The bidding process for the Boston Celtics will be heating up, as majority shareholders Wyc and Irving Grousbeck are reportedly selling 51% of their family's shares of the team in the coming months.
While the Grousbecks continue to celebrate their championship, several suitors have emerged to throw their hat into the ring.
There are several reasons why Grousbeck could be selling the Celtics. One factor has to be the prospect of this dominant team becoming too expensive to field in the next few years. Grousbeck is a beloved owner who has long positioned the Celtics, financially and strategically, to compete year after year. It would have been a shame to see a man with so much emotional capital in the franchise trade off players due to severe budgetary restraints.
That being said, if Grousbeck is looking for an owner who will happily trade away fan favorites to cut costs, then Boston Red Sox owner John Henry should be first on his list of potential suitors to purchase the Celtics!
Red Sox owner John Henry buying the Celtics would be Boston fans' worst nightmare
Henry and Grousbeck, who are personal friends, have played it coy as to whether or not Henry has any interest in making a bid for the most decorated franchise in NBA history. It stands to reason that he does, as Fenway Sports Group has long wanted to get into the NBA circle. FSG has increasingly diversified its sports portfolio over the past decade, with holdings in MLB, NHL, Premier League, NASCAR, and PGA. They made a bid for the Washington Commanders as well before they were sold for $6.05 billion last year.
The timing is perfect for Henry to swoop in — the Red Sox are starving for a cash and talent infusion on the field while Henry has his attention drawn towards purchasing yet another sports team.
By all accounts, the next Celtics owner will be a die-hard fan with a lot of money who will be able to retain this championship core for many years to come. In terms of local businessmen, Celtics co-owner Steve Pagliuca is the favorite to win the franchise, which is putting Boston sports fans at ease. We do not want Henry to add the Celtics to his collection of assets and potentially dismantle the team for monetary gain.
With news of a majority sale of the Boston Celtics earlier this week, there’s been some speculation on whether John Henry/FSG would be interested in expanding their ownership group. Reached for comment, here was the response: pic.twitter.com/Kls13IXUPb
— Jen McCaffrey (@jcmccaffrey) July 5, 2024
Henry owning the Celtics in the modern age of NBA contracts is an awful fit. The Celtics’ operating costs are as high as we’ve ever seen when you factor in players’ contracts and the tax implications under the NBA’s second apron. According to Bill Simmons, the 2025-2026 Celtics, as they are currently constructed, could cost in the range of $450 million. The Red Sox have an exciting core group of players, but the 11th highest payroll in 2024. Henry has famously cut bait with fan-favorite, win-now players despite being the third-highest valued MLB franchise.
In layman’s terms, the Celtics are going full throttle to win their 19th championship. Wyc Grousbeck is a visible owner who sits courtside at seemingly every Celtics game, home or away, playoffs or regular season. Henry is viewed as a cold, calculating owner whose attentions are divided between his assets. He can not, and would not, invest the attention nor money required to keep the Celtics’ championship window open during Brown and Tatum’s peak years.
Immediately after winning banner No. 18, the 2023-2024 Celtics received comparisons to the 2018 Red Sox. The Celtics went 80-21 overall, and the Red Sox went 119-57. The Celtics immediately went to work in retaining their core, while the Red Sox traded Mookie Betts (and David Price) after the 2019 season in order to save money.
In the next few years, the Celtics will need to decide whether or not to keep rostering high-priced players like Kristaps Porzingis, Jrue Holiday, and Derrick White to make the team more financially feasible. The optics of Henry at the helm while trading away more fan favorites would be catastrophically bad.