BOSTON (AP) — The Boston Celtics are expecting a smooth ownership transition - and not just because much of the old brain trust is sticking around.
New owner Bill Chisholm says he isn't going to mess with the success of the people who won two NBA championships in their 23 years in charge.
“Let’s do whatever we can to win championships and raise banners, and raise as many as we can,” he said in a news conference on Thursday, flanked by former lead owner Wyc Grousbeck, incumbent president Rich Gotham and president of basketball operations Brad Stevens. “I will do whatever it takes, whatever the Boston Celtics need me to do.”
A Massachusetts native who made his money in private equity, Chisholm leads a group that will pay at least $6.1 billion for the Celtics - at the time, a record price for an American professional sports franchise; the NBA unanimously approved the deal last month. He told reporters on Thursday that the opportunity to buy into his favorite team was too good to pass up.
“The Celtics have brought me joy my entire life,” he said. “I feel like I have something to add here. This was an opportunity that was a dream that came true. For me to have this chance, I would never forgive myself if I didn’t go for it.”
Grousbeck and co-owner Steve Pagliuca led a group that bought the Celtics in 2002 for $360 million and presided over an era in which the Celtics won two NBA titles, lost in the Finals two other times and made the playoffs in 20 of 23 seasons. The team’s most recent title came in 2024, led by Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown.
Grousbeck said he will continue with the team as the CEO for five years - with no plans to leave after that. His ownership share will dip below the 15% required for him to continue as the team’s designated governor for league matters, though, so he will serve as alternate governor.
“I’m staying in, shoulder-to-shoulder with Bill,” he said. “I want a third ring. And then I want a fourth ring. I’ve got two, it’s a nice start.”
In all, Grousbeck said, more than half of the old ownership group will be sticking around, along with Stevens, Gotham and coach Joe Mazzulla.
But there should be no question who is in charge.
“There’s a governor, and the governor has the final say, and that’s me,” Chisholm said. “Ultimately, I’m the one responsible.”
Chisholm said he supported the idea of a WNBA team in Boston.
The Connecticut Sun are for sale, and Pagliuca offered to buy them and move them to Boston. (Pagliuca also made an offer for the Celtics but was outbid by Chisholm.)
But the league nixed the deal, saying cities that had already applied for expansion teams were a higher priority.
“It’s definitely something we’re going to look at. And I know the (WNBA) has a process,” Chisholm said. “We’ll do what we can to expedite things. There’s a process there. But philosophically it makes so much sense.”
Chisholm also sounded like he wasn't eager to move out of TD Garden, which the Celtics share with the NHL's Boston Bruins, saying “we've got a great thing going right now.”
“I really like the Boston Garden, personally. More importantly, the team and the players really like the Boston Garden. And equally important, the fans really like the Boston Garden. So that’s a starting point,” he said. “The second thing is I think the Celtics and the Bruins belong together."
Also meeting the media on Thursday was Aditya Mittal, the son of one of India’s richest men and the CEO of a ArcelorMittal, the second-largest steel-producing company in the world. He said he first visited Boston in the 1980s and attended a Celtics game at the old Boston Garden.
“It was magical,” he said. “I fell in love with it.”
Chisholm takes over the team in a bit of a transition just two seasons after its latest title.
Tatum is recovering from surgery to repair the ruptured right Achilles tendon he suffered in Boston’s Eastern Conference semifinal loss to the New York Knicks, dooming the Celtics’ hopes of a repeat.
And in order to avoid the second apron penalties of the NBA’s salary tax, the Celtics traded Jrue Holiday and Kristaps Porzingis - key parts of the title-winning team – this summer. Grousbeck said those deals would have happened even if the team wasn’t sold.
Stevens said the deals weren’t about the financial penalties as much as the roster restrictions: If Boston had been over the second apron at the time, it would not have been able to acquire Porzingis, Holiday or Derrick White in the first place.
“You have to give yourself the flexibility and opportunity to jump at the right deals. You don’t always know when those are present themselves,” Stevens said. “So the second apron was the key.”
Chisholm said his message to the basketball operations crew is “Let’s go for it, but let’s do it in a reasonable way.”
“The flexibility the Brad talks about, I think that’s paramount to doing that," he said. "But, ultimately, we’re going to do everything we can to win. It’s job No. 1.”
