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Court Sense: How the Celtics got sold ☘️

This first appeared in Court Sense, a biweekly Celtics newsletter from Boston Globe Sports.Click here to join the fun on Tuesdays and Fridays.

Welcome back to Court Sense ☘️ A newsletter that can appreciate a fellow Leon Powe admirer

Remember when the Celtics were sold to some guy nobody had ever heard of?

That’s perhaps being unfair to Bill Chisholm, an incredibly successful businessman who I’m sure was already a huge deal if you had an address in Silicon Valley. But for the rest of us, when the news broke in March of Chisholm’s purchase of the franchise, the response more or less boiled down to: “Who?”

Lucky for those of us still wondering, the Globe’s Adam Himmelsbach wrote an excellent profile of Chisholm this week, detailing his rise from young Celtics fan on the North Shore to owner of one of the most valuable sports franchises on Earth, with plenty of details on how that unexpected deal came together.

I don’t want to spoil much of it for you, because the whole thing is really worth your time, but here are a couple of my favorite things I learned from this story:

▪ Chisholm’s favorite Celtic is Leon Powe. Which, to be fair, I loved Leon Powe on the 2008 Celtics — because I was nine years old, and that’s the sort of random favorite player you have when you’re a child, not as a 39-year-old who saw Larry Bird play at the old Boston Garden. That’s weird; we love weird.

▪ From Adam’s story: “Aditya Mittal, chief executive of a global steel giant, had explored a bid to become lead governor but eventually backed Chisholm with a $100 million commitment. Mittal’s interest swelled during visits to Boston, though, and he upped his stake to $1 billion and became alternate governor.”

I love the idea that this guy was happy to pour $100 million into buying the Celtics, then came to Boston, had a couple lobster rolls, saw how little sense the traffic in this city makes, and thought, “OK, fine, here’s $1 billion.” What a life.

▪ The Celtics nearly traded for a guard a few seasons back, and that guard has become one of the best players in the NBA and a regular All-Star and All-NBA contributor. You’ll have to read the story to find out who, but wow, what a move that would have been.

Anyway, it’s good to learn a little more about Chisholm, because the guy really was a ghost before closing this life-changing deal.

You know how little information there was about this guy? When the news first broke in March, he didn’t have a Wikipedia page, and once he finally did have a Wikipedia page started for him, a majority of the information contained therein was sourced from my story in the Globe, as if I knew anything about anything.

All of that said, get to know Bill Chisholm (and how on Earth he manage to buy the Celtics). It really is worth your time.

Bill Chisholm and his family at a Celtics game in November.

Bill Chisholm and his family at a Celtics game in November.Erin Clark/Globe Staff

Having done a little looking back, let’s look a little forward with a topic that has definitely not come up at any point in the last few months: Is Jayson Tatum going to play this season?

OK, maybe it’s come up once or twice or a thousand times. But after seven months of going out of their way to be as vague as possible about Tatum’s chances of playing this season, the Celtics finally offered a little glimpse into how they’re thinking about a potential Tatum return.

Brad Stevens was asked about Tatum this week, and Boston’s president of basketball operations pointed out that one particular decision made by the team suggests some internal optimism.

“One of the things that everybody can see is we didn’t apply for a [disabled player exception] this year, which was a conscious decision for a lot of reasons,” Stevens said. “But the reality is he’s not going to be back until he’s 110 percent healthy and he feels good about it, and that’s a big part of it, right?”

If the Celtics (and a league-designated doctor) did not expect Tatum to return by mid-June, they could apply for that disabled player exception, which in this case would’ve granted Boston a $14.1 million mid-level exception.

That the Celtics opted not to do so — and that Stevens is addressing Tatum’s status in any meaningful way — points toward some positivity within the organization.

As has been said a number of times, there’s no good reason to rush Tatum back, something the team has consistently emphasized since his injury in May. But if the timelines align, he’d be one heck of a late-season addition for a playoff push.

Fast break

Bill Chisholm purchased his boyhood team this year.

Bill Chisholm purchased his boyhood team this year.Erin Clark/Globe Staff

‘Does he even have enough money?’ Bill Chisholm closed the deal of his life when he bought the Celtics.

By Adam Himmelsbach

Earlier this year, Bill Chisholm spent several agonizing months finalizing his $6.1 billion bid to purchase the Boston Celtics.

If he was unable to raise the necessary funds by year’s end, the dream of owning his boyhood team would collapse and he would have to pay several hundred million dollars in penalties.

But in June, the private equity executive faced a more urgent issue while hiking through Virginia’s Blue Ridge Mountains: Are these rat snakes dangerous?