Club 520 - Wyc Grousbeck on ’08 & ’24 titles w/ Pierce & Tatum, SELLING HIS HOUSE to buy Celtics

The volume. Yo, Yo, y'all's had a fine expects. How
y'all doing yo, yeah, y'olly good energy for show for show,
for show man, you know what it is? Club five
twenty podcast live and fanatic spects. Man, we appreciate y'all
pulling up. We got some dope guests pulling up. But
first and foremost, man, I'm the host. My name is
DJ Willis. You know what it did? Same game with
me on the road. To my far left, we got
my dog Bishop be hearing out the pearles. How you
wl nasty?
Saying the nasty?
Hey, make sure y'all were that Tommy John, put them
draws on, put them hands on.
You know what I mean? Shouting to Tommy John, Baby.
I'm gonna lie, put them draws on it crazy, get right,
get right, shout to tip me John for show. To
my far right, my dog, young Nacho, young team, how
you what, I'm chilling, bro, Happy to be here. They
got a nice crowd. It's gonna be a vibe for sure,
most definitely, man, we're gonna kick it off. First man,
we got a special special guest in the building. Man, entrepreneur,
philanthropists and you most best know him as the former
owner of the Boston Celtics. Man, we got the one
to all the miss away growsmen in the building, appreciate
you big dogs. Join us on stage.
Hey for the next fan's nice win. But this is
what a ring looks like. Show that ring, Go that ring?
What's off? I like that energy?
Hold on before we start, man, you gotta break the
ring down. You gotta I know what you shared with
us back there, tell us tell them what's inside the ring?
Man, all right, hang on to this, all right, all
right inside there you open it up. N are eighteen.
Yeah, that's the part K floor.
The final score Boston one oh six, Dallas.
Eighty eight bells, most definitely. Man, before we get started, man,
you know the bous. We got a shout out to
Boost Mobile Man, Boost Marble Powers Club five twenty we appreciate.
Shall you know what it is? Twenty five dollars? How
long where they at with the team. It's five gen nationwide,
twenty five dollars. Hey, no hike prices. There's gonna be
twenty five dollars. You're gonna step in. You're gonna get
that twenty five dollars. Come on, man, you need a
Barner phone. Get your grilla phone. Antybody need a phone tap?
Be in with boos Mo.
What's a Burner phone? Oh, we'll talk to you about
that off the court, take it later.
You got a high championship ring for the barn phone.
Most definitely, man, But first he starts to appreciate you
having us on the show. Man. Man, you are a
man of many hats. But we wanted to say, you know,
you grew up Massachusetts. What's it like being able to
purchase your favorite team.
I'm the luckiest guy. I was forty one years old.
It was two thousand and two, and I that was
back when you could mortgage your house and buy an
NBA team. And that's what I did. I never had
any money, but I didn't do it for money. I
did it for love. I did it for love. Jeff
Tige was on our team, a great person, a great player.
But the Celtics are a way of life, and I'm
very lucky to be able to have my hometown team.
Man, that is beautiful. Have you been had a very
interesting point? He said, mortgage you'll house. I was gonna ask,
I don't even know how how do you even start
the process of acquired a scene. But you said it's
starting with the mortgage refinanced.
It started.
And I went to the garden i'd been born and raised.
I went there and it was half empty. In two
thousand and two, the team wasn't playing well, and I'm like,
this is half empty, and I'm like, I wonder who's
the owner. And they said, oh, he lives down in
New York. And it turns out to be a very
nice guy. I went to find him. They said he
hadn't been here in three and a half four years,
he hadn't come to the games. Wow, but a very
nice guy. But so I'm like, wonder if he might
be interested in selling. And so I go down and
find him and shake his hand and say what do
you want. I said, I'd like to buy the Celtics
and he goes, they're not for sale, and I said, well,
is there a crazy number? And he named a crazy number,
like way too high? Really, But I didn't have the money.
I said, I don't have the money, but I'll get
it in four months, three and a half months, and
I so I didn't give him a chance, and so
I took his price.
I didn't negotiate. He named the number. It was a record,
and I just.
Said, Okay, I figure I could probably get it and
I and then I said, oh, I know, why are
you this much next week to keep you just keep
it a deposit. And I named a number, which wasn't
very much for the team, but it was a lot
for me. And he goes, all right, you know what's
he going to do? You had to say, yes, free money.
So I shake his hand, I go home, mortgage my house,
send him the money. And then three months later I
had twenty five partners and we had all the money,
and I lost seventeen pounds.
I didn't eat or sleep.
Wow.
I looked like Jeff t very very lucky story.
