Two weeks back, when the Boston Celtics were sold for a record $6.1 billion, its outgoing owner minority owner Steve Pagliuca was not happy. No, not just because his bid was rejected, but he thought it indicated a shift in tide, and that might not be all good news for not only the NBA but the pro sports in general. Reason? the entry of private equity money into the matter. The team is being bought by a group led by Bill Chisholm, managing partner of private equity firm Symphony Technology Group. Pagliuca had a few words to share here.

“We made a fully guaranteed and financed offer at a record price, befitting the best sports fans in the world, and with all the capital coming from individuals who are fully committed to winning on and off the court,” Pagliuca wrote on X. “We had no debt or private equity money that would potentially hamstring our ability to compete in the future. We have felt it was the best offer for the Celtics.”  The interesting part here is, Pagliuca himself is a private equity man. He is a senior adviser at Bain Capital. So, his concern holds some weight. And it will sound all the more relevant when we found that Carmelo Anthony is raising the same concern.

The 10-time NBA All-Star, who has long been vocal about player empowerment and ownership opportunities, recently dropped some unfiltered truth on his podcast, ‘7 PM in Brooklyn with Carmelo Anthony’. Succinctly, he was criticizing the sale and to say he had a bold take would be an understatement.

Anthony said, “When it comes to the Boston Celtics, right? Right? Like, I said, what’s the guy? Bill Chisholm? Private equity, right? Private equity? Yeah. See? That’s another thing people ain’t talking about. Private equity? Private equities gonna come in and now fuck the game up. They’re gonna change the game.” Why so, you wonder?

He continued, “Because that money is a lot different with private equity. Yeah, it is. You could raise now, you can raise and raise and raise and raise, and you got people that really wanna be into sports. You gotta have a clear-cut plan. This is the strategy; this is what we want to do; this is how we going to do it, and people could actually visualize and see it yeah on paper right and they can go and invest in it how they want to invest.”

Anthony’s keen take on the changing ownership structures and the impact of funneling in private equity reflected on how bringing in a business-first, return-on-investment mentality to the whole scenario might transform the game altogether. For years, players like Anthony have expressed their wish to transition from playing and being stars on the hardwood to having a claim over the ownership stakes in franchises. With the new private equity angle entering the ownership scenario, these aspirations are facing a steep barrier. The days when former players could leverage their connections and earnings into minority ownership stakes might be slipping away.

Dwyane Wade has already joined the Utah Jazz ownership group, while Michael Jordan has sold his majority stake in the Charlotte Hornets. But, as private equity firms start controlling larger shares of NBA franchises, these deals could become a rarity. What is established so far is that private equity investors might not be that much interested in nostalgia or goodwill – they’re in it for sheer business.

Moreover, private equity firms don’t just want part ownership. They want complete control. The power to move assets, change the squad and restructure teams, and maximize profitability by any means makes for a far different game than a former player coming in with passion, basketball knowledge, and a vision for the franchise. That is why in the present ownership model, the owners become a part of the identity of the team and are often directly associated with major decisions of the franchise. Recall how the Celtics’ outgoing owner Wyc Grousbeck himself delivered the news of firing the then-Celtics coach Ime Udoka for having a personal relationship with a team employee. That’s not all.

When he bought the team in 2002, the team had hit one of its lowest points, going title-less for 16 years. It was Grousbeck who single-handedly built the championship-caliber team by recruiting stars like Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown. No one is saying that private equity owners can not pull off the same. But the kind of ruthless they can be for profit is not unknown. So the question that is coming up is, will these owners put winning a championship over everything else? As for the Celtics’ new owner, there is a catch. 

New Celtics owner ‘bleeds’ sports

The point is that Chisholm is not completely alien to sports. A native of Boston, he was a member of the men’s varsity soccer team that won Ivy League titles in 1988 and 1990. Forbes quoted Ross Mandell, a friend and former teammate of Chisholm as saying, “Bill helped me push through that tough freshman year and was a role model to many teammates as he went from no playing time freshman year to being an integral part of a two-time Ivy League championship team.” Hold on, that is not all. Chisholm’s connections with the Celtics are also not something to be ignored.

Chisholm had revealed to ESPN’s Shams Charania that he had attended his first Celtics game on his seventh birthday. ” I’ve been a rabid fan ever since. I bleed green. I love the Celtics,” he had said. Indeed, this looks to be an interesting partnership. Irving Grousbeck’s son Wyc Grousbeck, who remains the CEO and governor of the Celtics through the 2027-2028 season, is sounded highly optimistic about the deal.

Bill’s “love for the team and the city of Boston, along with his chemistry with the rest of the Celtics leadership, make him a natural choice to be the next governor and controlling owner of the team,” Grousbeck said in a statement announcing the deal. “I know he appreciates the importance of the Celtics and burns with a passion to win on the court while being totally committed to the community.” This is exactly what the NBA landscape is waiting to find out. Will this new money spell disaster for the sport, or will their huge cash change it for the better? What do you think?