Speculation that Jeff Bezos was in play to buy the Boston Celtics lasted about as long as it takes to get a fast delivery from Amazon.com. As in overnight.
The buzz for Bezos is gone, apparently, even if the idea made some sense. The man has a net worth of somewhere in the neighborhood of $200 billion, and part of the fun of being a many-times-over billionaire is buying mansions that are right out of “The Queen of Versailles,” building spaceships and owning professional sports franchises.
If for no other reason than his ability to use the spare change in his pants pockets to meet the Celtics’ ever-expanding payroll, Bezos would have been well-received by Celtics fans. But with him or without him, the Celtics are going to be sold. The last specks of green confetti were still settling on Boylston Street from the Celtics’ rolling-rally victory parade when the for-sale sign went up, and ever since, the speculation has been as wild as the after-party.
One day it’s John Henry, the principal owner of the Red Sox. Steve Pagliuca, who already owns a piece of the Celtic action, has made it clear he’s interested in acquiring the biggest piece. And there was Bezos, until there wasn’t.
Jason McIntyre has quite the theory about why Bill Simmons reported on Jeff Bezos and the Boston Celtics… pic.twitter.com/P1PhMcLleV
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What type of owner(s) would best serve Celtics fans? Here’s my pitch: Think local. And before you penalize me with a provinciality red card, what I mean are local sensibilities, not necessarily local roots.
The point here is not to be so picayune as to expect the next Celtics owner(s) to have been born and raised in West Roxbury, to have been educated at Boston Latin and to claim to have been present at the old Boston Garden the day Bobby Orr put the puck past Glenn Hall. But local sensibilities? That’s just as important.
To make the point, let’s use the current ownership of the Red Sox. On the surface, principal owner John Henry and chairman Tom Werner are exhibits A and B for those wishing to make the case that you don’t need local owners to run a successful big-league sports franchise. Henry was born in Illinois, Werner is from New York City. They weren’t dancing on the field on that fantastic final day of the 1967 season when the “Impossible Dream” Red Sox toppled the Minnesota Twins. But Henry and Werner did have the late Larry Lucchino as their president and CEO, and Lucchino, from the streets of Pittsburgh, had the intellect and the soul to grasp the Boston Baseball Experience.
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Maybe it was because in a crucial earlier chapter in his life, Lucchino came to Boston to beat his cancer diagnosis. Maybe he simply transferred his love of Pittsburgh’s beloved-but-long-gone Forbes Field to still-breathing-but-in-need-of-help Fenway Park. Bottom line: Whatever your feelings about the current state of affairs with the Red Sox, Lucchino laid out a blueprint that led to three World Series championships (during his tenure) and a sparkling, revitalized Fenway Park.
I believe Wyc Grousbeck and Pagliuca brought those sensibilities to the Celtics. They are business people first and foremost, answering to partners, sponsors and the NBA hierarchy, but they’ve always been visible in the good times (which is easy) and, more importantly, visible and accountable when things haven’t gone well (which isn’t easy at all).
Remember, these well-heeled fanboys traveled to Washington, D.C., to kiss the ring of Celtics patriarch Red Auerbach when they bought the team. Grousbeck and Pagliuca always got it, something that should never be assumed when newly minted ownership is handed the keys to your team.
The reality is that the Celtics will be sold to the group that pushes the biggest bag of cash to the middle of the table. And it won’t make a bit of difference if these people refer to the North End as Little Italy, or Boston Common as “Boston Commons.” What does matter is that the next ownership does include somebody with local sensibilities.
Yes, it’s a plus if the owners are local and have local sensibilities. That’s what Robert Kraft had on his resume when he purchased the Patriots in 1994. He was sufficiently fanboyish as to apply his childhood loss of the old Boston Braves baseball team to this mission to keep the Patriots from being uprooted and moved to St. Louis, but possessed the business savvy to outflank James Orthwein by buying up Foxboro Stadium and the land around the stadium, thereby making Orthwein’s ownership untenable.
Local sensibilities. That’s the key. It’s what the late George Steinbrenner had when he purchased the New York Yankees, even if his methods were often brazen and his judgment sometimes flawed. (Frank Costanza: “What the hell did you trade Jay Buhner for!?) But Steinbrenner was a big fella from Cleveland who brought a New York swagger to a fan base that for generations expected nothing but the best.
Whatever happens with the Celtics, the ramifications may not be felt for several years. This is a team coming off its 18th NBA championship and positioned to secure banners 19 and 20. Beyond that, who knows? The next owners will take the credit or take the fall. Given the history of the Celtics and all they’ve accomplished, and what they represent, the pending sale of the franchise looms as one of the most important Boston sports news stories of the 21st century.
The Patriots struck gold with Kraft, the kid from 93 Fuller Street in Brookline. The Red Sox struck gold with Henry and Werner, but with a big assist from the kid from Pittsburgh who grew up cheering for the Buccos at Forbes Field.
The Celtics are on the clock.
(Photo: Chandan Khanna / AFP via Getty Images)
