Why not Pags? It seems odd that Steve Pagliuca's Celtics ownership bid was turned down, and other thoughts.

Boston Globe

21-03-2025

Swell.
So here's just one little question?
Why not 'Pags'?
'Pags' is Steve Pagliuca, a Bain Capital billionaire, local philanthropist, basketball insider, and managing general partner and co-owner of the Celtics since Irving Grousbeck and his family led a group that purchased the Celtics for $360 million in December 2002.
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When it was announced last summer that the Celtics were for sale, Pags immediately stepped forward. He put together a group that
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I reached out to 90-year-old Irv Grousbeck Thursday. For a quarter of a century, the elder Grousbeck has been silent, Salinger-esque atop the Celtics masthead. Irv holds all the cards but never comments on his hand. On Thursday, he responded to my email inquiry stating, 'Bill [Chisholm] checks all of the boxes to represent the Celtics going forward. I defer to Wyc for any further comments.'
'Why not Pags?' I followed. 'Seems to check all the boxes and would make fans super comfortable.'
'Our goal was always to take the best bid from a suitable buyer, and that's what we did,' responded Irv Grousbeck.
So, there you go.
And that's that.
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The Grousbecks did not feel that way.
The Globe has learned that the Chisholm bid was higher than Pagliuca's.
Not seeing the offer sheets, and not knowing which package had more guaranteed financing, it's impossible to measure the offers. That is what the Grousbecks do.
So, was it just about the highest number?
Perhaps not. I believe control and personalities were involved in this decision.
Since the team's been for sale, Wyc Grousbeck has made it clear he wished to stay on as CEO and governor of the Celtics after selling. According to Thusday's statement, he's been granted this by Chisholm.
Sorry, but this just seems odd. Why would you pay $6.1 billion for the Celtics, then let the former owner run the team for three seasons? If you buy my Rolls-Royce, are you going to let me drive it for the next three years?
Finally, we have the awkward mix of personalities. Wyc Grousbeck and Pagliuca hardly knew one another before joining to purchase the team in 2002. Self-made Pagliuca came into the deal with his own money but was ever-marginalized by Grousbeck, who brought a much smaller amount to the table but had controlling interest due to his dad's immense wealth. Pagliuca never commented about the disproportion of investment, and Wyc Grousbeck happily became identified as the team's owner for more than two decades. It was only after the sale was announced last summer
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'Wyc was clear from the beginning that the other owners would be in the back of the bus,' said a well-sourced insider. 'He would be the face of the team. Pags was boxed out and never given the mic.'
This was obvious when Wyc Grousbeck and Pagliuca interacted with the public and the media. Wyc loves the bright lights and it was hard for Pags to get his hand near the Larry O'Brien Trophy in those championship celebrations.
Reached via text late Thursday afternoon, Wyc responded to my 'why not Pags?' question:
'Steve has always been a good friend and partner. We have done great stuff together. The professional advisers my family brought in to run the very serious process recommended to the family that one bid stood apart from the rest when all the final bids were in. I have texted warmly back and forth with Steve today and he wrote he will support us doing the deal that was chosen. He's been a fantastic friend and partner, actually. We will always be friends."
⋅ Quiz: 1. Name five players who led the majors in homers two or more times since 2000; 2. Name four Hockey Hall of Fame goalies who played at least part of their careers with the Bruins after 1960 (answers below).
⋅ Golden Bachelor Bill Belichick's sudden social media presence has an unsettling, Britney Spears feel to it. It feels like something that might have happened if there'd been Instagram in Vincent Van Gogh's later years. According to multiple reports, the Hoodie (73 next month) asked his North Carolina bosses to include his 23-year-old girlfriend, Jordon Hudson, 'on anything you send to me.' This is not the secretive, in-command coach we knew in Foxborough for 24 seasons. NFL owners who passed on Belichick may feel they dodged something.
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⋅ The Dodgers' goodwill trip to Japan this past week kindled memories of the 2008 Red Sox. Like this year's Dodgers, the Sox were defending world champs when they embarked on a grueling trip over the North Pole in the spring of '08. Those Sox (a traveling party of 160 including families, staff, and media) left Fort Myers, Fla., after a spring training day game, flew to Chicago, refueled, then took a 12-hour flight aboard a 382-seat Boeing 747. Team physician Larry Ronan prepped the players by recommending knee-high compression socks and advised the athletes to avoid alcohol and try to stay awake for the entire flight. Flying over the North Pole, manager Terry Francona got up from his card game to use the restroom, and walked past a reclined, snoozing Dr. Ronan, who was wearing a Zorro mask and had two empty mini-bottles of wine on his tray table.
