William Chisholm

Celtics Rumors: Holiday, Porzingis, White, Horford, Ownership

March 28th, 2025 at 4:53pm CST by Luke Adams

While no one expects the Celtics to move on from Jayson Tatum or Jaylen Brown anytime soon, there are questions around the league about how long the club can carry one of the NBA’s highest payrolls, subjecting itself to significant luxury tax penalties and onerous second-apron restrictions, writes Jake Fischer of The Stein Line (Substack link).

The general consensus is that the Celtics might be willing to run it back again if they win another title this season. “You can’t break up a team that could be going for a three-peat,” one Western Conference executive told Fischer. But if Boston falls short of a championship? “They’re going to have to trade some guys at some point,” a team capologist said.

According to Fischer, league figures are keeping a close eye on guard Jrue Holiday and big man Kristaps Porzingis as possible trade chips later this year or next. Fischer suggests that guard Derrick White would likely have more trade value than either Porzingis or Holiday if he were made available this summer, but says no one he talked to seems to believe Boston would consider moving White.

If the Celtics do consider trading one of their top five highest-paid players, Holiday could be the most obvious odd man out due to a handful of factors, including his contract (three years and $104.4MM after this season) and Boston’s loaded backcourt.

As Fischer writes, besides White, the Celtics’ depth chart includes Sixth Man of the Year frontrunner Payton Pritchard and rookie Baylor Scheierman, whose development over the course of this season has been viewed by the team as very promising.

Here’s more on the C’s:

Turning Al Horford‘s $9.5MM salary slot into a minimum-salary player next season would help the Celtics with their cap/tax situation, but the club likely wouldn’t welcome that possibility if it means losing Horford. Assuming the big man wants to continue his career, there are rival cap strategists who believe his market could start around the taxpayer mid-level exception ($5.7MM), Fischer writes.
Sixth Street Partners, a private equity firm, has committed more money to William Chisholm‘s ownership bid than Chisholm himself, reports Dan Primack of Axios. That’s not permitted by NBA rules, which allow private equity firms to hold up to a 20% stake in a team as long as their share is less than that of the controlling owner (which must be at least 15%).
In Primack’s view, Chisholm’s two options are to be granted some sort of waiver by the NBA to get around that rule or to bring in enough new investors that Sixth Street’s full check is no longer necessary and they’re contributing less to the bid than Chisholm. Silver said on Thursday that the option of a waiver isn’t being discussed, according to Fischer. “Not at all,” he said. “And while the deal in a preliminary fashion has just been presented to the league, at this time there’s no contemplation of changing our ownership rules.”
Fischer also asked Silver on Thursday about the reported arrangement between Chisholm and outgoing owner Wyc Grousbeck that would keep Grousbeck in the CEO and governor positions through 2028. As Fischer notes, it sounds similar to what Mark Cuban wanted when he sold the Mavericks, but in that instance it wasn’t put into writing and didn’t happen. “I think the Grousbeck family and the buyer are still working through those arrangements on exactly how that would work in terms of CEO roles and governor roles during some transition,” Silver said. “I think the situation was very different in Dallas. There was a clear change in control of the franchise to Patrick Dumont and his family. Any decision as to what Mark’s role would be in basketball operations was a function of an arrangement to be made between Mark Cuban and Patrick. The ultimate governance was absolutely clear, as presented to our board, that the last word on any basketball activities or any significant decision for the franchise would be made by Patrick.”
In his latest mailbag, Brian Robb of MassLive answers questions about Luke Kornet‘s upcoming free agency, the best first-round playoff opponent for the Celtics, and the ownership transition.

Celtics Sale Notes: Chisholm, Financing, Valuation, More

March 25th, 2025 at 10:22am CST by Luke Adams

Although William Chisholm has reached a tentative agreement to buy a controlling stake in the Celtics, the NBA’s Board of Governors vote to approve the sale isn’t expected to happen until June, according to Dan Primack of Axios (hat tip to Brian Robb of MassLive.com).

