
NBA signs off on Boston Celtics' record $6.1bn sale to Bill Chisholm
The NBA wrote in a statement, 'The transaction is expected to close shortly.'
The reported $6.1bn valuation for the club makes it the second-largest sale price for a US sports franchise, behind the $10bn valuation for the Los Angeles Lakers when Mark Walter purchased that team in June.
Chisholm and his partners are buying at least 51% of the Celtics. The ownership stake will increase in 2028, according to the purchase contract, when Chisholm's group is scheduled to buy out the remaining minority shareholders at a $7.3bn valuation.
According to multiple media reports, Chisholm will take over as the Celtics' governor when the sale goes through. Outgoing owner Wyc Grousbeck is expected to serve as alternate governor and remain the CEO through 2028. Grousbeck will cede his role when he no longer has the required ownership stake of at least 15%.
Chisholm, the co-founder and managing partner of the California-based private equity firm STG Partners, is a Massachusetts native and longtime Celtics fan.
Grousbeck and the outgoing ownership group Boston Basketball Partners LLC purchased the Celtics for $360m in 2002. During that group's tenure, the club won NBA titles in 2007-08 and 2023-24 – the latter representing Boston's league-record 18th championship.
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Reuters
an hour ago
- Reuters
Lionel Messi, Inter Miami add to Galaxy's rough season
August 17 - Lionel Messi returned from injury Saturday night and finished with a goal and an assist to propel host Inter Miami to a 3-1 victory over the Los Angeles Galaxy in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. Luis Suarez and Jordi Alba also scored to help Inter Miami (13-5-6, 45 points) bounce back following a 4-1 loss last Sunday against host Orlando City SC and secure a much-needed three points in the chase for the Supporter's Shield. Messi, who had missed Miami's previous three matches across all competitions with a thigh injury, did not start but entered the game at the start of the second half. With the match knotted 1-1 in the 84th minute, Messi took a ball at the top of the box and delivered one of his signature individual efforts to put Miami ahead for good. Messi juked past the Galaxy's Lucas Sanabria and dribbled past another defender before firing a shot on target from distance past Galaxy goalkeeper Novak Micovic. Five minutes later, another rush upfield ended with Messi delivering a beautiful back heel to Suarez, who knocked another ball home to secure the club's first league win since July 19. It was Suarez's first goal in run of play in his past nine matches across all competitions and sixth in league play this season. A rough campaign following an MLS Cup championship last year continued for the Galaxy (3-16-7, 16 points), who are winless in their past four league matches -- although LA will play Pachuca of Mexico in the Leagues Cup quarterfinals on Wednesday. Despite Messi's presence, the Galaxy gave themselves a chance to secure at least a point when Joseph Paintsil equalized the match in the 59th minute on his own brilliant individual effort. Paintsil dribbled past two defenders and ripped a shot that bounced off Inter Miami goalkeeper Oscar Ustari and into the net. But Messi answered in the clutch with his MLS-leading 19th goal. Despite outshooting LA 28-5 and 8-3 on shots on goal, Inter Miami didn't find the back of the net until Alba scored in the 43rd minute off a great through ball by Sergio Busquets. Suarez hit the post on a strong attempt early in the match, and Miami had a goal by Telasco Segovia disallowed after a review determined he was offside. --Field Level Media


The Guardian
an hour ago
- The Guardian
‘Eat, sleep or look at the roof': how top tennis players cope with match delays
The greatest challenge for Carlos Alcaraz in his third-round match at the Cincinnati Open on Friday was simply remaining sane. Before Alcaraz and Hamad Medjedovic, his opponent, took to the court, they had no choice but to wait as Francisco Comesaña and the big-serving Reilly Opelka worked through a tumultuous three-hour, three-set contest replete with manic momentum shifts, medical time-outs and a last-minute rain delay for good measure. Alcaraz and Medjedovic had no idea when their match would begin, yet a large part of their job is making sure they are always ready. A few hours later, after closing out a straightforward victory, Alcaraz chuckled bitterly from a quiet hallway inside centre court as he reflected on his hours of preparation, which turned out to be more stressful than the match itself. 'Well, it sucks,' he said, smiling. 