Celtics
“I’m not going to be the one involved in the bidding process at all.”
Brad Stevens opted to bring back nearly the entire roster from the Celtics’ championship-winning squad this offseason while also giving extensions to a few key players.
But as the Celtics are running it back, owner Wyc Grousbeck is set to no longer be with the franchise at some point in the near future. The Grousbeck family announced that it was selling its majority stake in the franchise in July.
As the Grousbeck family’s decision has caused some questions about the future stability of the franchise, Stevens told The Boston Globe‘s Adam Himmelsbach he won’t be a part of the sale process. However, Stevens hinted at a name he’d like to possibly see purchase the Grousbeck family’s stake.
“I’m going to stay totally out of it,” Stevens told Himmelsbach of the Celtics’ sale process. “I’m thankful to the Grousbecks, to Wyc and Irv and everything they’ve done for all of us. They’ll run their process. I don’t know who’s all involved. Certainly, if there’s an internal group, whoever that may be — obviously Pags [co-owner Steve Pagliuca], I love working with him.
“At the same time, I’m not going to be the one involved in the bidding process at all. So I’m just staying out of it. We’ve really tried to be basketball operations, just stay the course, do what we’ve talked about and planned for a long, long time, and just keep doing what we’re doing. It’s going to be interesting to watch, for sure.”
Pagliuca has been rumored as a top candidate to purchase the Grousbeck family’s stake since the start of the process. He said he would be a “proud participant” in the bidding process. The Celtics minority owner and alternate governor is also “widely considered to hold the early advantage” in purchasing the team, The Boston Globe‘s Michael Silverman reported Friday.
Pagliuca bought the team alongside the Grousbeck family in 2002. He bought another stake in the franchise valued at eight percent in 2020, according to Sportico.
If the new Celtics ownership group comes in ahead of the 2025-26 season, they’ll have some hefty checks to write that season.
The Celtics are not only running back nearly their whole roster from their title-winning season, but they’ve got most of the key pieces to their team under contract through the end of the 2025-26 season. They’re already projected to have $225 million committed in salary for that season, making their luxury tax bill an estimated $280 million due to repeater penalties, according to ESPN.
If the Celtics’ projected salary number for 2025-26 remains the same, the total roster cost for that year would roughly be $513 million, making it the most expensive in NBA history.
Some have speculated that the major increase in roster costs might have caused the Grousbeck family to sell. While penalties and an ownership change loom, Stevens explained that he just wanted to retain the core of the title-winning squad for the time being.
“What we want to do is try to get our guys locked in on fair and good extensions that they feel really good about and hopefully continue this thing as long as we can continue this thing,” Stevens told Himmelsbach. “We’ll cross every bridge when we get there, and the different basketball penalties that will be associated with being above the second apron, those are real, and we’ll just have to weigh those against where we are as a basketball team, and we’ll also have to weigh the financial part of that.
“And I’m sure part of that will be a discussion amongst whoever the new investors are.”
Seven of the eight players who played the most minutes for the Celtics last season are under contract for the 2025-26 season. Jaylen Brown (five years, $285.4 million), Kristaps Porzingis (two years, $60 million), and Payton Pritchard (four years, $30 million) all received their extensions ahead of the 2023-24 season. Jrue Holiday (four years, $134.4 million) inked his extension in April, avoiding free agency this summer.
Jayson Tatum (five years, $315 million), Derrick White (four years, $126 million), and Sam Hauser (four years, $45 million) all signed their extensions in April. Tatum’s contract broke Brown’s record for the richest in NBA history.
Those extensions, along with the re-signings of Luke Kornet, Xavier Tillman Sr., and Neemias Queta, will have 13 players back from the title-winning squad for the 2024-25 season. With the Celtics poised to remain in title contention for the foreseeable future, Stevens didn’t want to break up a thing that’s already proven to have had success.
“This group fits well, and they’re smart, they have good self-awareness, which I think is a critical part of the team,” Stevens told Himmelsbach. “They know who they are. They know what to do to bring out the best in the guy next to them, and they’re pretty comfortable at that. That’s a formula that’s hard to find, so we’re not going to give it away. We’re going to make sure we give this group a chance to build on what they just accomplished. They deserve that.”
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