That will give Chisholm some time to recruit additional investors, since his bid for the franchise isn’t fully financed, Primack writes. A report from Kerry A. Dolan of Forbes seems to corroborate this point, noting that Chisholm offered another billionaire an opportunity to buy a stake in the Celtics last Thursday.

Primack suggests that Chisholm’s best route to secure additional financing may be to reach out to the other three groups who were involved in the bidding process. Those groups are headed by Dan Friedkin, Stan Middleman, and current Celtics minority owner Steve Pagliuca.

However, according to Primack, Friedkin may already be moving on to pursuing an NHL expansion team in Houston. As for Pagliuca, his group’s bid was fully financed, so he may prefer to hold firm as a potential Plan B if Chisholm’s bid falls through rather than joining Chisholm’s group himself.

Primack also notes that Middleman’s offer came in below Chisholm’s but above Pagliuca’s. There has been no indication that offer was fully financed.

Here’s more on the Celtics’ impending sale:

While the initial valuation of the franchise is said to be $6.1 billion for the controlling stake, the agreement calls for the valuation to rise to about $7.3 billion by the time Chisholm’s group buys out the remaining shares in 2028, according to Primack, who adds that the weighted price would work out to approximately $6.7 billion.
Wyc Grousbeck‘s desire to remain in place as the Celtics’ CEO and governor until 2028 was dropped as a mandatory requirement at some point during the sale process, but Chisholm “smartly recognized” the value of agreeing to that condition when he made his offer, writes Primack. According to Axios, the terms of Pagliuca’s fully financed bid didn’t include Grousbeck retaining his CEO position.
Primack suggests that the high price tag for the Celtics may reduce the likelihood of the NBA expanding to cities like Seattle or Las Vegas in the near future. As he explains, with the Celtics sale resetting the market for franchise valuations, other team owners may be able to get an influx of cash by selling small stakes in their teams rather than relying on expansion fees. Adding one or more expansion franchises to the league would result in a substantial one-time payment for existing teams, but would dilute each club’s share of media rights revenue going forward.

Celtics Notes: New Owner, Horford, Kornet, Hauser, Pritchard, Mazzulla

March 22nd, 2025 at 7:27pm CST by Arthur Hill

The record-setting $6.1 billion purchase price for the Celtics is just the beginning of William Chisholm‘s investment in the franchise. As Jay King of The Athletic notes, Chisholm is taking over a team with a massive salary and huge expectations that will become even more expensive if the core of the roster is kept together.

Boston’s payroll is projected to be in the neighborhood of $445MM next season in salaries and luxury tax, per John Hollinger of The Athletic. That’s without free agents Al Horford and Luke Kornet, who would push that total higher if they’re both re-signed.

As players waited out the sale process, Jayson Tatum talked about the importance of finding a new owner who understands “the culture” and Jaylen Brown expressed the need to “keep the emphasis on winning.” Both statements reflect the necessity for continued spending for the Celtics to remain at a championship level, as King adds that the fanbase will quickly turn on the new owner if talent is sacrificed to save money.

“That’s something that they’ll have to figure out,” Horford said. “Ultimately, they’ll be the new owners of the team, they’ll have to make those decisions. But this is my 18th season in the league and there are very few times when you get a special group or a certain window of guys that you can do some special things. So I’m sure that they will be aware of that but that’s something that you have to understand what you’re stepping into.”

