Reports Are Swirling That The Celtics Were Put Up For Sale Because Of A Supposed Rift Between Wyc Grousbeck And His Dad Over How Expensive Their Roster Became
Billie Weiss. Getty Images.(NY Post) - The Boston Celtics’ ballooning payroll allegedly sparked a rift within the family that owns the team – leading the aging patriarch to demand his free-spending son sell the iconic franchise, The Post has learned.
Irving Grousbeck, a 90-year-old Massachusetts-born entrepreneur who owns a controlling roughly 20% stake in the team, balked at funding big losses on the horizon from the massive contracts that helped the Celtics capture a record 18th NBA championship in June, multiple sources told The Post.
To win that title, his 63-year-old son Wyc Grousbeck put together the league’s priciest roster – one that is projected to cost around $500 million for the 2025-26 season after shelling out big-buck contracts this summer to lock up its stars.
Wyc Grousbeck — who owns a roughly 3% stake but is the front-facing owner — announced the surprise decision to put his beloved hometown team up for sale shortly after hoisting the NBA trophy.
“That’s what happens when dad puts in most of the money,” one of the sources said.
The team barely broke even last season during its championship run, sources said.
It is expected to lose roughly $80 million because of luxury tax fines for being over the salary cap for the upcoming season that tips off next month, a source close to the sale process said.
That figure likely will rise significantly in the 2025-26 season when harsher salary cap fines kick in.
I'm sorry….what???
It's been a few months since we first learned that Wyc Grousbeck was putting the defending NBA Champion Boston Celtics up for sale, and since then the only real news/rumors we've had was around the potential buyers being John Henry/Fenway Sports Group (fuck no) and Jeff Bezos (whatever). Both denied being involved or wanting to buy the team, but as I said at the time, I figured that was mostly posturing.
What we hadn't really gotten was any more details about "why" this team was being put up for sale. Well, that is unless you believed the "estate planning" reason the team gave in their initial press release. Maybe that's true maybe it isn't, but given this new reporting by the NY Post, I'm starting to think it's a little more complicated. In that story, Wyc rebuffed this alleged "rift" and once again said it was for estate planning reasons, but who knows what to believe at this point?
So for the sake of this blog, let's take this story at its face value. There was no better feeling than seeing all the Woj/Shams bombs announcing yet another Celtics massive extension. Knowing he was about to sell, Wyc was handing out max deals like candy. Basically everyone who was eligible got one
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As a fan, this was incredible to experience. Already high in the clouds coming off winning the NBA title, knowing that all the main guys were secured for the foreseeable future was the best. Even knowing there are roster decisions on the horizon based on the 2nd apron penalties, who gives a shit. That's tomorrow's problem. What better way for Wyc to go out as a legend than to spend whatever it took to build this team and then throw a bunch of max extensions out there that he knows he's not going to have to pay? What a move.
Well, it appears the guy who was actually cutting the checks (Irv) didn't exactly love this move and that's why we are where we are. To that I say, Irv, grow up. Some of us have waited literally our entire lives for this moment in Celtics history. You're already a billionaire, who cares if you're going to lose $80M+ once the salaries start to kick in? I get it's easy for me to say that as I am not the one losing $80M, but at the same time you can't take any of that money with you so who gives a shit? If it brings you more titles, isn't that the whole point???
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Wyc has always famously said that when it came to the finances of this team, the ownership group would be paid in banners and parades. That's partially what made him stand out to me as one of the best owners in Boston sports history. From Day 1 he was adamant that his group was going to pay whatever it took as long as the Celts were contenders, and he's backed up that claim at every opportunity. For his Dad to apparently be the one to ruin all that because he's a little annoyed how expensive things got while seemingly ignoring the fact THAT THEY JUST WON THE TITLE is very infuriating. I mean, the dude is 90 years old and worth $1.8 billion dollars. What are we even doing here??
A story like this brings me back to my overall rules for whoever the next owner ends up being (let's go Pags!!!)
1. You must accept and bow down to our lord and savior Brad Stevens. He calls the shots, you do what he wants without questioning it.
2. You must be willing to spend hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars on luxury tax and second apron penalties to keep this roster together for as long as this current window is open
3. You believe in Mazzulla Ball and everything it stands for
4. You are not John Henry and FSG
There's no getting around the price of this roster moving forward, so whoever buys it not only has to be willing to cut the checks, but they have to have the cash to do it. If that means losing $80M, who gives a fuck. You think Jeff Bezos cares about losing $80M? I'm not even sure he notices. We saw what happened in GS when their owner ponied up and paid the taxes that came as a result of an insane roster. They won titles, 4 of them to be exact.
At the end of the day, I'm not sure it really matters "why" the Celts are being put up for sale. I think most of us figured it revolved around how expensive the roster was going to be and what that meant in terms of luxury tax checks, so if we're to believe this NY Post story it's not all that surprising.
The only thing that matters, of course, is that Wyc and Irv do not sell this team to John Henry and Fenway Sports Group. Pick literally anyone else, as long as they are willing to follow the four rules I laid out in this blog.