'My favorite memory of the Japan trip,' recalled Francona.
The trip was a nightmare. Like this year's Dodgers, the Sox played two exhibition games vs. Japanese teams, then two regular-season games (against the A's) in the Tokyo Dome. The Dodgers this past week played two games against the Cubs that counted. When the '08 Sox left Japan, they took a nine-hour flight to Los Angeles, then played two more exhibition games against the Dodgers, encountering a young sensation named Clayton Kershaw. After LA, they flew to Oakland, resumed their major league season, then went to Toronto for a three-game weekend series against the Blue Jays, losing all three. Boston made six errors and was outscored, 17-6, in the final two games in Toronto.
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'Everything we were trying to do that spring was secondary to that trip,' remembered Francona. 'It was start, stop, start. It was a total circus. We had cement in our shoes. It was the worst road trip in the history of the game.'
⋅ The starting quarterback of the 2025 New York Football Giants could be Aaron Rodgers. Or it could be Shedeur Sanders. Hmm. Whatever happened to Y.A. Tittle?
⋅ Tony Allen — drafted by Danny Ainge in 2004 and a member of the 2008 world champion Celtics — had his number retired by the Memphis Grizzlies last weekend. A defensive demon who started a little more than half the games he played in his NBA career, Allen never averaged at least 10 points a game in seven seasons with the Grizz. He's the Memphis 'Loscy.'
Former Celtic Tony Allen's number was retired by the Grizzlies last weekend.
Brandon Dill/Associated Press
⋅ The NCAA's women's basketball selection committee goofed by putting USC and UConn in the same bracket. This puts UConn's Paige Bueckers on a collision course with USC's JuJu Watkins for a potential Elite Eight game in Spokane. The women's tournament would be much better served if that game ended up being played for the national championship, or at least a Final Four game. When UConn and USC played in December (
⋅ West Virginia's men's team gets to cry loudest about being 'snubbed' this year. The Mountaineers lost their spot to a North Carolina team that went 1-12 against 'Quad 1 opponents' (good teams, evidently).
⋅ Alex Verdugo, who made $8.7 million in his walk year with the Yankees last season, did not light up the free agent market and settled for a $1.5 million, one-year deal with the Braves Thursday.
⋅ Speaking of Red Sox alums, the galactically annoying Kiké Hernández is tied for the major league lead in homers after going deep for the Dodgers in the Tokyo Dome Wednesday against the Cubs. Meanwhile, 36-year-old Craig Kimbrel hopes to join the Braves bullpen for his 16th big league season. With a clean ninth inning and a three-run lead against a bad team, there was never a better compiler of meaningless saves than Kimbrel. All other situations were a sweaty roll of the dice.
Former Red Sox closer Craig Kimbrel is looking to catch on with the Braves.
The Boston Globe/Boston Globe
⋅ The 2-0 Dodgers are taking aim at the MLB record of 116 regular-season wins.
⋅ Ben Rice — Dartmouth's greatest gift to the Yankees since Jim Beattie — went into this weekend with five spring training homers for the Bronx Bombers.
⋅ Imagine heads exploding at league headquarters in New York if the Cavaliers and Thunder advance to an NBA Finals that no one would watch.
⋅ Gotta love Northern Ireland's Rory McElroy winning The Players Championship on St. Patrick's Day in Florida Monday.
Northern Ireland's Rory McIlroy won The Players Championship on St. Patrick's Day.
Julia Demaree Nikhinson/Associated Press
⋅ Next month marks the 50th anniversary of Bill Rodgers's stunning victory in the 1975 Marathon. Wearing white cotton painter's gloves and Steve Prefontaine's shoes, Boston Billy (a native of Hartford) shocked the world with a 2:09:55 race, which at the time was the fourth-fastest ever run. It would be the first of four Boston victories for the local legend.
⋅ The stunning sports needlepoint work of former Harvard goalie and Bruins goalie coach Joe Bertagna is on display on TD Garden's sixth level between suites 645 and 646 from now until the end of the playoffs.
⋅ Baseball fans might want to make their way Sunday to the West Newton Cinema for a 12:30 p.m. showing of 'Eephus,' a 98-minute fictional feature film directed by Nashua's Carson Lund, set in Douglas in the 1990s, centering on two recreational teams meeting for the last time in the history of Soldier Field. After the film, there'll be a panel discussion with Bill Lee (he threw an eephus pitch to Tony Perez in the 1975 World Series) and yours truly. Tickets are $20.
⋅ Quiz answers: 1. Aaron Judge, Chris Davis, Jose Bautista, Ryan Howard, Alex Rodriguez; 2: Rogie Vachon, Gerry Cheevers, Bernie Parent, Jacques Plante.
Dan Shaughnessy is a Globe columnist. He can be reached at