Boston Celtics Owners Planning Sale Of NBA’s 4th-Most Valuable Team

 

Owner Wyc Grousbeck of the Boston Celtics at the 2024 Boston Celtics championship parade on June 21, 2024 in Boston, Massachusetts.

The ownership group that controls the Boston Celtics, worth $4.7 billion last year according to Forbes’ calculations, is looking to sell the team just weeks after it secured its first NBA Championship since 2008—and shortly after after the team’s billionaire principal owner acknowledged the Celtics are losing money.

KEY FACTS

The ownership group, Boston Basketball Partners L.L.C, said Monday in a statement to multiple outlets it will sell all shares, and said the decision was brought on by "estate and family planning considerations" of the group’s controlling members, the billionaire Grousbeck family (the news was first reported by ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski).

The group expects to sell a majority of the team late this year or early next and said Wyc Grousbeck, the face of Boston Basketball Partners, will stay on as governor of the team until 2028.

The team did not specify if it already has buyers lined up.

Cable television billionaire Irving Grousbeck, his son Wyc Grousbeck and other investors bought the Celtics for $360 million in 2002.

The Celtics were ranked by Forbes as the NBA's fourth most-valuable team in 2023.

WHAT WE DON’T KNOW

Who will buy the Boston Celtics. The team did not specify if it already has buyers lined up when it announced the sale. Other billionaire team owners in the city include John Henry (whose Fenway Sports Group owns the Boston Red Sox, Liverpool Premier League soccer team, Nascar's Roush Fenway Racing, Boston Common Golf and the Pittsburgh Penguins) and Robert Kraft, who owns the New England Patriots and New England Revolution MLS club.

FORBES VALUATION

The Grousbeck family is worth an estimated $1.8 billion. Irving Grousbeck co-founded Continental Cablevision, privately-owned cable television system operator, in 1963 and merged the business with US West in 1996. Irving Grousbeck is ranked by Forbes as the 1,764th richest person in the world.

KEY BACKGROUND

The Grousbecks, Stephen Pagliuca, and The Abbey Group (made up of Robert Epstein, Paul Edgerley, Glenn Hutchins and James Pallotta) purchased the Celtics from previous owner Paul Gaston 22 years ago. The Celtics have made it to the playoffs 19 times and won two championships since Boston Basketball Partners took over, in 2008 and 2024. The decision to sell was unexpected—Wyc made no indication to reporters that he was looking to sell after walking in the Celtics championship parade two weeks ago—and it comes as several other NBA owners have made similar surprise decisions, including billionaire Mark Cuban of the Dallas Mavericks, who sold a majority stake to casino magnate Miriam Adelson.

TANGENT

The Celtics have signed high-dollar player contracts in the last year that have made them one of the most expensive teams in sports. Jaylen Brown signed a 5 year, $303.7 million supermax contract extension last year that goes into effect this summer. Point guard Derrick White reportedly agreed to a four-year, $125.9 million contract extension on Monday and Luke Kornet is set to come back on a one-year contract, ESPN reported, citing unnamed sources. The Celtics are also expected to announce a record-breaking contract for Jason Tatum sometime this summer. Beyond the dollar value of the contracts, the team’s spending levels are so high that they face an additional “luxury tax” imposed by the NBA. Grousebeck told the Boston Globe last month the team is “losing money,” but claimed he’s “unconcerned,” reportedly telling his partners at one point: “This is about winning championships . . . so we will be paid in enjoyment. We will be paid in parades.”