There’s more from Boston:

Bobby Marks of ESPN believes the roster is “sustainable” for the near future, even with the giant tax bills (Twitter video link). Marks points out that the Celtics have 11 players under contract for next season — including Tatum and Brown, who are both signed to long-term deals — and they’ll have two picks in the top 32 of this year’s draft. However, he adds that it could be hard to keep complementary players like Sam Hauser and Payton Pritchard long-term because of the effect they’ll have on the luxury tax.
Coach Joe Mazzulla came away encouraged from his first meeting with the new owner, according to Adam Himmeslbach of The Boston Globe. Chisholm, a Massachusetts native and life-long Celtics fan, pledged to build on the team’s recent success. “Just continue to win championships, continue to be a high-level organization on and off the court, and he obviously has a lot of experience doing that in other endeavors,” Mazzulla said. “So just continuing to work to make the Celtics better, and then kind of give us a shot every year to go after a championship. So I’m excited about that.”
Chisholm expressed similar sentiments to Shams Charania of ESPN (Twitter links). “The team is in a great place right now, and I’m very sensitive to that,” he said. (Current owner) Wyc (Grousbeck), (president of basketball operations) Brad (Stevens) and Joe have done amazing jobs. … My approach is to win and raise banners. That’s in the near term and the long term. I bleed green. I love the Celtics. When opportunity came up, I couldn’t pass it up. Wyc has done an incredible job. So why would you mess that up? I’ve had a couple of sitdowns with Brad and it’s been about aligning our goals and extending the window of this team.”
Eric Fisher of Front Office Sports examines the record price tag, attributing it to the scarcity of pro sports franchises for sale and the NBA’s new media rights deal.

Celtics’ Grousbeck Talks Tax Aprons, Sale, Chisholm, Arena

March 21st, 2025 at 11:01pm CST by Luke Adams

Celtics governor Wyc Grousbeck has agreed to sell his controlling stake in the franchise, but the plan is for Grousbeck to remain in his current position with the team through the 2027/28 season, collaborating with William Chisholm and his investors as the defending champions transition to a new ownership group.

A major part of that transition will involve determining how long to maintain one of the NBA’s highest payrolls. The Celtics are operating over the second tax apron, restricting their ability to make certain roster moves and ensuring that their 2032 draft pick will become “frozen” this offseason, making it ineligible to be traded.

According to Grousbeck, those roster-related restrictions imposed on teams operating above the second apron are of greater concern than the prospect of repeatedly pay substantial luxury tax bills.

“It’s not the luxury tax bill, it’s the basketball penalties,” Grousbeck said during a WEEI appearance when asked about the Celtics’ ability to remain well above the tax line (story via Brian Robb of MassLive.com). “The new CBA was designed by the league to stop teams from going crazy. They decided that it’s not good enough to go after the wallets because the fans can be like, ‘Hey find someone who can afford to spend $500 million dollars a year or whatever it is, like the English Premier League. I know seven guys who own Premier League teams in England with no spending caps and most of them don’t know what the hell is going on.”

“The basketball penalties mean that it’s even more of a premium now to have your basketball general manager be brilliant and lucky,” Grousbeck continued. “Because you have to navigate because you can’t stay in the second apron, nobody will, I predict, for the next 40 years of the CBA, no one is going to stay in the second apron more than two years.”

This is the second consecutive season the Celtics have been in second-apron territory, so Grousbeck’s comments about the sustainability of that approach are eyebrow-raising.

Of course, it’s worth noting that not all of the apron-related penalties had been implemented during the 2023/24 season, so a third season above the second apron might be more viable for the Celtics or another team in ’25/26 than it would be going forward. Still, based on Grousbeck’s remarks, it sounds like some cost-cutting could be in Boston’s future.

Here are a few more noteworthy comments from Grousbeck’s media appearances this week:

On how the Celtics, specifically, plan to navigate the second apron in the short term:
(via Robb)

“We have Brad Stevens, the reigning Executive of The Year, and thank God we do. He’s the one who really brought us this championship with his brilliant moves –along with many other people — but Brad is at the forefront. He’s looking at this and is going to extend our window and make it work. We’ll find out in June or July what we’re going to do.”

On what he told Stevens, head coach Joe Mazzulla, and stars Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown about the sale:
(via Sanjesh Singh of NBC Sports Boston)

“I’ve actually talked to Jayson, Jaylen, Joe and Brad and said, ‘Just so you know…these small group of finalists are all great and they can all do the job, and we won’t let it go to anybody who would fall short of that.’ I told them basically just a few days ago when I saw them all at practice, ‘It’s OK. Don’t put it on your mind. Take it off your mind if you can. Because we’ve got you, this is going to go fine.’

