Bill Chisholm (center) can look to Celtics ownership groups prior to Wyc Grousbeck (left) to learn what not to do.
Bill Chisholm (center) can look to Celtics ownership groups prior to Wyc Grousbeck (left) to learn what not to do.Danielle Parhizkaran/Globe Staff
Consider the purpose here to be two fold. This is both an appreciation, and a plea to listen.
The appreciation is for Wyc Grousbeck, Steve Pagliuca, and the previous Celtics ownership group, which proved time and again over their 23 years to be the model for what New England fans want from the stewards of their beloved teams.
The plea? Well, that’s aimed at the new guy, with the freshly purchased $6.1 billion toy. The plea is for new front-facing owner Bill Chisholm and the assorted minority owners to value the experience and opinion of the former owner who is sticking around.
The dynamics of the Celtics sale are compelling, and from what I can tell, unusual. Chisholm and his investment group won the bidding to purchase the Celtics from the Grousbeck family in March, swatting away longtime co-owner Pagliuca, who headed another team of bidders.
The deal was officially closed on Tuesday, with one notable difference from the initial agreement. As reported by colleague Adam Himmelsbach, Grousbeck will no longer stay on as governor, as originally planned, but instead will remain as an alternate governor — along with steel magnate Aditya Mittal, who comes on as a major investor as part of Chisholm’s group — and CEO through 2028.
Himmelsbach reported that Chisholm and Grousbeck still plan to run the team essentially in unison for the next three years, and that the change in title was because of an NBA rule requiring the lead governor to own at least 15 percent of the team.
Grousbeck, because of additional investors jumping on board with Chisholm’s group over the last five months, owns slightly less than 15 percent. Grousbeck shrugged off the change, saying it was “because of a technical reason, because of math,” and both he and Chisholm said it wouldn’t affect their dynamic.
I’m curious if they both truly believe that. I think they do, and their intentions are true. But it is not cynical, but rather common sense, to raise an eyebrow and take a wait-and-see attitude on whether it plays out that way. Just ask Mark Cuban.
Chisholm has said all the right things so far, and his backstory as a true Celtics fan seems genuine. But the next private equity guy who rounds up several billion to purchase a pro sports franchise and doesn’t immediately try to put his imprint on it will be pretty damn close to the first.
It’s reassuring that Chisholm and Grousbeck are copacetic, or “shoulder to shoulder,” as Grousbeck put it. But even if Chisholm keeps him close, will he listen? Chisholm is obviously an extremely intelligent person, but it remains to be seen whether he is wise. Perhaps he’ll recognize that the wise thing to do as the new owner is obvious: emulate the former ones.
It’s funny, I must acknowledge some skepticism of Grousbeck and Pagliuca when their group bought the Celtics for a then-NBA-record $360 million in September 2002, Grousbeck later revealing that he told then-owner Paul Gaston to name his price.
(How passionless and unlikable was Gaston? Let Dan Shaughnessy’s description in the Sept. 28, 2002 Globe remind you: “They replace the bloodless, chardonnay-drinkin’, brie-eatin’, squash-playin’, don’t be overpayin’, Paul ‘Thanksdad’ Gaston, who never saw a spreadsheet he didn’t like.”)
Their first major act was to hire Danny Ainge as executive director of basketball operations in May 2003. The move was greeted mostly positively, though many Celtics fan were hoping the excision of Gaston meant that Larry Bird — who had no use for the then-owner, further proof of his astute character judgment — would return to run the franchise.
The first major move by Wyc Grousbeck and Steve Pagliuca when they bought the Celtics in 2003 was to hire Danny Ainge.
The first major move by Wyc Grousbeck and Steve Pagliuca when they bought the Celtics in 2003 was to hire Danny Ainge.Matthew J. Lee/Globe Staff
The timing of the Ainge hire seemed at first to be a sign of the new ownership’s impatience. It occurred on May 9, 2003. Ainge, whose candor eventually became familiar, spoke that afternoon about a “tough road ahead” for the franchise, which seemed odd given that the Celtics were playing Game 3 of their Eastern Conference semifinals series with the New Jersey Nets.
But he was right. The Celtics got clocked by the Nets, 94-76, falling behind an insurmountable 3-0 in the series, and the successes of that era proved fleeting.
And Grousbeck’s explanation for why he hired Ainge in the midst of a playoff series made all the sense in the world.
“One, when you know you’ve got the person, you go ahead and do the deal,” he said. “You have to go ahead and be aggressive on behalf of the Celtics. Danny was a Celtic, he was also a Blazer. He’s a Sun. I had no interest waiting until mid-June to see if he happened to still be available.”
As it turned out, Grousbeck’s process with the Ainge hire was the perfect indication of how he would operate as owner: with a keen sense of a Celtics history, the passion of a fan, the willingness to spend money to bring in the right people, and most important, letting those right people do their jobs.
He hired Ainge, and signed off on array of different coaches over the years: first Doc Rivers, then the brilliant and stunning hire of Brad Stevens, then Ime Udoka, and then bright but inexperienced Joe Mazzulla when Udoka was suspended and eventually moved on after a violation of team policies by having an inappropriate relationship with a team employee.
Grousbeck clearly relished getting involved with roster matters when necessary, such as the story he likes to tell about closing the deal with Timberwolves owner Glen Taylor in order to bring Kevin Garnett to Boston in the summer of 2007.
But he deserves endless credit for not meddling where so many other owners would. He always had Jaylen Brown’s back, from draft night, when Grousbeck admonished the crowd for booing the selection, to resisting the myriad trade rumors for more established stars through the years. And the 2024 championship banner — one of two collected during his and Pagliuca’s ownership — is not only a tribute to a truly wonderful basketball team, but to ownership’s willingness to spend, knowing that brutal tax punishments were ahead.
The Jacobs family can offer us all of the free jumbo-cooked meatballs we could ever want, but Grousbeck, Pagliuca, and their group are undeniably the best owners to operate out of the new Garden that we have ever seen. They were what the Celtics, and Celtics fans, deserve.
Now there’s a new boss, Bill Chisholm, and we can only hope he’s the same as the old bosses. Including the one who is still at his shoulder, and really ought to have his ear.
Chad Finn can be reached at chad.finn@globe.com.