The Celtics, whose controlling owners put the franchise up for sale in 2024, were expected to receive four or five bids last month from prospective ownership groups before narrowing those interested parties down to a smaller group of finalists.
Bill Simmons of The Ringer (hat tip to MassLive) indicated last week that Jeffrey Lurie, the owner of the NFL’s Philadelphia Eagles, was among those finalists, but Lurie suggested to reporters on Monday that’s not the case.
“No, I’m not really interested in acquiring another sports team,” Lurie said, per Ben Volin of The Boston Globe. “I would never say never, but I’m not looking to own another sports franchise. The Celtics, again, are exceptional. They’re so well run. They’re so talented. It’s my childhood team. However, I do not expect that to happen.”
As Volin writes, Lurie grew up in the Boston area and sold an 8% share of the Eagles in December, generating $600MM+ as a result of that sale. That fueled speculation that he was gearing up to invest in the Celtics, but Lurie said on Monday that he remains focused on the Eagles.
“I think it’s connected because they’re my childhood team,” Lurie said. “I’ve got a tremendous amount of respect for their whole culture. I sort of see it as like a kindred soul in the NBA. Wyc [Grousbeck] has been an outstanding owner, I love the way they’ve developed that team and we’ve got to celebrate so many banners over the years. [But] it’s not something that’s top of mind. My whole focus is on my love of the Eagles and to win another Super Bowl for Philadelphia.”
Current Celtics co-owner Steve Pagliuca was said to be spearheading a consortium that was interesting in taking over majority control of the team. Another current minority stakeholder, Robert Hale, expressed interest in becoming majority owner or joining a group in October, and said in the lead-up to the January 23 deadline that he was “still hanging around the hoop.”
Mark Bezos, the founding partner of HighPost Capital private equity group and the half-brother of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, was also believed to be among the possible bidders.