’ I said, ‘I’d like to buy the Celtics.’ And he goes, ‘They’re not for sale.’ I said, ‘Well, is there a crazy number?’ And he named a crazy number—way too high, really. But I didn’t have the money. I said, ‘I don’t have the money, but I’ll get it in four months—three and a half months.’ So I didn’t give him a chance. I took his price. I didn’t negotiate. He named the number—it was a record—and I just said, ‘Okay, I figure I can probably get it.’ Then I said, ‘I’ll wire you this much next week to keep—just keep it as a deposit.’ I named a number, which wasn’t very much for the team, but it was a lot for me. And he goes, ‘All right, what’s he going to do?’ He had to say yes—free money. So I shake his hand, go home, mortgage my house, send him the money. And then three months later, I had 25 partners. We had all the money. And I lost 17 pounds. I didn’t eat or sleep. I looked like Jeff T. Anyway, very lucky story, man."
The Celtics said Tatum is expected to make a full recovery and no timetable was given for his return, but players who have suffered similar injuries are typically sidelined for about one season. “Jayson has a warrior mentality like the rest of his teammates,” Celtics lead governor Wyc Grousbeck said in a text message to the Globe. “He will work very hard to get back, and in the meantime the Celtics will fight hard for every game.”
Boston is inching closer to a second straight title, but the franchise’s future is everything but certain. It’s not just that the deal has yet to be approved. The transition of power itself remains murky. Grousbeck plans to continue overseeing team operations through the 2027–2028 season, and there’s unresolved family drama that reportedly contributed to the decision to sell. Plus, the current transaction structure may be against the NBA’s private-equity ownership rules.
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The transaction as it’s proposed would take place in two parts, with 51% of the Celtics being sold upon approval by the NBA’s board of governors (owners are expected to vote in June). Remaining minority owners can retain their positions until 2028, at which point their shares will be sold for up to 20% more, in accordance with a revenue-based formula set by the league, according to the Associated Press. When all is said and done, the deal is expected to have a final blended valuation of up to $7.3 billion. The man leading the buying group, Chisholm, hasn’t spoken much publicly since the announcement and is a bit of a mystery man.
No matter how much maneuvering Stevens does, the Celtics will likely be in luxury-tax land for the foreseeable future. They’re projected to pay almost $228 million in salary next year alone, roughly $10 million more than the team right behind them, the Suns. If the Celtics don’t make major personnel moves, they could face a total payroll bill of about $500 million, between salary and luxury taxes. The anticipated $270 million tax hit is almost $100 million more than the previous record holder, the 2023–2024 Warriors, who had to foot a $176.9 million luxury tax bill. (Steve Pagliuca, a longtime minority owner who lost the takeover bid to Chisholm, wrote a heated letter to fans last month saying he is “saddened” and that his proposal was “fully guaranteed and financed” and would not have hamstrung the team’s future.)
During a recent appearance on WEEI, Boston’s Wyc Grousbeck detailed the drawbacks of being a second apron luxury tax team. “It’s not the luxury tax bill, it’s the basketball penalties,” Grousbeck said. “The new CBA was designed by the league to stop teams from going crazy. They decided that it’s not good enough to go after the wallets because the fans can be like, ‘Hey find someone who can afford to spend $500 million dollars a year or whatever it is, like the English Premier League..The basketball penalties mean that it’s even more of a premium now to have your basketball general manager be brilliant and lucky. Because you have to navigate because you can’t stay in the second apron, nobody will, I predict, for the next 40 years of the CBA, no one is going to stay in the second apron more than two years.”
As the Boston Celtics transition from one ownership group to another, Brad Stevens suggested Wednesday that he doesn’t expect many changes to how his front office operates. A group led by Bill Chisholm reached an agreement last week to purchase the franchise from Wyc Grousbeck and the Boston Basketball Partners, LLC. Though Grousbeck is expected to stay on as the CEO and governor through the 2027-28 season, the Chisholm group will take over as majority owners this summer if the sale at an initial valuation of $6.1 billion is approved.
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