The Grousbeck era has resulted in two championship banners and a core that could produce more titles for new Celtics owner Bill Chisholm.
The Grousbeck era has resulted in two championship banners and a core that could produce more titles for new Celtics owner Bill Chisholm.Danielle Parhizkaran/Globe Staff
So you say you’re a Celtics lifer, eh, Bill Chisholm?
Glad to hear it, and hope you’re cool with the informality here upon introduction. You’re a New England guy, North Shore born and raised, a “die-hard Celtics fan my entire life” per your statement Thursday morning after word broke that your group won the bidding to purchase professional basketball’s most storied franchise.
You’re one of us, or at least as much as someone who can pony up $6.1 billion to purchase a sports team can be, and so you surely understand that it’s much more appealing to New England sports fans to be able to call their favorite team’s owner by his first name.
We liked Robert Kraft around here when his first name was “Bob” rather than “Mr.,” you know? The former season ticket holder was one of us, until he wasn’t. Relatability counts, especially in the off-chance that it’s genuine.
We want to believe that your green-and-white colors are true, that you are a real fan whose main mission of stewardship will be to dangle more banners from the rafters, no matter – or almost no matter – the cost.
We’ll be honest with you. The words “venture capitalist” make us shudder. Maximizing profit doesn’t job with the champs’ current contract obligations of roughly $900 million. We don’t want to think about the chunks that a venture capitalist who wasn’t a true fan might take out of this admirable team.
We’re going to need proof of the authenticity of your fandom. No, we’re not going to make you identify 350 Celtics players ranging from Larry Bird to Brett Szabo by their media guide photo, though that is an excellent idea.
The proof (or, let’s hope not, disproof) of your passion for the Celtics and your intentions for the franchise as owner will come only in time. But your early actions as owner will provide crucial clues, including whether your Boston sports fandom has taught you the do’s and don’ts of how to operate a sports franchise in this market.
Perhaps you know the tales of both caution and inspiration through the modern history of Boston team ownership. Maybe you already know who to emulate and who definitely not to emulate, but that’s not going to stop me from telling you. I’ve been around, as a fan and then a reporter, for nearly five decades of Boston sports. There have been all sorts of types of owners in that span — nitwits and absentees, initially engaged owners whose interest waned over time, some wise enough to hold their egos in check, some whose egos overpowered them to the franchise’s detriment.
The worst of them, bar none, was Victor Kiam, the Remington shaving products magnate (“I liked it so much, I bought the company!”) who bought the Patriots in the mid-‘80s, humiliated and scandalized them, and nearly destroyed the franchise.
Victor Kiam would rank at the bottom of the list of local owners in the last 50 years.
Victor Kiam would rank at the bottom of the list of local owners in the last 50 years.
The best? Well, as a Celtics fan yourself, you’re surely aware that it’s the person and family from whom you’re buying the team. Wyc Grousbeck and partners (including Steve Pagliuca, whom most Celtics fans hoped would win this bidding, no offense) have been A-plus owners of the Celtics since purchasing the team for the nice price of $360 million in September 2002.
Grousbeck was always involved and engaged, and he habitually hired the right basketball people — starting with Danny Ainge in May 2003, with Ainge swiping brilliant current boss Brad Stevens away from Butler University a decade later — and allowed them to do their jobs, through times both bleak and heady.
Since buying the Celtics in 2003, majority owner and governor Wyc Grousbeck has been involved without being meddling.
Since buying the Celtics in 2003, majority owner and governor Wyc Grousbeck has been involved without being meddling.Pat Greenhouse/Globe Staff
There is a current of patience and trust that runs through the Celtics organization. It starts at the top, but it does not end there. The Celtics have admirable infrastructure, from ownership, to team president Rich Gotham and president of basketball operations Stevens, to Jeff Twiss, Christian Megliola and the communications folks, through every branch and department, including the players and their families. There is a sense that everyone is in this together, and it’s unlike any I have seen in any other Boston franchise that I’ve covered.
No new owner maintains the status quo entirely. But while you may not know these people yet, you can see what they have done during this era of prosperity on and off the court. The best thing you could do, Bill, as the new Celtics owner, is to put your faith in the exceedingly competent people already there. In other words, be like Wyc.
Of course, there are valuable lessons to learn from other Boston owners of the past few decades. John Henry, who owns the Globe as well as the Red Sox, was the model owner from 2003 until the terrible Mookie Betts trade. The four Red Sox World Series titles in that span were roughly four more than most of us expected to see in our lifetimes. Henry has fallen from fans’ good graces in recent years as spending and victories have waned, but his approach to operating a beloved franchise over the first decade-and-a-half (and perhaps again?) is worth emulating.
Robert (The Artist Formerly Known As Bob) Kraft’s absurd recent desperation to prove that his contributions to the Patriots’ six Super Bowl victories since 2001 equaled those of the greatest coach and quarterback ever to do it has undermined his legacy. He doesn’t seem to realize that transparently seeking credit is the most effective way to guarantee that it dwindles.
What else can we take — or not take — from past and present owners? I’ll assume that your total net worth isn’t, oh, $6.125 billion and that there’s no danger of you becoming an overextended owner, like the Victory Tour-backing Sullivans with the Patriots in the ‘80s.
I doubt, being a real fan, that you’ll be indifferent, like smug former Celtics owner Paul Gaston, or the Yawkey Trust, which did not care for Fenway Park with the dignity the ballpark deserves, Jeremy and Charlie Jacobs, who act on the Bruins’ problems only when the beer and jumbo home cooked meatballs stop selling at the TD Garden concession stands.
Now this is the part where we give you the benefit of the doubt, believe in your Celtics bona fides, and trust that you won’t be one of those pompous, dogmatic types like John Y. Brown (who nearly drove Red Auerbach away after trading for Bob McAdoo without his knowledge). Remember, too, that an indifference like Gaston’s opens the door for egomaniacs to run amok (a certain current St. John’s coach comes to mind there).
From the #WBZ archives: Rick Pitino's "through that door" rant; March 1, 2000 #Celtics pic.twitter.com/bSW2MLeKNB
— Joe Giza (@JoeGiza) March 31, 2017
Anything else? Please don’t break up this Celtics core, not yet, even with a potential $200 million luxury-tax bill coming next year. Celtics fans know this. You know this: teams like this one don’t come along too often.
You know what Red said. “The Celtics are a way of life.” If you understand that the way you say you do, and let excellent employees do their jobs, we’ll trust that the franchise is in excellent hands.
Oh, and one more thing that must be mentioned, if only for every Celtics fan’s peace of mind.
If, out of nowhere, Lakers general manager Rob Pelinka rings you up to see if you might want to meet for coffee and chat about Jayson Tatum, yeah, don’t take that call.
Chad Finn can be reached at chad.finn@globe.com. Follow him @GlobeChadFinn.