REACTION: The NBA board of governors approves the sale of the Celtics to Bill Chisholm

REACTION: The NBA board of governors approves the sale of the Celtics to Bill Chisholm

It is official. Bill Chisum is now the governor, unanimously approved governor of the Boston Celtics. So So I I don’t think it’s it’s done yet. It was approved by the board of governors. It’s approved. It’s the the last line is the transactions expected to close shortly. Okay. It’s barring any uh any calamity. Yes. Barring anything chaotic, it’s going to be Bill Chisum as the guy and Wick Gross Gbeck as alternate governor if you listen to the story yesterday. And now it makes sense because that release is who that release is from the NBA. That was from the NBA. Yep. Okay. So, the league has okayed the sale. I know there were some loose questions about that. The league has okayed the sale. All right. Now, it makes sense. I’m just speculating here. Let me just speculate. This is what happened. Sham Sharana uh has a source has many sources source in the NBA uh in the front office or the just the higher the higher regions of the of the NBA industrial complex. Okay, he’s got sources. Source says to him, “Hey, this just just so you know, this Celtics thing is going to go down and Bill Chisum is going to be the governor, not Wick Geck.” And so he reports, “Wick out.” Okay, now maybe that was a little maybe it’s a little speedy on the tweet. Wick out. And I’m telling you, I have never seen such a flurry of activity locally and nationally to come up and clean. We got to we got to put the proper context on this. No, no, no, no, no, no. Wick’s not out. Wick’s still a part of it. This is always the plan. He’s going to be the alternate governor. He’s going to be the CEO. Like, wait a minute. What the hell’s going on here? It’s just like a a a barrage of reports and clarifications and contextualizations. Okay, listen. If it’s not a big deal, why are you guys making a big deal to clarify this? I think it surprised Grossbeck that Shams got it before they could put out the announcement. They would like a lot of things, like a lot of things, people uh people who are in the news want the news on their terms. They want it announced on their terms so they can manage it and give it a nice soft landing or whatever it is. And when it gets out before they want it to get out, they start to freak out a little bit. So, I think that’s what happened. I think it was a little bit of aense. I think it was a little bit of a freakout uh yesterday because the news topped out before folks were ready for it to come out. So, you said something um yesterday that I hadn’t heard about the was it 15% 15%. You have to have at least 15% in order to be the to be the controlling governor or whatever. And Wick is not at 15%. So might it be the reason why this sort of dragged a little bit because that’s what they wanted that maybe like Wick wanted to sort of run the team and why did he but the the NBA said yeah that’s great but you can’t do it with such a small stake. So they had to get that figured out and now but he still can’t but he’s still not at 15 right? So he’s at slightly under 15 according to Ramona, which is weird. Yeah. Now it’s it’s this is a big game. This is how great business has been though because you pointed out you made an excellent point yesterday off the air because you’re an enhancer of talent since 2000. And since 2000, you’re enhancer of talent. You don’t want to make the points. Let other people make the points on the air. You’ll just make it off the air so we can get to it. Wick as the as the owner, and I’m putting that in quotes because we know it was, you know, dad was the family had like 23%. He had actually like anywhere from 1.5 to 3% depending on who you talk to. As the owner of the Celtics, he had less than he has now after selling the franchise. That’s because business has been good. They came in at like $275 million buying the franchise and they sell it at $6.1 billion. I think that’s a good I’m not great at math. That’s a pretty good return on investment. So you take the money that you earn and you kind of throw it back in there and say, “Give me my 15% almost, right?” And and life is pretty good. So he has that. But that’s not what I’m I’m more I’m more interested in this. Paul and Alex, why would Bill Chisum buy a team and want somebody else to run it for three years if that’s what he wanted or two years or a year or three weeks? Why buy the team? That’s what I want to know. Like what? I don’t think he did want that. And I don’t think it’s a coincidence that he’s slightly under 15%. That’s too Say more. I like what you’re saying. That’s coincident. That’s too coincidental to me. Why? If you need 15% to be this controlling governor. Yeah. And he comes in at just under 15%. I mean, maybe it’s a coincidence, but my guess is Bill Chisum wanted to make sure he was under 15%. And No, no, no, no. I I I bought the team. I paid $6.1 billion. I I’m the controlling governor. Or or I I didn’t pay 6.1, but I got this I got this group together. I got the group together because and you know there there’s a lot there’s a lot to um I’m I’m telling you the financial reporters there’s a lot to get into with where the money is coming from to come up with this $6.1 billion. So so that was the other thing right there were some questions about was Chis going to have the capital and there’s private equity involved the NBA limits private equity birth. Yep. So, the other thing just on on Wick, because it’s similar to what happened with Mark Cuban with the Mavericks a few years ago where there was this deal where he was going to stay on and run the team after the sale and then that evaporated. Is this just maybe some negotiating point that these guys use in these sort of deals where I’m going to stay on, right? I’m going to sell you the team. I’m going to stay on, but then it’s all right. Well, you’re buying the team. What do you do for me to get me off sooner, right? To to to have me leave this role sooner or