Celtics’s statement on ownership group’s plan for sale of the team

With the confetti barely settled following the team’s 18th championship, a high-level change could be coming for the Celtics.

Initially reported by both ESPN NBA insider Adrian Wojnarowski and Adam Himmelsbach of The Boston Globe, the current Celtics ownership group could be looking to sell the team. Shortly after the reports, the Celtics issued a statement confirming the potential sale:

“Boston Basketball Partners L.L.C., the ownership group of the Boston Celtics, announced today its intention to sell all the shares of the team,” the team said in its statement. “The controlling family of the ownership group, after considerable thought and internal discussion, has decided to sell the team for estate and family planning considerations.”

In addition, lead owner Wyc Grousbeck is “expected” to stay on in his current role as team governor until 2028.

“The managing board of the ownership group expects to sell a majority interest in 2024 or early 2025, with the balance closing in 2028, and expects Wyc Grousbeck to remain as the Governor of the team until the second closing in 2028.”

Wojnarowski first reported the news on Monday afternoon.

“The Boston Celtics majority ownership group — led by Wyc Grousbeck — is planning to make the franchise available for sale,” Wojnarowski tweeted. “The investment group purchased the team in 2002. Massive development for one of sports’ most valuable properties.”

Himmelsbach clarified that Grousbeck could sell his personal stake, but that the “potential sale is not expected to include the entire investment group that purchased the team in 2002.”

Grousbeck has been the face of Celtics ownership for multiple decades. Along with a group of investors (that included current fellow co-owner Stephen Pagliuca) Boston Basketball Partners LLC bought the team for $360 million in 2002.

According to the most recent Forbes valuation, the Celtics are currently worth $4.7 billion.

Grousbeck has largely presided over a team that put its product on the court before the bottom line.

“We’re fans who bought the team. We’re doing this for love,” Grousbeck recently told the Globe’s Shirley Leung. “We’re doing this for Celtic pride, and we’re going to put everything we can into the team to win a banner, to win a championship.”

Under his leadership at the top, the Celtics have now won two championships since 2002. The first came in 2008, followed by the second that Boston clinched in June.

Despite the potential windfall of a sale in 2024, the short-term expenses of owning and operating the Celtics on a day-to-day level can be immense given the talent on its roster.

“We are losing money,” Grousbeck told Leung shortly before the recent title win. “We are unconcerned by that.”

Famous for telling his partners that “we will be paid in parades,” Grousbeck has also never been afraid to be bold or aggressive at different points. In 2013, he helped push for a greater return on the Kevin Garnett-Paul Pierce trade with the Nets which eventually resulted in draft picks that turned into Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum.

In 2023, he urged president of basketball operations Brad Stevens to shake up the roster, telling the group that he didn’t want to “bring back the same team.” Stevens eventually engineered trades to acquire Kristaps Poringis and Jrue Holiday, both key players for Boston’s 2024 championship.