Jeff Bezos Reportedly Not Interested In Pursuing Celtics Ownership
There are very few people worldwide with deep enough pockets capable of participating in the upcoming bidding process for the 18-time champion Boston Celtics, including Amazon founder and executive chairman Jeff Bezos.
The 60-year-old billionaire, listed as the world's second-richest person, according to Forbes, might have the financial flexibility to replace current team governor and majority owner Wyc Grousbeck, however, that's just dot-connecting speculation. Bezos supposedly has "no plans" in partaking in the bidding war, per Nick Wingfield of The Information.
Boston announced its plans to sell the franchise's majority stake less than three weeks after its NBA Finals victory over the Dallas Mavericks, which came as an obvious surprise in terms of the timing. It also opened the door for steep-pocketed individuals such as Bezos to have their names thrown into the candidates list, keeping the fanbase on its toes and worried for the obvious reason -- the Celtics formed the NBA's (by far) most expensive starting lineup of Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown, Kristaps Porzingis, Jrue Holiday and Derrick White, which cost over $930 million to maintain. That's on top of the multi-billion-dollar price tag it'll take to acquire the team to begin with.
Bezos joined the Celtics offseason discourse when The Ringer's Bill Simmons, a lifelong fan with deep connections to sources across the league, linked the billionaire to the NBA's most successful franchise. Considering Bezos is a business-first guy capable of going full throttle with the Celtics -- reminiscent of Steve Ballmer's approach with the Los Angeles Clippers -- the fit makes sense.
"I think he's going to be one of the suitors," Simmons said on "The Bill Simmons Podcast." "Which got me thinking, why would Jeff Bezos when he's looking at the Celtics, what is he seeing? What does he want? ... It's one of the crown jewel franchises, that's why you get it? … I think it's real that he's potentially in the mix for this."
Grousbeck and Boston's current ownership crew stepped in to purchase the Celtics for $360 million in 2002, before head-honchoing four trips to the Finals (2008, 2010, 2022 and 2024) and two titles ('08 and '24).