New Celtics owner Bill Chisholm
vows to 'do whatever it takes' to win championships
[September 26, 2025]
By JIMMY GOLEN
BOSTON (AP) — The Boston Celtics are expecting a smooth ownership
transition — and not just because much of the old brain trust is
sticking around.
New owner Bill Chisholm says he isn't going to mess with the success
of the people who won two NBA championships in their 23 years in
charge.
“Let’s do whatever we can to win championships and raise banners,
and raise as many as we can,” he said in a news conference on
Thursday, flanked by former lead owner Wyc Grousbeck, incumbent
president Rich Gotham and president of basketball operations Brad
Stevens. “I will do whatever it takes, whatever the Boston Celtics
need me to do.”
A Massachusetts native who made his money in private equity,
Chisholm leads a group that will pay at least $6.1 billion for the
Celtics — at the time, a record price for an American professional
sports franchise; the NBA unanimously approved the deal last month.
He told reporters on Thursday that the opportunity to buy into his
favorite team was too good to pass up.
“The Celtics have brought me joy my entire life,” he said. “I feel
like I have something to add here. This was an opportunity that was
a dream that came true. For me to have this chance, I would never
forgive myself if I didn’t go for it.”
Grousbeck will stay on
Grousbeck and co-owner Steve Pagliuca led a group that bought the
Celtics in 2002 for $360 million and presided over an era in which
the Celtics won two NBA titles, lost in the Finals two other times
and made the playoffs in 20 of 23 seasons. The team’s most recent
title came in 2024, led by Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown.

Grousbeck said he will continue with the team as the CEO for five
years — with no plans to leave after that. His ownership share will
dip below the 15% required for him to continue as the team’s
designated governor for league matters, though, so he will serve as
alternate governor.
“I’m staying in, shoulder-to-shoulder with Bill,” he said. “I want a
third ring. And then I want a fourth ring. I’ve got two, it’s a nice
start.”
In all, Grousbeck said, more than half of the old ownership group
will be sticking around, along with Stevens, Gotham and coach Joe
Mazzulla.
But there should be no question who is in charge.
“There’s a governor, and the governor has the final say, and that’s
me,” Chisholm said. “Ultimately, I’m the one responsible.”
‘Boston should have a (WNBA) team’
Chisholm said he supported the idea of a WNBA team in Boston.
The Connecticut Sun are for sale, and Pagliuca offered to buy them
and move them to Boston. (Pagliuca also made an offer for the
Celtics but was outbid by Chisholm.)
But the league nixed the deal, saying cities that had already
applied for expansion teams were a higher priority.
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Boston Celtics owner Bill Chisholm, seated right, applauds during
the first half in game 2 of a first-round NBA playoff basketball
series against the Orlando Magic, April 23, 2025, in Boston. (AP
Photo/Charles Krupa, File)

“It’s definitely something we’re going to look at.
And I know the (WNBA) has a process,” Chisholm said. “We’ll do what
we can to expedite things. There’s a process there. But
philosophically it makes so much sense.”
Chisholm also sounded like he wasn't eager to move out of TD Garden,
which the Celtics share with the NHL's Boston Bruins, saying “we've
got a great thing going right now.”
“I really like the Boston Garden, personally. More importantly, the
team and the players really like the Boston Garden. And equally
important, the fans really like the Boston Garden. So that’s a
starting point,” he said. “The second thing is I think the Celtics
and the Bruins belong together."
Meet co-owner Aditya Mittal
Also meeting the media on Thursday was Aditya Mittal, the son of one
of India’s richest men and the CEO of a ArcelorMittal, the
second-largest steel-producing company in the world. He said he
first visited Boston in the 1980s and attended a Celtics game at the
old Boston Garden.
“It was magical,” he said. “I fell in love with it.”
The Celtics' future is complicated by the salary cap
Chisholm takes over the team in a bit of a transition just two
seasons after its latest title.
Tatum is recovering from surgery to repair the ruptured right
Achilles tendon he suffered in Boston’s Eastern Conference semifinal
loss to the New York Knicks, dooming the Celtics’ hopes of a repeat.
And in order to avoid the second apron penalties of the NBA’s salary
tax, the Celtics traded Jrue Holiday and Kristaps Porzingis — key
parts of the title-winning team – this summer. Grousbeck said those
deals would have happened even if the team wasn’t sold.
Stevens said the deals weren’t about the financial penalties as much
as the roster restrictions: If Boston had been over the second apron
at the time, it would not have been able to acquire Porzingis,
Holiday or Derrick White in the first place.
“You have to give yourself the flexibility and opportunity to jump
at the right deals. You don’t always know when those are present
themselves,” Stevens said. “So the second apron was the key.”

Chisholm said his message to the basketball operations crew is
“Let’s go for it, but let’s do it in a reasonable way.”
“The flexibility the Brad talks about, I think that’s paramount to
doing that," he said. "But, ultimately, we’re going to do everything
we can to win. It’s job No. 1.”
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