BOSTON — Wyc Grousbeck, who’s planning to promote his majority stake within the Boston Celtics, was born in Worcester, raised in Weston and attended Noble and Greenough College in Dedham. He’s 63, which implies he doubtless rooted for John Havlicek, Bobby Orr and Carl Yastrzemski rising up. And for all we all know, he might need been on the previous kiddie present “Rex Trailer’s Boomtown” when he was within the sixth grade however hasn’t gotten round to telling us about it but.
So, sure, Grousbeck is a neighborhood man. And followers are all the time interested in the shiny bauble of native possession, what with its message, usually introduced on the introductory information convention, that they “know the way you’re feeling,” that they “wish to win as a lot as you do,” and so forth.
In Grousbeck’s case, such speak nearly does the person a disservice. Ultimately, all that actually issues is that the house owners of your group carry out in accordance with that fiery previous quote that’s been put into play at 1000’s of sports activities banquets over time: “Profitable isn’t every little thing; it’s the one factor.”
OK, so the opposite solely factor, in case you personal a professional sports activities group, is making a number of cash. On condition that Boston Basketball Companions LLC paid $360 million for the Celtics and that the group will doubtless fetch upward of $5 billion, it gained’t simply be the Celtics mascot who will get to strut round saying, “I’m Fortunate.”
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However Grousbeck has been a rah-rah proprietor who has all the time carried out his affairs as if he has that winning-is-the-only-thing occasion favor tattooed throughout his chest. The identical applies to Steve Pagliuca, an ever-present co-owner of the Celtics, and he’s from New Jersey, even when he’s been dwelling in Boston lengthy sufficient to know why Luis Tiant and Dwight Evans must be within the Corridor of Fame.
To broaden on that, Celtics followers could be sensible to hope that Pagliuca steps as much as take over as majority proprietor. And he’s already saying he desires to maintain on conserving on as a Celtics proprietor.
Pagliuca is a identified amount, and followers ought to all the time worry the unknown when their group is offered, whether or not to a neighborhood one that is aware of the most effective pizza joints or a smiling blow-in who says all of the right-sounding issues after being handed the keys to the chief wing.
I’m grateful and grateful for the 21-year partnership I’ve loved with Wyc and Irv Grousbeck, the Epstein household, and all of the unimaginable Celtics funding companions. (See connected photograph for full assertion.) pic.twitter.com/4JtIu5gZbY
— Steve Pagliuca (@pagsceltics) July 1, 2024
However let’s put apart the native litmus check and take a look at Grousbeck and Pagliuca’s stewardship of the Celtics solely by the lens of supply on guarantees. And there’s actually no different method to put it: From Grousbeck and Pagliuca on down by the masthead, these house owners have been the sort of house owners that followers crave.
The profitable half is well defined. Below this possession, the Celtics have gained two championships, they usually’ve come shut a number of different instances, and through two distinct eras. Throughout the days of Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen, there was a championship and there have been two close-but-no-Pink Auerbach-cigar finishes, as soon as in opposition to Miami within the Jap Convention finals, the opposite in opposition to the Lakers within the NBA Finals. After which there’s the Jaylen Brown–Jayson Tatum period, with so many poundings on the championship door that after some time the they’ll-never-win-with-these-guys chant grew to become a each day ritual on the speak reveals. Current occasions have squashed such speak, with banner No. 18 being secured for a TD Backyard rafter elevating come the autumn.
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What issues is that the Celtics have been in competition for a large chunk of this possession’s tenure. That’s what followers anticipate. With the Celtics, given their historical past, it’s what followers demand.
Spending cash helps. Being sensible additionally helps. That is the possession group that employed Danny Ainge, and it was Danny Ainge who employed Brad Stevens. These have been strong hires, however we get pleasure from historical past to information us to that 2-foot putt. However lots of people believed Rick Pitino was a strong rent in 1997, again when the Gaston household owned the Celtics, and look how that turned out.
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Purchase
Whereas Pitino’s tenure predates the present possession, it elements into an instance of the understanding and respect Grousbeck and Pagliuca have all the time had for Celtics custom. Shortly after shopping for the group, they traveled to Washington, D.C., to go to Auerbach and ask for the Celtics patriarch’s blessings. (Pagliuca informed me he was floored when he noticed that Pink was nonetheless utilizing a rotary phone.)
In case you suppose such a go to is a commonsense factor to do, contemplate that Auerbach’s title as president, albeit largely emeritus, had been wrested from him when Pitino arrived. Grousbeck and Pagliuca gave it again, and for a few years past that, they saved Pink’s workplace at TD Backyard as a shrine, with glass partitions in order that guests may gaze upon the desk and different trappings that have been in place when the best thoughts in NBA historical past did his wheeling and dealing.
One other good story: Grousbeck, shortly after he arrived, sought to return one thing he believed was lacking. It was Celtic Pleasure — and never simply the Celtic Pleasure that goes on bumper stickers. He wished Celtic Pleasure again contained in the constructing. A method to try this was to order up a carload of “Celtics Employees” T-shirts and ask all group workers to put on them.
I as soon as requested Grousbeck about that, and that is what he informed me he informed his workers: “And also you’re not consuming lunch within the workplace. You’re going out to eat lunch each day, and other people will ask you about your shirt, and you’ll inform them in regards to the Celtics.”
That’s not why the Celtics knocked off the Lakers within the 2008 NBA Finals or the Dallas Mavericks within the 2024 NBA Finals. Nevertheless it set the temper, one that is still in place all these years.
These guys have been the products. By no means assume that’s going to be the case when there’s a change in possession, whether or not it’s a grocery retailer, a bowling alley or the franchise that’s gained essentially the most championships in NBA historical past.
(Picture of majority proprietor Wyc Grousbeck holding up the Larry O’Brien Championship Trophy: Elsa / Getty Photos)
