Wyck Grousbeck joined the Celtics in 2002.
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The Boston Celtics announced plans to sell majority ownership less than three weeks after winning a franchise-record 18th NBA Finals title after 22 seasons under Wyck Grousbeck.
Commissioner Adam Silver said he was “saddened” by the “bittersweet” news about the expected handover of power after Grusbeck and the team's current ownership group won two championships, according to The Boston Globe's Gary Washburn. Grusbeck and right-hand man Steve Pagliuca last led the purchase of the team in 2002 for $360 million, and it had been 16 years since the Celtics last won a championship.
Silver considers Grousbeck a model owner. In 2008, Grousbeck authorized then-general manager Danny Ainge to assemble the “Big Three” trio of Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen to defeat Kobe Bryant's Los Angeles Lakers in the Finals. Last season, current president of basketball operations Brad Stevens approved the acquisitions of Kristaps Porzingis and Jrue Holiday before Boston won a league-leading 64 games in the regular season and went 16-3 in the playoffs.
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The team didn't falter when it had to make tough decisions, like trading Pierce and Garnett to the Brooklyn Nets in 2013 for Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum and parting ways with Ime Udoka. Grousbeck's transparency with fans rang true. After the Celtics beat the Dallas Mavericks in the Finals, Grousbeck was vocal about the team's determination to retain as many players as possible. The team has only two free agents remaining for 2024-25: Oshae Brissett and Svi Mykhailiuk.
But the effort has also created complicated dilemmas that likely won't go away even if the sale goes through and Grousbeck is no longer the owner of the Celtics.
Boston signed Brown, Tatum, Kristaps Porzingis, Jrue Holiday and Derrick White to lucrative multi-year deals, creating the NBA's most expensive starting lineup (so far), and paying the Celtics a combined payroll of more than $920 million.
Regardless of who takes the ownership seat that Grusbeck will soon replace, the Celtics will retain the same sense of expectation that Boston brought to the season opener last October once Banner 18 is officially raised at TD Garden.
