The sale of the Boston Celtics is about to tip off in earnest.
BDT & MSD Partners and J.P. Morgan, whom the Grousbeck family retained as co-advisors for the sale, will reach out this week to a select group of “qualified buyers targeted for initial outreach” and others who have “expressed serious interest” in buying the franchise, a source with knowledge of the sale process told the Herald on Monday.
Potential minority investors and institutions will be engaged later in the process.
In its initial sale announcement in early July, the Celtics’ ownership group, Boston Basketball Partners LLC, said it “expects to sell a majority interest [in the team] in 2024 or early 2025, with the balance closing in 2028.” Wyc Grousbeck intends to stay on as governor of the Celtics until the second closing.
The size of the team’s initial batch of potential suitors is unclear. Only one individual has publicly announced plans to submit a bid for the franchise: Celtics co-owner and managing partner Steve Pagliuca, who was part of the collective that paid $360 million for the storied NBA club in 2002.
Pagliuca released a statement shortly after the sale announcement confirming he “will be a proud participant in the bidding process.”
There have been conflicting rumors about possible interest from John Henry’s Fenway Sports Group and billionaire Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, among others. WEEI’s Rob Bradford last week reported FSG “has shown no interest and made no contact regarding potential purchase of the Celtics.”
The sale of the Celtics is likely to set a new record for an NBA franchise, surpassing the $4 billion Mat Ishbia paid for the Phoenix Suns two years ago. Some analysts have speculated Boston could sell for upward of $6 billion, though the fact the Celtics do not own their arena could drive down their price tag. (The Bruins’ ownership group owns TD Garden, meaning the C’s cannot profit from other events held there.)
The forthcoming ownership changeover could have ramifications for the Celtics’ championship-winning roster, which is set to become exorbitantly expensive next season. With all five starters signed for at least two more seasons and Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown owning the largest and second-largest contracts in NBA history, respectively, the Celtics’ 2025-26 roster is set to cost upward of $500 million between salaries and luxury tax penalties.
Celtics president of basketball operations Brad Stevens said he and his staff have been told to proceed as usual while the sale process plays out.
“Yeah, I mean, there’s not much that we are doing,” Stevens said last week at Celtics media day. “Obviously, it’s not – it’s out of our hands. As I’ve said before, I’m super thankful to Wyc and Irv [Grousbeck] and their family for everything they’ve done for us throughout this entire tenure and our great investor group that we have. We’ve had really good leadership around here, and they’ve basically said, ‘Hey, obviously, we’ve put a team together. This has been a long-term plan to be where we are right now.’ Plans don’t always go the way you want them to. This one so far has been pretty smooth, but there will always be challenges that come along with that.
“But I think it’s the way that they’ve phrased it to me from the standpoint of since the sale was announced was, we just need to keep doing what we’re doing. [Keep doing] business as usual and do what you can to build the best team that we can. And then we’ll see what happens from there.”
Brown, the Celtics’ longest-tenured player, acknowledged there will be an adjustment period once the new owner or owners arrive.
“I think I’ve had the honor to build relationships with the ownership group that we have, and it’s been a partnership that we’ve worked on continuously on and off the floor to lead to the championship that we just achieved,” said Brown, whom the Celtics drafted third overall in 2016. “Obviously, with that ownership group switching, there will be some learning and growing that we need to [do] in order to get accustomed. But hopefully, it’s a smooth transition. That’s what we all hope for, but we’re just going to have to wait and see.”
The Celtics opened the week by flying to Abu Dhabi, where they’ll play preseason games against the Denver Nuggets this Friday and Sunday. Boston opens the regular season at home against the New York Knicks on Oct. 22.
