Under New Management, The Boston Celtics Head To An Uncertain Future

Forbes

31-03-2025

The Boston Celtics' Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum high five during the 2024 Eastern Conference ... More Finals. (Photo by)
Only one thing is for certain: should the league approve the sale of the Boston Celtics to Bill Chisholm—which is still apparently an open question—the franchise will soon look different than it does now. Then again, that would probably be the case no matter what. If there was one hallmark of the team under its outgoing ownership, it was probably perpetual change.
Wyc Grousbeck became the majority owner of the Celtics when his group purchased the franchise for a mere $360 million in 2002. It was a big risk at the time, but it obviously paid off in the ensuing decades, given that he and his father just sold the team for $6.1 billion.
It was Grousbeck's first major gamble that ultimately paid off, but it wouldn't be the last. Just a few days ago, Boston clinched its 11th division title. In that time frame, the Celtics have appeared in four NBA Finals and hung up two additional championship banners at TD Garden.
The Celtics' success came due to ownership's refusal to stand still, something reflected by Grousbeck's choice in de facto GMs: Danny Ainge and his successor Brad Stevens. 'Trader Danny' was known for making unsentimental moves, seemingly to know exactly when to part ways with key players right when he could get maximum value for them.
It was Ainge who, when the ping pong balls didn't bounce his team's way in 2007, gutted an underachieving roster in order to team up homegrown star Paul Pierce with Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen. The very next year, the Celtics won their first title since 1986. When the Celtics failed to win a second title with The New Big Three, Ainge sent Pierce and Garnett to the Brooklyn Nets for a bevy of first-round picks.
In 2017, one of those Nets picks ended up being first overall, which Ainge shockingly traded to the Philadelphia 76ers, who used it on Markelle Fultz. Instead, Ainge selected the player he wanted all along at No. 3: Jayson Tatum. The rest was history: Fultz ended up lasting two disappointing years in Philadelphia while Tatum joined Jaylen Brown to form the nucleus of the modern-day Celtics, the current defending champions.
For a team well known for parting ways with its biggest names, the most surprising thing they did under Grousbeck might have been keeping the Brown-Tatum tandem together despite an increasingly frustrating series of playoff exits. Ignoring calls to break up the two, Grousbeck would eventually end up breaking the bank in order to keep them both on the roster long-term.
Once again, his instincts proved to be correct.
While the Celtics had regular season success pairing up the Jays with Kyrie Irving and Kemba Walker, nothing compared to the 64-18 record they put together last season. They outdid themselves in the postseason, losing just three games total. It turned out that Kristaps Porzingis and Jrue Holiday, combined with a second tour of duty by the venerable Al Horford, were the keys to finally secure their first championship since the New Big Three era.
Then came the most shocking moment in a Celtics era that was crammed full of them. They had barely cleaned the confetti from Boylston Street when ownership announced that they were selling the team. From all accounts, the decision was not Grousbeck's alone but one made in consultation with his father.
Grousbeck will, in fact, be staying in as governor until at least the 2027-28 season. He made it clear that he still had a stake in the team by having Stevens keep the core of last season's team together during his final offseason as the final decision-maker. He's hoping for one last hurrah.
Sooner rather than later, however, the Celtics will be under new management (even if Chisholm has floated the idea of keeping Grousbeck around longer). It's impossible to predict what the team will look like just a year from now, especially since the new owners will have to deal with a payroll that could balloon to over $500 million next season.
Is there anything we can predict? Eventually, the Celtics will part ways with at least one of the two Jays, possibly both, but that was probably inevitable no matter what the sale. Very few individual stars spend their entire careers with one franchise. It's impossible to imagine a duo doing so.
It's also likely that the new owners, inheriting a team that apparently failed to turn a profit during its most recent championship season, will make their own swings. For instance, the Celtics currently don't own their own stadium, instead leasing TD Garden from the Boston Bruins. That lease ends in 2036, by which time they will likely be on the move.
Whatever the new owners' plans end up being, it will be somebody else's job to break them down. After nearly 14 years of covering the NBA in various outlets, I'm leaving the subject behind to seek out other pursuits. It's been a pleasure getting paid to ramble about basketball, but I've learned one valuable lesson from the Celtics in this time period: sometimes it's best to risk making a move too early than making one too late.