“They said, ‘We trust you.’ Jayson Tatum literally looked at me and said, “I trust you, Wyc. Got it.’ And with good reason, hopefully, that he trusts me. Everything’s good on that front.”

On what advice he has given to Chisholm:
(via Singh)

“Be yourself. You are a fan. The fans are going to love you. We’re not going to win every game together. They want to see that you care, that you’re a fan who bought the team. That’s our group here, we’re fans who bought this team. You’re a fan who’s buying in…we’re going to be fans who’s running this team for Celtic pride on and off the court…When you do that, everything else follows.”

On why there are no plans to build a new arena that the Celtics would own:
(via Robb of MassLive.com)

“It’s not broken over there, and we have a great partnership with (the Jacobs family, which owns the Boston Bruins and the TD Garden). Honestly, there’s room for one arena in Boston, not two. Because you need to have concerts and events to fill out the bill. And if we ever talked to the Jacobs, we all decided to renovate the Garden very seriously – there have been huge, hundreds of millions of dollars of renovations. But if we ever decide to do anything, I’m sure we’d do it together and have both teams playing there.

“It shouldn’t be on everybody’s mind. We’ve got a lease in the Garden until, like, the 2030s, and we’ve got a good partnership with them, and we’ll both upgrade whatever we need to do to keep the fans happy, because we’re fans ourselves.”

More Details On Celtics’ Impending Sale

March 20th, 2025 at 12:20pm CST by Rory Maher

In a press release via Business Wire, Boston Basketball Partners LLC officially confirmed that it has reached an agreement to sell its majority stake in the Celtics at a record valuation of $6.1 billion to a group led by William (Bill) Chisholm.

Other members of the new group include current minority owner Robert Hale, Bruce A. Beal Jr., and Sixth Street, a private equity firm.

Sixth Street, which also purchased a stake in the Spurs in 2021, will invest more than $1 billion in the Celtics, a source tells Mike Vorkunov, Jay King and Jared Weiss of The Athletic.

The impending sale still needs to be approved by the NBA’s Board of Governors. According to The Athletic’s trio, the transaction is expected to take a few months to be finalized.

“Bill is a terrific person and a true Celtics fan, born and raised here in the Boston area,” Wyc Grousbeck said. “His 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. 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. Quite simply, he wants to be a great owner. He has asked me to run the team as CEO and Governor for the first three years, and stay on as his partner, and I am glad to do so.”

“Growing up on the North Shore and attending college in New England, I have been a die-hard Celtics fan my entire life,” Chisholm said in his own statement. “I understand how important the Celtics are to the city of Boston – the role the team plays in the community is different than any other city in the country. I also understand that there is a responsibility as a leader of the organization to the people of Boston, and I am up for this challenge.

“My partners and I have immense respect for Wyc, the entire Grousbeck family and their indelible contributions to the Celtics organization over the last 23 years. We look forward to learning from Wyc and partnering with Brad Stevens, Joe Mazzulla and the talented team and staff to build upon their success as we work to bring more championships home to Boston.”

Stevens, Boston’s president of basketball operations, met with four prospective ownership groups in the month preceding the sale, sources tell The Athletic. A group led by another current minority owner, Steve Pagliuca, had been considered the frontrunner to purchase the team, per The Athletic’s report. However, Pagliuca released a statement (via Twitter) confirming his bid was unsuccessful.

“I recruited new partners with deep resources and expertise in technology and international markets to maximize the Celtics’ successes to ensure we can always compete for Championships, luxury taxes be damned,” Pagliuca said in part. “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.

“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. It is a bid of true fans, deeply connected to Boston’s community and we’ve been saddened to find out that we have not been selected in the process.”

