Boston Celtics’ Wyc Grousbeck: The Leadership Interview

“This is a very emotional, very people-driven business. If you’re not a fan yourself, you’re going to have a hard time.”

Growing up in a leafy suburb of Boston, Wyc Grousbeck wanted to play for one of the local sports teams. Instead, he joined a venture capital firm and put together an investment group to buy the Boston Celtics for $360 million in 2002. At the time, Forbes valued the franchise to be worth $218 million—making it the 13th most valuable team in the NBA. In its most recent valuation, in October 2022, Forbes calculated the value to be $4 billion—now fifth among its NBA peers.

Grousbeck, 62, sat down with Forbes to talk about his leadership philosophy as lead owner of an iconic team and explains recent decisions, from the surprise whirlwind trade for star point guard Jrue Holiday announced earlier this week to the record $303.7 million five-year contract extension for Celtics forward Jaylen Brown.

It was not an easy start. Although Grousbeck got a substantial investment from his dad Irving, who cofounded Continental Cablevision (later Media One) in 1963, he had to recruit 20 other investors to do the deal. It wasn’t easy but Grousbeck describes his father’s decision to put in less than he could afford as “really prescient of him and very thoughtful.” It forced him to build trust and establish his leadership from the start.

A Decision of the Heart

“They took a big leap in believing in me as the day-to-day CEO and controlling decision maker,” he says. “I was 41 years old and I had never really had an employee before except a a fantastic assistant who is still here … but I told my partners, ‘This is the last Boston team that’s going to sell in our lifetimes and we’re going to have the time of our lives.’”

“We did it, thinking that the return would be in emotional satisfaction and joy and the heartbreak of losing games.”

Grousbeck says he was secretly negotiating the trade for Holiday while at dinner with Milwaukee Bucks co-owner Wes Edens—who had just traded him away to the Portland Trail Blazers. [Edens is also a co-investor with Grousbeck in Cincoro Tequila, alongside NBA Hall of Famer Michael Jordan, Los Angeles Lakers owner Jeanie Buss and Emilia Fazzalari—Grousbeck’s wife and CEO of the company.]

“Edens had already sent Jrue away to Portland three days before so it was out of his hands,” says Grousbeck, adding that the decision to trade away Malcolm Brogdon and Rob Williams in return was not an easy one. “You don’t get something for nothing … We lost two players in the trade that our fans are going to miss but we gained an All Star.”

Grousbeck does have regrets, as he explains in the video above, and he talks about the correlation between payroll and achievement. He also has strong views on what it takes to be a successful owner.

“This is a very emotional, very people-driven business,” he says. “If you’re not a fan yourself, you’re going to have a hard time partnering with the players, the fans, the team partners and taking it all the way.”