'Having to warm up three, four times, it's horrible. A horrible thing. I thought having Opelka in front of me was going to be a little bit faster. I didn't expect a three-hour match.' His experience was reflective of one of the unique challenges of tennis. Aside from at the start of a day or session, matches usually have no fixed start time. In order to be successful, players must remain focused through this uncertainty. Karen Khachanov, the men's world No 12, says: 'We can go in all sports: NHL, American football or soccer. They know the whole season when they start – which game, against who and where. In tennis, this is the toughest part. You need to adapt to the circumstances.' The unique nature of the scoring system makes things even more challenging. A match can completely flip at any time and a player can come within a point of winning a match yet still be on court hours later. Almost every player can instantly think of an occasion when the match directly before theirs significantly frustrated them. For Iga Swiatek, her 2023 French Open semi-final against Beatriz Haddad Maia is seared in her mind by the psychodrama between Karolina Muchova and Aryna Sabalenka immediately before them. 'Aryna had 5-2 and then lost in the third set, so I was warming up like seven times, literally,' Swiatek says. 'It was a rollercoaster of emotions, from being stressed, to really not giving a damn what's going to happen in the match before, and then warming up again, being hyped up, and then being sleepy.' Being stuck behind a dramatic and seemingly endless five-set match at a grand slam tournament is even more aggravating. Madison Keys instantly recalls a difficult situation one year at the US Open. 'I was third on, but I followed two men's matches, they both went five sets and I went on after the night session [had begun]. And it was in that moment that I decided that we should ban five sets,' she says, laughing. 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Sign up to The Recap The best of our sports journalism from the past seven days and a heads-up on the weekend's action after newsletter promotion The first truly significant match of Emma Raducanu's career, during her breakout debut run at Wimbledon in 2021, showed exactly what this situation can do to a player. As an 18-year-old Raducanu and Ajla Tomljanovic waited for Alexander Zverev's five-set match against Félix Auger-Aliassime to finish on No 1 Court, the Briton became increasingly anxious. Overwhelmed by her nerves, she took an off-court medical time-out in the second set of her fourth-round match because of breathing difficulties and had an apparent panic attack. She never came back. 'I had a little episode on the court,' she says. 'It was new to me as well. I had no idea what was going on. I think I had way too much coffee before that match as well. That was just an experience. I was so wired from the start of my day.' Raducanu finds it far easier to be scheduled as the first match of the day, so she does not have to worry about the start time. Not everyone agrees, Daniil Medvedev for one. The Russian says: 'I was talking to my team today. I was like: 'When I'm 35, I might just boycott the 11am matches. I'll be like: 'I'm not coming. Walkover.' Like: 'Yeah, I didn't wake up. Sorry, guys.' In my opinion, 11 is so early. You have to wake up at 6.30 in the morning, where, if you play at night, you wake up at 9am. So it changes the perspective of the match. It's crazy mentally.' In player lounges, locker rooms and warm-up areas around the world, each player copes with delayed starts in different ways. Depending on how he is feeling, Alcaraz can be found playing football, cards or napping. Andrey Rublev is always sleeping so he relies on his coach to provide him updates on the match before. And then there is Coco Gauff, who says with a laugh: 'I'm usually just on TikTok.' Others, such as Naomi Osaka and Keys, quickly find themselves immersed in the match before them. The latter says: 'I think we're kind of all just watching the score and just being like: 'Oh, come on!' Because a lot of times, especially if you're not on a main court, you can't actually see the match, so you're just waiting and staring at the score to flip. And you're living and dying [by the live scores]. All of a sudden you're cheering for one person that you've never met … and then cheering for the other person.' There are even times when players find themselves watching a match with their next opponent. One memorable example came at the Australian Open in 2016 when Roger Federer and Grigor Dimitrov sat side-by-side in the warm-up gym and watched Lauren Davis prolong their day by dragging Maria Sharapova into a final set. Amusingly, Federer spent much of the second set tie-break screaming at the top of his lungs both due to his anguish at his match being delayed and his enjoyment of the contest. According to Dimitrov, who laughs fondly at this memory, taking in the preceding match with his opponent used to be common on the tour. 