The Boston Celtics shocked the world last summer when, mere days after capturing their NBA-best 18th championship, their majority ownership group - led by the Grousbeck family - announced they would be selling the team.
Family patriarch Irv Grousbeck, apparently frustrated by the expense of owning a major NBA franchise, opted to move on from the club. His son Wyc, a lifelong Celtics fan, has seemed more ambivalent about the move.
The Celtics have been purchased by private equity manager William Chisholm for the record sum of $6.1 billion.
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Wyc Grousbeck, however, will stay on through the 2027-28 season as the club's governor and acting CEO. Longtime Boston superfan Bill Simmons of The Ringer suggested on the latest episode of his show "The Bill Simmons Podcast" that Wyc may try to buy into Chisholm's ownership group so he can retain some kind of stake in the club.
Under the stewardship of the Grousbeck clan (who have owned the club since 2002), Boston appeared in four NBA Finals and captured its last two titles.
The 2024-25 vintage is a serious threat to repeat this season. Thanks especially to the output of All-Star forwards Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown, All-Defensive Team guards Derrick White and Jrue Holiday, and former All-Star centers Kristaps Porzingis and Al Horford, plus bench cogs Payton Pritchard and Sam Hauser, Boston has posted a 50-19 record and is the No. 2 seed in the Eastern Conference.
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The Celtics are averaging a record 48.1 3-point attempts per game, and are making 17.8 of those triple tries (36.9 percent), and have the second-best offensive rating in the league (120.0) and the fifth-best defensive rating (111.3).
Chisholm is inheriting a club that will be historically pricey next season. Thanks to an extra-punitive new CBA (Collective Bargaining Agreement), Boston is going to be on the hook for an insane projected $500 million, in terms of its combined anticipated $230 million minimum salary and its projected $270 million tax penalty, per Bobby Marks of ESPN.
Zach Harper of The Athletic proposes an intriguing route for Boston to cut costs without necessarily killing its future championship equity.
"How can the Celtics get out of that? They could start by trading Jrue Holiday this summer. It would bring them below the second apron and just above the first apron. It would greatly reduce that tax penalty, and they'd probably see enough flexibility to bring Horford and/or [backup center Luke] Kornet back on reasonable deals."
Horford, who turns 39 this July, and Kornet are both free agents. Both can spread the floor for Boston, while Horford is an above-average passer for his position and still a remarkably solid man-to-man defender.
A former two-time All-Star and six-time All-Defensive Teamer, Holiday has been playing through a "mallet finger" injury to the tendon in the tip of the pinkie on his shooting hand. The 6-foot-4 UCLA product has regressed athletically this season, but was an imperative, galvanizing force that helped take Boston over the championship hump last season.
He has since been hierarchically replaced by the younger White, who is currently a better two-way player.
Holiday, 34, is in the first season of a massive four-year, $134.4 million deal he inked with Boston upon being traded there last summer.
"But we're still looking at the Celtics having to eventually break up parts of this team," Harper notes, suggesting further moves could be ahead even after a hypothetical Holiday deal. "It wouldn't be shocking to see Kristaps Porziņģis go soon, as he has one year left on his deal."
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Porzingis has rarely been healthy across his two seasons with Boston. He was barely available for the team through its run to the championship last spring and summer, with Horford taking the lion's share of starting center obligations.
"As long as the Celtics continue to compete for and win titles, the fan base will be fine," Harper adds. "The second that gets hamstrung, I'd imagine the new ownership will be under scrutiny. However, Chisholm is getting the team when it's time for the money to hit the fan."
Through 53 games this year, Holiday is averaging 11.0 points on .442/.337/.903 shooting splits, 4.3 rebounds, and 3.8 assists a night.
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This story was originally published March 21, 2025 at 1:04 PM.