By Jared Weiss, Mike Vorkunov and Mark Puleo
Just weeks after winning the NBA Finals, the majority owners of the Boston Celtics are looking to sell their shares of the team.
“The controlling family of the ownership group, after considerable thought and internal discussion, has decided to sell the team for estate and family planning considerations,” the group, Boston Basketball Partners LLC, said in a statement released by the Celtics.
Wyc Grousbeck, the majority owner and governor of the team, is expected to remain team governor through 2028, according to the statement. A majority interest of the group is expected to be sold in 2024 or early 2025.
A statement from the Boston Celtics pic.twitter.com/DqArzkGnR5
— Boston Celtics (@celtics) July 1, 2024
The franchise is estimated to be valued at $4.7 billion, according to Forbes’ model ahead of the 2023-24 season, and at $5.12 billion by Sportico.
Grousbeck and co-managing partner Steve Pagliuca have been the face of the Celtics ownership group over the past 22 years, while Pagliuca has also purchased a stake in Italian football club Atalanta.
The Boston Basketball Partners group, which was founded by Grousbeck, purchased the Celtics for $360 million in 2002. The Grousbeck and Pagliuca-led ownership group revitalized one of the league’s premier franchises following a dark period for the team in the 90s. Grousbeck, who grew up a Celtics fan, bought the team with a distinct aim to deliver Banner 17 after the longest title drought in franchise history. They hired Danny Ainge, who was a member of the 1986 championship team, as general manager, eventually putting together the big three of Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen to win the 2008 NBA Finals.
After coach Doc Rivers left for the LA Clippers, the Celtics took a gamble on a young college coach and hired Brad Stevens, who turned into one of the best coaches and, eventually, GMs in the NBA. After making the conference finals for the sixth time in eight years, they finally won their 18th championship last month, the most in NBA history.
Along with Grousbeck and Pagliuca, owners of the Boston Basketball Partners group include Robert Epstein and Ellie Svenson. Pagliuca bought up to an 8 percent stake from a Celtics minority investor in 2020.
In an all-hands call Monday, Grousbeck told Celtics employees there are no plans to change anything on the business or basketball sides at this time, according to one person on the call.
There have been multiple recent examples of majority owners agreeing to sell their franchises while remaining in charge for a transition period. Minnesota Timberwolves owner Glen Taylor agreed to sell the franchise to a group led by Alex Rodriguez and Marc Lore, but that sale has entered mediation as Taylor announced he was pulling out of the deal because of missed contractual deadlines.
There are hurdles, however. Because the Timberwolves sale has not gone well, and is in arbitration, that has led the NBA to reconsider such a transaction.
“It’s certainly not ideal to have a stepped transaction like this,” commissioner Adam Silver said in April. “It met our rules from that standpoint, and it’s what Glen Taylor wanted and it’s what they were willing to agree to at the time. But I think once the dust clears on this deal, it may cause us to reassess what sort of transactions we should allow.”
Mark Cuban sold his majority stake in the Dallas Mavericks in November to the Adelson family, reportedly retaining control of basketball operations. However, ESPN reported in June that Cuban no longer has that authority. Boston’s ownership group has taken a more traditional approach over the years, giving autonomy to president of basketball operations Brad Stevens while approving more significant moves in a manner consistent with most owners.
Why sell now?
The timing of Monday’s announcement is certainly interesting. The Celtics just won another NBA title, of course, but they’re also staring down hefty payrolls for years to come. What might worry ownership more than the second apron? Those punitive new tax rates the NBA slipped into the new CBA.
Boston’s payroll projects to be well over the projected $208 million second apron entering the 2025-26 season if Jayson Tatum signs the supermax extension this summer, according to The Athletic’s Danny Leroux. The repeater tax could cause them to pay even more than that in taxes alone, leading to the highest payroll and tax payout in NBA history.
The tax rate for teams more than $20 million above the luxury tax line will go up by 40 percent with the 2025-26 season and the repeater tax rate will go up by 52.6 percent. That will make it a whole lot more expensive to own the Celtics if they keep exceeding the NBA’s internal speed limits.
But then there’s also the obvious reason to sell now: They’ll make a lot of money. The current ownership group bought the Celtics for $360 million in 2002. Could they get more than $5.5 billion for the franchise? Maybe more. That’s a big multiple. — Mike Vorkunov, national basketball business reporter
Required reading
(Photo: Billie Weiss / Getty Images)
