Bill on the Celtics Going Up for Sale | The Bill Simmons Podcast

Bill on the Celtics Going Up for Sale | The Bill Simmons Podcast

the other announcement we had which is Wick rck sewing the his share of the team and the way this got reported initially was like the Celtics their whole ownership group is for sale it’s actually just the wick part and probably his his uh the stake that his dad had as well when Wick Wick rossc bought the team in 2003 he put together a group and the biggest money person in that group was his dad IR grck who was just a famous business guy and then he had Jim pado was in the group dag Luca was a big shareholder in the group he had some other people as well and because the gross Becks had the most money Wick was the governor of the team that means he is the steering wheel he’s in charge ultimately he’s the face of the team he represents them in the owner meetings and I got the feeling not just from from him um just from just little little little hint dropped here and there the last couple years but you get you hear this from the other teams too a lot of these guys are business dudes who fundamentally they’re wired to make an investment and when you 10 times it or 15 times it or 20 times it it’s time to sell the investment no matter how you’re how attached you are to it that’s just Heather wired and I think once the valuations started to shoot up especially with the with ishbia was was the Catalyst a year and a half ago when he paid for Sarver share of the Suns what he paid what the team was valued at that caught everyone’s attention because they were like this is nuts if you go back to 2010 even the stuff I was writing for ESPN and eventually Grantland at the time during the lockout there was real fear that the franchise values had cratered um you’re talking about the the Sixers the warriors uh the Hornets some of these teams the Grizzlies some of these teams got stolen for you know less than 300 million the Hornets they basically gave it to Jordan um the Warriors was one of the best deals ever I said that at the time and everybody was worried that the prices of these teams were going to level off and maybe go down because they couldn’t figure out the uh the CBA with the players they couldn’t figure out where the next media money stuff was coming from well now that’s obviously flipped and now we’re hitting the second point that reminds me a little of 2010 where I think that some of the people that own these teams are going not only is is the team never going to be more valuable than this the amount of people eligible to buy my team is dwindling by the day I talked to somebody um in the rich gu circles this week and I was like how many people have the ability to to just cut a check for a team at this point you know if the check’s four billion five billion even if it’s 40 50% you’re still cutting a check for like two billion two and a half million I was like how many people are out there that could just do that and and the guy said not many and I know all of them and that’s what you’re dealing with so I think for for Wick he’s looking at it he’s probably 22 bu the value of his team I think the Celtics are worth five five billion they don’t own their own Arena but if the suns are worth four billion there’s an extra billion just for the Celtics one of the most iconic franchises in any sport beloved in Boston um sell out every year it’s a great team if you take over this team you’re sitting Courtside and you’re be in the playoffs every year like there’s real intrinsic value to this that’s at least five billion and then you figure if two people are going at each other maybe it gets to six my guess would be somewhere between 5 seven and six is the value of this team and if you’re buying the Gross Back shares maybe that’s a $2 million check to be the the majority Governor I don’t I don’t know what the exact numbers are and he’s probably looking at it like it’s never going to get better than this I won my 18th title for the for the franchise Wick second but the 18th for the franchise that tax all the salary stuff I mentioned is coming tayum Brown who knows is somebody have to break them up two three years from now he doesn’t want that on him he’s leaving and and he’s just remembered as this awesome owner he probably looks at what happened with the Red Sox John Henry brings the Red Sox and Tom Warner bring the Red Sox a title they win four World Series and then now nobody in Boston can stand John Henry because he’s ruined the Red Sox over the last four or five years with some of the decisions they’ve made so that’s how fast they can flip Bob Craft not as bad as the John Henry thing but he went from everybody loved the dude to over the course of one winter thanks to the Apple do and how belich was treated and now people are like craft kind of a bummer this guy couldn’t have paid for a drink anywhere in Boston for 20 years and now people are looking at him a little side eyed so I’m sure Wick saw some of that too but the big thing for me you could talk about oh there’s all these people that are coming in there’s could be a casino Casino could build downtown Boston some just super rich person mystery person who’s always want own wanted own the Celtics you could give me a bunch of scenarios but I think the owner the next owner of the team is already an owner of the team I think it’s Steve paga who was really the number two owner on this team the whole time and was somebody that um you know you’d see him on the podium he didn’t have the steering wheel and you always knew he wanted it and then he ran for a political office in Massachusetts spent a ton of money on his campaign didn’t get it he went for the Nets a few years ago and had it he had the Nets and I think there was I I forget what happened at the 11th hour but something happened he froze or he he backed off for a split second and Joe SI stepped in and took it and he probably should have taken the Nets because that’s when you consider barque and all the other stuff in there that that was probably a good deal way more than what he was going to pay so I think he wants it he also has a stake and usually when you have these ownership groups if you’re buying in the other partners have the right to be like well then it’s called a put you have well then you have to buy me out too and that’s what happened in Phoenix that’s why the ishbia thing like you it’s a bigger check than just WR in the check for the majority guy so this is all easier in a hundred different ways if Pags just takes it over and he had a statement later in the day yesterday saying how um he couldn’t wait to be a bidder for the team be a proud B proud member of the bidding process whatever he said I think it’s gonna be PS I think he’s ready for it and um whatever happens here with the ownership process it’s a really interesting one because these guys have worked side by side now for 21 years and the easy thing would be for Wick to just sell his share to Pags and let him take over but he’s going to do this as whole process and get the most amount of money he’s going to get I’d be shocked if Pags didn’t get the team and if he gets the team that’s good for Boston fans because what they’ve had with Wick gross back in this whole ownership group the last 20 years has been you can’t ask for more it’s been it’s I wouldn’t say it’s an A+ but it’s been an a especially um how they were able to ride out out that kg era they got a title out of it and then it it Peters out the rebuild and then immediately good again and they’ve spent money every time they’ve had to and when you think about some of the owners of Celtics have had in the past Paul Gaston’s um there was just an endless slew of guys that owned the team in the in the 70s and 80s they were like the drunk stepdads that would come in for a couple years own the team red arback would try to hold them off then we go to the next guy uh they’ve been great owners so I think I was talking to my dad about it yesterday and he was like man my dad was like really bummed out he was like why now why we just won the title The Tatum extension the white extension why would they do this now and I you know I think it’s because this is the right time to sell and you get the process going and see what’s going to happen my guess is Wick’s going to be involved for at least a couple years but as we saw with Mark cubin and Dallas they say that but the moment that team transfers hands they start nudging the other dude out you didn’t see Cuban on the podium in the West Conference playoffs right this was a guy who was oh no I’m still I’m in charge of basketball it was like he got just gently nudged to the side and that’s what happens when you don’t own the team anymore and that’s why these guys are so so scared to sell it sometimes because once you sell it it’s never the same you’re not the guy you’re not sitting there in the you you picked you were seed on court side you’re the first call from everybody like that’s it and whether you’re the owner of a team whether you’re a commissioner whether you’re Lord Michaels running Saturn live whoever you are once you give up that job it’s never the same so I don’t think he took the decision lightly but he did it and uh he was an awesome awesome Sports owner so we’ll see how it goes [Music]

The Ringer’s Bill Simmons reacts to Boston Celtics majority owner Wyc Grousbeck deciding to sell his share of the team.

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