something like Yeah, that’s a that’s a good point because I I look at the structure and just say it applies to any sport. Just think of any sport where there are co- people in char like co- general managers, co-owners, co- what the structure doesn’t work. I I don’t I can’t think of any situation where you look at you want to go to somebody for accountability and they say, “Well, it’s not just me. It’s it’s both of us. Now, family businesses are different. Like with the Patriots, it’s the crafts, but we know it’s it’s Robert and Jonathan. But are they are they doing this together? Are they both making joint decisions? I I don’t know. I I I can’t think of a sit of a successful setup where it’s two people who are not in the same family making decisions about a franchise because you know what that structure that split thing that co-owner co-governor thing leads itself to divisions. Yeah. Clicks. Um somebody has to have the final say. Yeah. Very very awkward. uh difficult disagreements. I just I don’t think a a championship organization I can’t think of a championship organization where that works. There’s somebody out there who’s listening saying, “Oh, yeah. Well, you forgot about this one.” But I can’t I really can’t. I have a long-term question here. Is is if Chisum has say 16%. And I hope that we find out the percentages of ownership and Wick has slightly under 15. So say 14% 14.97. Is this a long-term play where Wick gets to 17% by 2030 in the same way that my understanding is Pags bought more and more shares over time. He bought out other owners where he became number two to Irv uh in the ownership group. So could Wick be long playing it so that he ultimately in 2030 becomes the the controlling equity owner? Can’t let go. Uh-huh. Can’t let it go. No, it’s pretty clear he doesn’t want to. Yeah, he didn’t want to. He didn’t want to. He was surprised by this when Irv put the team up for sale. And so where does uh where does Pags where does Pags land? He’s buying a WNBA team. Well, he’s trying to got competition for that, but and it’s not clear on this because I saw him do an interview. It was a great interview. I think it was Bloomberg or some uh some intern Bloomberg International. Uh this is about a month ago and it’s great setting. He’s sitting out there talking to this guy. He’s talking about his soccer team, which is pretty successful. And talking about basketball, tried to buy the NHL in like ’05. He said he’s still a partner. He’s still a partner with the Celtics. Now, is that true? Is he Well, until the sale is closed to Chisum officially, that is accurate, I believe. So, but then when Chisum buys a team, is Pags not going to be associated with the Celtics anymore? This is why this percentage thing needs to come out. I need to know who has shares in the team going forward so I can appropriately criticize as needed. It’s a lot. It’s a it’s a it’s a lot a lot going on behind the scenes there. But uh but the news is that you say that. Michael, are you sitting on a piece of information? Well, you know, what do you mean by that? You know, you know big game James. Did your Apple Watch go off mask? You know, you know big game James. You know, you had certain things as a as a reporter, you have to get multiple sources and you have to check. Oh, Michael, between two and six today, uh, one source, brown check mark, sir. Listen, I’ll let you be the brown I You are You are a brilliant brown check mark guy. I’ll let you I’ll let you be the brown check mark guy. I’m gonna just keep working this thing. You and your integrity, silly you. That’s going too far. Integrity. No, I’m not I never claim to have great integrity, but yeah, something something is just a little off here. Do I have to tune in at 10:00 tonight for Boston Sports Tonight with Holly? Or or give me a call tomorrow. Breaking news sound. Give me a call tomorrow. Maybe I’ll do the uh do the breaking news here. And and in the meantime, on top of all that, the Celtics are the first Amazon Prime game, which is going to send Felgar into a frenzy. a game. They’re gonna be the first team on the internet, right? Gota log in. But that’s one of We will have more on that coming up. But that’s one of the easy ones, isn’t it? That’s one of the easy ones. I mean, no, Amazon’s kind of because you have to go you have to navigate through the whole Amazon app, not just the Amazon one always bugs me. They’ve come a long way since their first foray into Thursday Night Football when when they like that first year at Thursday Night Football. Terrible, brutal, awful. So, I I hate them all. Not necessarily because of the the quality of pitcher or anything like that, but it’s just I don’t like being locked in. I want to move around. Right. You want to move around and and you I don’t I don’t watch commercials. Yeah. Just jumping out. Yeah. Remember the first year? Um and I think they’ve changed this. That first year it was that same damn Kevin Hart commercial. Oh, yeah. I mean, yes. It was the same. Do you have a variation on this commercial? Can you change it up a little bit? It’s the same one. He’s sitting on the couch. He’s doing that. Can you change the outfit? Can you do something? Can you change the channel when you’re streaming by accident? Yes. All the time. Drives me crazy all the time. I fig I just figured I was the only dinosaur around and I do it because I’m, you know, fiddling around. You get the two TV setup going. That’s the way to do it. Yeah. Some of us, you know, don’t necessarily have those luxuries. Those those res You got those resources. Come on. That that is I couldn’t afford two TVs, but I don’t have a room with like multiple screens. Yes, you do. At the stadium, you probably got like At the stadium, you probably got like 10 10 12 TVs, all kinds of

Felger and Mazz, with Michael Holley, Paul Perillo and Alex Barth filling in, react to the NBA board of governors approving the sale of the Celtics.

Thumbnail photo courtesy of USA Today Sports.

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