Amazon founder Jeff Bezos could be in the mix to buy the Boston Celtics, according to The Ringer’s Bill Simmons, who said on his podcast on Sunday that the NBA wants the franchise to sell for $6 billion. On July 1, two weeks after winning the 2024 NBA championship, the Celtics announced that their ownership group, led by Wyc Grousbeck, planned to sell the team.
Simmons said he had “a bunch of information” about what he described as “a huge, huge topic right now in the circles of people that would want to buy a team.” Here’s what he told Chuck Klosterman on the podcast:
- Irving Grousbeck, Wyc’s 90-year-old father, is “driving the sale,” Simmons said, and “he just wants the highest price,” so prospective buyers with ties to Boston will not have an edge. In recent days, there has been “legitimate buzz” about Bezos being interested in buying the franchise. “I think it’s real,” he said. “I think he’s going to be one of the suitors.”
- The NBA wants the sell price to be $6 billion. “They don’t own their arena,” Simmons said. “It’s a crazy price, but they’re probably going to get it.”
- Why $6 billion? The league wants to “establish a price” with this sale as a precursor to expansion, according to Simmons. “They want to get $6 billion apiece” in expansion fees for teams in Seattle and Las Vegas, “which would mean a check of $400 million to every NBA owner, all 30,” he said. Simmons also said that Mexico City is “kind of looming as a third team.”
For context, mortgage lender Mat Ishbia bought the Phoenix Suns and the WNBA’s Mercury in 2022 for $4 billion. The Nets and Liberty were valued at $6 billion when owner Joe Tsai sold a minority stake in June.
In February 2023, Bezos hired investment firm Allen & Company to evaluate a potential bid for the NFL’s Washington Commanders, but a group led by Josh Harris ultimately bought the franchise. The Washington Post reported in April 2023 that Bezos had interest in eventually purchasing the Seattle Seahawks.
This offseason, the Celtics signed Jayson Tatum to a five-year contract extension worth $314 million, the largest contract in NBA history. (Before that, the five-year, $285 million extension that Boston’s Jaylen Brown signed in the summer of 2023 was the largest in history.) The team also signed Derrick White to a four-year, $118 million extension. The Celtics’ roster is projected to be historically expensive in the coming years.