Celtics’ Controlling Stake To Be Sold For $6.1 Billion

March 20th, 2025 at 9:20am CST by Dana Gauruder

9:37am: The new ownership group also includes minority owner Robert Hale, Himmelsbach tweets.

9:20am: The Celtics are being sold to William Chisholm for a valuation of $6.1 billion, a new record for a controlling stake in a North American sports franchise, Scott Soshnick of Sportico reports (via Twitter).

Chisholm is the managing director and co-founder of Symphony Technology Group, a California-based private equity firm, Adam Himmelsbach of the Boston Globe reports. Chisholm is a Massachusetts native and lifelong Celtics fan. His involvement in the bidding was first reported last week.

The Celtics’ sale of $6.1 billion surpasses the NFL’s Washington Commanders ($6.05 billion) for the highest sum ever for a North America sports team, ESPN’s Shams Charania tweets.

Celtics co-owner Wyc Grousbeck is expected to remain governor through the ownership transition. He’ll remain in that role, continuing to oversee the team’s operations, through the 2027/28 season, Mike Vorkunov of The Athletic tweets.

The Grousbeck family expected a handful of bids for the franchise during the sales process. The Grousbeck family announced last July 1 that it was putting the team up for sale, just a few weeks after the Celtics won their 18th championship.

The Grousbeck family said then that it intended to sell 51 percent of the team in late 2024 or early 2025. The Grousbeck family is selling the team for estate and family planning considerations.

The sales price is a huge jump from the amount paid by Grousbeck 20-plus years ago. Grousbeck founded and led the group, Boston Basketball Partners L.L.C., which bought the Celtics for $360MM in 2002.

Four Groups Identified As Bidders For Celtics

March 12th, 2025 at 2:51pm CST by Luke Adams

Four prospective ownership groups remain involved in bidding for the Celtics and have taken part in management presentations with the team, according to a report from Eben Novy-Williams and Scott Soshnick of Sportico.

Here are those four groups, per Sportico’s reporting:

Steve Pagliuca‘s group: Pagliuca is a current minority stakeholder in the Celtics who has expressed interest throughout the process in assuming majority control of the franchise. Sportico reported on Tuesday that he was a “near certainty” to be involved in the second round of bidding and was considered by some industry sources to be the frontrunner.
The Friedkin Group: Described by Sportico as “a privately held consortium based in Texas,” The Friedkin Group has holdings that include a pair of soccer clubs, AS Roma in Italy and Everton in the English Premier League. Dan Friedkin, the owner and CEO, is reportedly worth $7.5 billion.
Stan Middleman‘s group: Middleman, the president and CEO of Freedom Mortgage, bought a minority stake in MLB’s Philadelphia Phillies in 2023 and has explored pursuing majority control of other sports franchises, including the Cleveland Guardians and Washington Nationals, according to Sportico.
Bill Chisholm‘s group: Chisholm, whose involvement was first reported by Bloomberg, is the co-founder, managing partner, and chief investment officer of Symphony Technology Group, which manages about $10 billion in assets, per Sportico.

The Celtics’ majority ownership group first announced last July that it would be putting control of the franchise up for sale. The plan laid out at that time was to sell a majority share (ie. 51%) of the team in late 2024 or early 2025, with Celtics governor Wyc Grousbeck remaining in his current role until the balance of the sale is completed in 2028.

It’s unclear whether or not that’s still the plan, according to Novy-Williams and Soshnick, who note that the messiness of the Timberwolves’ ownership transfer prompted commissioner Adam Silver to suggest that the league may try to avoid sales that play out in multiple stages going forward.

The deadline for potential buyers to submit their initial offers was January 23. A second round of revised bids is reportedly due this Friday.

It’s not yet known whether the four groups involved in the process are fully funded or exactly how much they’re willing to offer for a controlling stake in the defending NBA champions, Novy-Williams and Soshnick write. During the site’s latest round of NBA franchise valuations, Sportico estimated that the Celtics are worth $5.66 billion.