It just took 3 minutes and $360 million for Wyc Grousbeck to strike a deal with Paul Gaston, the former Celtics owner in 2002. And Grousbeck and his motley crew of 12 odd investors, including Bain Capital’s Steve Pagliuca and real estate mogul Robert Epstein, were the new flag-bearers of the iconic Shamrocks. But now in 2024, the picture has changed.

“This is not about a percentage return or anything like that. This is about winning championships…so we will be paid in enjoyment. We will be paid in parades,” Grousbeck told his partners during the proposal meeting to buy the franchise. And paid in parades they get, not once but twice. But with trouble brewing with the NBA’s Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA), the franchise might fall under a crippling financial burden soon. So for Grousbeck and Co., the time is nigh.

On Monday, the franchise announced that the Celtics are for sale. The reason given was “for estate and family planning considerations,” but that’s the nice way of saying things. Mat Ishbia bought the Suns in February last year for $4 billion. Then, Mark Cuban kept the trend going by selling majority shares of the Mavs in December 2023 to Adelson and Dumont families for $3.5 billion. With the CBA making its presence felt around the NBA, this could be the opportune moment for Grousbeck to sell the franchise. If he chooses to do so, he’ll join the list consisting of Mark Cuban and Robert Gary Sarver (former owner of the Suns), who cashed in by selling their assets. While the cashing-in value is yet to be put on the weighing scale, the speculated figure is in the region of $5.5 billion to $6 billion.

After Zach Lowe speculated on the figure, Kevin Pelton of ESPN touched on the matter on “The Lowe Post” podcast. Highlighting the enticing prospect for Grousbeck, Pelton said, “I mean, also it seems like a great plan here for what grows back. If I get to keep running the team during the period where we have this title core together, but I’m not going to pay all the money for the luxury taxes that are coming due because I’m going to bring in a smaller partner, you know, a minority partner at that point. And then they can take over in 28 and either deal with breaking the team up or them being even, even more expensive at that point. So I like the idea here if they can pull it off.” According to the press release of the Cs, Grousbeck will remain as the governor of the team till the second closing of 2028.

With the news of the franchise’s sale made public knowledge, there were rumblings within the franchise and the major workforce in play. To allay those fears, Wyc Grousbeck took matters into his own hands. “In an all-hands call Monday, Grousbeck told Celtics employees there are no plans to change anything on the business or basketball sides at this time, according to one person on the call,” according to The Athletic. But still, the question remains, what’s next? Who will buy the Celtics next?

Who could buy Celtics from Wyc Grousbeck?

Despite the recent boom in market valuation, there are thin lines of concerns embedded. The situation of the franchise is different than many other teams in the league due to being second fiddle to the Boston Bruins when it comes to claim over the iconic TD Garden. “The interesting thing about the Celtics is for all their brand recognition, they’re in a relatively unusual position among NBA teams that they don’t control their arena, that the Bruins control the TD Garden and therefore, you know, they get the second choice of dates, not as much revenue from games, that sort of thing. So the question of whether another group would try to buy the team, like a casino group, gold it as part of a casino complex is kind of a fascinating one to me,” Pelton said in the same podcast.

But buying the Celtics is a big deal. Splashing billions can be a tedious process and with the Cs valued at $4.7 billion with a projected sale value of more than $5 billion, it is a process to be considered thoroughly. Still, interested parties are out there. One of them is the Amazon founder, Jeff Bezos. His recent sale of 25 million shares worth $5 billion is a major indication of a potential takeover. Another logical bidder can be Steve Pagliuca, the second-most shareholder of the franchise.

“Being a co-investor and managing partner of the Celtics has been a great honor and a labor of love. I hope to be part of the Celtics moving forward and will be a proud participant in the bidding process,” Pagliuca said via a statement. A wild turn of events might see LeBron James and the Fenway Group become an owner of the team. With LeBron always wanting to buy an NBA team, this could be a potential opportunity. FSG already boasts a tremendous catalogue of sports teams including the Red Sox, Pittsburgh Penguins, and Liverpool FC. Adding the Celtics to that can be too good of a prospect to miss out.

Stay tuned for more such updates, and to follow what brand maker, Leonard Armato, had to say about the deadly duo, Shaq and Kobe, check out this video