'I think it happened often,' he says. 'Not so much any more, to be honest. Early on, the guys around my age were doing that. We're OK with it. Now it's a little bit different.' The uncertainty of the schedule can cause more serious problems, such as the ludicrous, unhealthy late finishes that have become commonplace in the sport. Andy Murray's 4.05am win over Thanasi Kokkinakis at the 2023 Australian Open, for example, was simultaneously an incredible sporting achievement and a complete farce. The men's Association of Tennis Professionals and the Women's Tennis Association have since initiated a new policy regarding late matches that, among many things, rules no match should begin after 11pm unless it receives special approval. For the most part, however, this is just an annoying, unique challenge for players to overcome, another reason why this is such a complex and interesting sport. Alcaraz says, shrugging: 'It is what it is. We have to get used to it. If I have to warm up two, three times, I'll do it just to start the match in the best possible shape.' After so many years on the tour, Keys has come to a similar conclusion: 'It's really just about trying to stay focused. It's really hard, but you just have to try to manage your energy, eat as much as you can, warm up 37 times and just [remember] it's happening to the other person, too. That's all that you can do.'


Daily Mail
an hour ago
- Daily Mail
British UFC star Lerone Murphy delivers stunning spinning-elbow KO just minutes after identical rare finish
Lerone Murphy pulled off a stunning victory at UFC 319 as he delivered a spinning elbow to knockout opponent Aaron Pico. The Manchester-born star, 34, agreed to get into the octagon in Chicago just three weeks before the event, putting his eight-fight winning streak well and truly on the line. But his American opponent started the bout strongly in the early hours of this morning, putting Murphy on the back foot with some aggressive body shots. The Brit however kept his composure, replying with a short elbow before being briefly taken down just before the two-minute mark of the first round. It wasn't long before Murphy began to grow into the fight however, as he struck his opponent with a knee to the body which brought a roar from the crowd. With Pico still putting pressure on Murphy with shots to the body as the opening round neared its close, out of nowhere the 'Manchester Miracle' delivered an incredible spinning-elbow, knocking Pico out before he hit the floor. The fight was won. KN😲CKED 😱UT C😵LD! ANOTHER SPINNING BACK ELBOW! 🤯 DOES LERONE MURPHY HAVE YOUR ATTENTION NOW?! 🇬🇧 😮💨 #UFC319 | LIVE on TNT Sports & discovery+ — UFC on TNT Sports (@ufcontnt) August 17, 2025 The victory means Murphy may now get a shot at the featherweight title, and in his post-match interview he was clear about who he wants his next opponent to be. 'This sport is all about moments and I just created one,' he said. 'I believed in myself and I'm next in line, let's go [Alexander] Volkanovski! 'Pico is good, hats off to him, it's the hardest first few minutes I've ever had. He's too aggressive. I said it in my pre-fight interview that I'd use his aggression against him. 'Can just say, my team-mate Jordan deserves to be in the UFC, please Dana, he's ready.' Murphy's brutal spinning elbow knockout was only the 10th in the history of the UFC. But what's even more shocking is that the eighth came just minutes before the Brit delivered his knockout blow, as Carlos Prates sent Geoff Neal to the floor. One of the most dangerous fighters at welterweight level, Prates began to dominate the fight with a mixed attack of kicks and knees to the body after an entertaining opening round. CARLOS PRATES WITH THE SPINNING BACK ELBOW BUZZER BEATER!!! 🚨 #UFC319 | LIVE on TNT Sports & discovery+ — UFC on TNT Sports (@ufcontnt) August 17, 2025 Elsewhere in what was a thoroughly entertaining night of UFC, Khamzat Chimaev and Dricus du Plessis closed out the event in a highly-anticipated fight in the middleweight division. Chimaev, arguably the scariest fighter in his sport, showed his class however in what was ultimately a pretty one-sided affair. After multiple take downs, the Russian became the new UFC middleweight champ, praising his South African opponent following the fight. 'He is very strong,' Chimaev said.