Category: Basketball

A group led by Bill Chisholm, the founder of private equity firm Symphony Technology Group, has agreed a deal to buy the Boston Celtics for $6.1bn, according to ESPN.

The deal would be a record sum for a US sports franchise: a group led by Josh Harris and Mitchell Rales bought the NFL’s Washington Commanders for $6.05bn in 2023.

The Celtics’ current owners, the Grousbeck family, said last June that they intended to sell the team in 2024 or 2025. ESPN reports that Wyc Grousbeck will continue as the team’s CEO until the end of the 2027-28 season.

The sale would represent a huge return in investment for the Grousbecks and partner Steve Pagliuca: they led a group that bought the team for $360m in 2002. Pagliuca had hoped to take sole ownership of the Celtics but was outbid by Chisholm. On Thursday, he said he was “saddened to find out that we have not been selected in the process.”

Related: Boston’s brilliant technocrats micromanaged their way to the NBA title

The Celtics are one of the NBA’s blue chip franchises. They have won a record 18 championships, including their win in last season’s NBA finals over the Dallas Mavericks. Their core of Jaylen Brown, Jayson Tatum and Kristaps Porziņģis are still in their prime but Tatum, Boston’s best player, is due a huge payday and keeping the roster together in the long-term could prove difficult. However, this season has been a strong one for the Celtics and they sit second in the NBA Eastern Conference.

The NBA is also in rude financial health. Although audience figures have been slightly down this year, the league agreed a new $76bn 11-year broadcasting deal with ESPN, NBC and Amazon in 2024.

Last year, Forbes ranked the Celtics as the fourth-most valuable NBA team at $6bn. The Golden State Warriors were ranked No 1 with an estimated value of $8.8bn.

Chisholm is a Celtics fan and grew up in the Boston area.

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Brown shares Kornet's hilarious reaction to Giannis' fake handshake originally appeared on NBC Sports Boston

One of the most memorable Boston Celtics moments from early in the 2024-25 season happened during a Nov. 11 win over the Milwaukee Bucks on the road.

Bucks superstar Giannis Antetokounmpo hit Celtics forward Jaylen Brown with an elbow to the face and was called for an offensive foul. As the two of them jogged back down the court, Antetokounmpo did a fake high-five with Brown — extending his hand and then pulling it back at the last second.

Brown wasn’t pleased with Antetokounmpo after the game, saying “Giannis is a child. I’m just focused on helping my team get a win, and that’s what we did tonight.”

There’s more to the story.

According to Brown, Celtics center Luke Kornet was contemplating doing something with Antetokounmpo in Brown’s defense, but he ultimately chose not to escalate the situation.

In a recent interview with NBC Sports Boston’s Chris Forsberg, which can be watched in the video player above, Brown told the hilarious story.

“Luke came to me, and this was the first time I’ve seen Luke serious, and he said, ‘I didn’t like that.’ He was straight faced,” Brown said. “And I was like, ‘It’s whatever.’ He was like, ‘I should’ve done something.’ I said, ‘What were you gonna do, Luke?'”

It sounds like Kornet regrets not doing more in that moment.

“Lamenting that I wasn’t more of an enforcer is exactly what happened,” Kornet told Forsberg. “I’m generally a peacemaker type of person, but you realize sometimes there’s an appropriate level of ‘this is unacceptable.’ I think I’ve been growing in my defending — protecting justice?”

Brown also added, while laughing: “He was like, ‘I should’ve done something. I didn’t like that. I was right there, and I contemplated it, and I thought about it, and I analyzed it, and I did nothing. But I should have done something.'”

“I was just angry at myself for not having been like a vigilante and taking justice into my own hands,” Kornet added.

When asked if he’s ever been in a fight, Kornet explained he got three days of lunch duty once as a kid before saying the real answer is, “No, not really.”

It’s always good to stick up for your teammates, but Kornet probably made the right decision not to engage with Antetokounmpo. In the end, the Celtics won the game, which is what’s more important.  

