A family rift over how expensive the Boston Celtics’ payroll will become in the next few years may have led to the decision to sell the franchise.
The Celtics are owned by the Boston Basketball Partners, a group of investors in which Wyc Grousbeck is the face and team Governor, but he personally owns about three percent of the team, sources said. Josh Kosman and Brian Lewis of The New York Post. Wyc’s father, Irving Grousbeck, 90, puts up most of the cash and owns 20% of the team.
It is a team that is very expensive. To keep the championship core of the Celtics together, Jaylen Brown has a maximum contract extension that begins this season, and this summer Jayson Tatum signed his maximum contract that begins next season (2025-26), in addition there are 30 million to Jrue Holiday, $29.3 million for Kristaps Porzingis and on the line. Salary and taxes are expected to reach $262 million for the Celtics this season (the fourth largest in the league), and that is expected to exceed $450 million for the 2025-26 season.
That price tag and associated losses caused the elder Grousbeck to push back, according to the New York Post.
Irving Grousbeck … refused to finance big losses on the horizon from the massive contracts that helped the Celtics capture a record 18th NBA championship in June, multiple sources told The Post …
The team barely broke even last season during its championship run, sources said. It is expected to lose about $80 million in luxury tax fines for exceeding the salary cap for next season, which reports next month, a source close to the sales process said.
That figure is likely to rise significantly in the 2025-26 season when tougher wage fines come into effect.
For the record, when announcing the sale the Grousbeck family said it was for “estate planning purposes” and repeated that to the New York Post when contacted.
Many owners say they want to go into the tax bracket and spend big if the team is in contention – Wyc Grousbeck among them – but the reality is often different. It’s not just Boston, 2023 champion Denver squandered some salary in the face of looming taxes, this summer letting Kentavious Caldwell-Pope walk out the door to Orlando.
The sale of the Celtics is in the early stages, with the Grousbecks selling a 51% interest. The hope – by both the Celtics and the league office – was that the Celtics would be valued at around $6 billion for this sale, but the potential financial losses plus the fact that the Celtics do not own TD Garden (it is owned by the same group that owns Boston Bruins of the NHL) may have that number lower, the Mail reports. The most any franchise was valued at in a sale was the Phoenix Suns at $4 billion when Robert Sarver sold to Mat Ishbia.