Why Butler vs. Barnes matchup is key to Warriors-Raptors outcome originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area

When the Toronto Raptors take the court against the Warriors on Thursday night, their best player, Scottie Barnes, will be facing a familiar opponent wearing an altogether different jersey.

Barnes can reacquaint himself with Jimmy Butler III, formerly of the Miami Heat but now of the Golden State Warriors, when the teams meet at Chase Center. Coverage on NBC Sports Bay Area begins at 6 p.m. with Warriors Pregame, with tipoff scheduled for 7.

The game is the finale of a seven-game homestand for the Warriors (40-29), who occupy sixth place in the Western Conference standings. The rebuilding Raptors (24-45, 11th in the East) are crossing their fingers and hoping for luck in the 2025 NBA draft lottery.

Toronto already has identified Barnes, 23, as a core member of its future; he received a rookie maximum extension last summer worth $224.9 million over five years. The 6-foot-8, 225-pound forward owns, like Butler, a comprehensive set of skills as he leads the Raptors in assists (5.9 per game) and steals (1.5 per game) and is second in scoring (19.5 points per game) and rebounding (7.8 per game).

Put simply, Barnes, a 2024 NBA All-Star, is the Raptors’ best route to pulling off an upset.

And Butler is Golden State’s first line of defense against that possibility.

Barnes and Butler faced each other nine times as Eastern Conference foes, and each was the primary defender of the other. Butler posted slightly better individual statistics – including two triple-doubles – but the Raptors posted a 5-4 edge over the nine games.

Butler, 35, has been at the root of Golden State’s recent resurgence, providing stable leadership and the kind of court generalship that has enhanced the games of complimentary players but also allowed stars Stephen Curry and Draymond Green to flourish.

In 17 games as a Warrior, Butler is averaging 17.2 points on 44.8-percent shooting from the field, including a paltry 22.9 percent from distance – but 87.4 percent from the line. His 127 free-throw attempts rank eighth in the league over that span.

Butler’s scoring and efficiency have increased in recent games, as over his last seven games he is averaging 18.9 points on 45.9 percent shooting, including 40 percent from deep. He was Golden State’s top scorer for the first time Tuesday with 24 points in a victory over Milwaukee.

The Warriors, amid a heated playoff race in the West, have won eight of their last nine games and are seeking their first 6-1 homestand since January 2022.

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Who will Celtics face in first round? It's likely a two-team race originally appeared on NBC Sports Boston

The Boston Celtics haven’t secured the No. 2 seed in the Eastern Conference playoffs just yet, but they have a 99.6 percent chance of doing so, per Basketball Reference.

Clinching the No. 2 seed would result in the Celtics playing the No. 7 seed in the first round of the postseason. The Miami Heat had a 23.5 percent chance of getting the No. 7 seed last week, but those odds (calculated by Basketball Reference), have since dropped to 9.5 percent.

The two most likely first-round opponents for Boston are the Atlanta Hawks and Orlando Magic. Both of these teams have more than a 40 percent chance of finishing seventh, as of March 20.

Here’s an updated look at the probabilities:

The Pistons, who are 14-5 in their last 19 games (including a Feb. 26 win over the Celtics), would really need to fall apart over the next few weeks to be a No. 7 seed candidate.

The Heat and Bulls could also jump back into the mix for the No. 7 seed, but it’s unlikely.

The Celtics went 1-2 against the Hawks this season. The last meeting was a 119-115 overtime defeat for the C’s in Boston on Jan. 18. The Celtics have one more game against the Magic on April 9 — the third-to-last matchup of the regular season. Boston is 1-1 versus Orlando so far this season. These teams last met on Jan. 17 at TD Garden, where the C’s won 121-94.

The No. 7 seed will be determined by the winner of the No. 7 vs. No. 8 game in the play-in tournament. The play-in tournament runs from April 15-18.

The Celtics last played the Hawks in the playoffs in 2023. Boston won that first-round series in six games. The most recent Celtics-Magic playoff series was the 2010 Eastern Conference Finals, which Boston won in six games.