May you was locked in. That's a hell of a store.
But I did it totally for love. I just did
it for love. Yeah.
And you can tell by the way the organizers were
obviously under your tool is the love was back in
the guard. You had what Paul Pierce Antoine Walker back there. Yeah,
you guys, So I gotta ask, what's it like? First day?
You're the man, biggest, one of the biggest franchises sports history,
one of the craziest fan base ever.
Was it?
Light Day won when you locking in, I also.
Hold on what's your first adjustment? Oh, the first adjustment.
I made some changes on the business side, and within
a year the top of the business side we were
nice guys, but they weren't seeing eye. Then that general manager,
and then the whole coaching staff, they were all gone.
He came in clean house.
And I am not funny. I shouldn't. I mean, it's
not funny. I had never run a business. I hadn't
run a McDonald's, I hadn't run anything. But I just
had to try to do it with my gut. And
these are good people and nice people. But we made
changes and it ended up that we ended up. Maybe
it could have worked out if I didn't make the change,
I want to say that, but it worked out when
we did make the change. We brought in Danny Ainge,
and then we brought in Brad Stevens. Oh, Doc Rivers
and Brad Stevens, and I promoted Brad to GM and
uh now we got Joe Mizila and we got two
rings along the way.
For sure.
Speaking of Brad Stevens, when I was in Boston for
my short period of time, he changed my name. I
don't know if you heard the story, my name is
Jeff T. Y'all had Jason Tatum on the team at
the time. I'm the real JT, but he changed my
name to Jet. You might hear people out here calling
me Jet, and it was a funny story. I think
I was in my twelve years. JT might have been
in his fifth or sixth year, and I lost my
name at Jason Tatum and I wanted to know was
I a real JT or was he real j C.
Well, I got it.
I'm gonna see you today, but I'm going to see
him for the next six years.
Answer.
I'm just gonna call you Dave.
I got a whole new day, Dave Tess my Cave.
I got a cousin, Dave.
David.
Oh man, ollkay.
We're gonna skip around a little bit though. But first thing,
so I don't want to ask you, obviously, you know
what I'm saying. We see the bling bling, which championship
felt better?
Oh?
Wait a twenty twenty four.
I don't have to choose, but.
The first one could be luck because second one feels
a little more like what do you got? You know?
It locks it in.
Plus this one, my wife Emilia and I are together.
We got married eight years ago, she got her parade.
It was heaven, Oh dear heaven.
Was that first championship when you made the big trap
for Kevin Gardenet Ray Allen? Was there any kind of
nerves there? Did you know, like, hey, we all in
right here, we gotta win it, or was it like, hey,
whatever happens happens.
There was nerves because that was I think three max
contracts at once with Ray and I had to gather
my partners together and I said, if this works, we're
gonna win. If it doesn't work and it blows up,
we got a big a lot of contract numbers here,
and we're gonna have to do a capitol call around.
We're gonna have to eat ship in more money, you know,
if this goes really bad, because we're putting everything pushing
everything in and and I looked at him and said,
are we okay with that? I want to I want
to do it for my part, but I'm not a
super wealthy guy, you know like that, and we would
all have to do it, you know what I mean.
And so I'm just saying, are we all good going
for it? And the very I looked at the very
first guy I picked him on purpose, and he said,
I will do it, and I'll do the part.
Of anybody else that can't do it. Wow. And so
he set the whole to His name's Paul Edgerley, a
great guy to this day, and the whole group. But
we were all in and then it did work out.
But you know, it was scary. We don't do this
for money, we do it for love at the Celtics.
But but.
That doesn't mean you know, so you do you do,
you do everything you can. But that was scary.
I can I can imagine like growing up at that
time and watching basketball and having you guys, having Rondo
and all those very players. Did you expect more championships
from that team? Or was it like, uh one was
good enough?
We were close? Yeah, we had that three year run.
Oh wait, we were sixty six and sixteen and we
beat the Lakers by thirty nine points in game six. Okay,
that was that was fut eating the Lakers, badass.
That was fun.
My light's playing on my car is thirty nine. Wow,
only only the lake Kobe and I know what that's for,
you know, far and Kobe was amazing and anyway, nine
was our better team. We started twenty twenty seven and two,
and then we add injuries to KG and Rondo, but
o'deine might have been the best team. And then twenty
ten we were leading the finals three to two and
then lost the last two. Perk got heard or whatever.
We lost on the road in LA and it was
in game seven. That was a very low point. So
we had three good teams there.
That's interested. Did you say that because a lot of
people see Kendrick Parker's on TV. I have a different
opinions about him, But if he's not hurt in twenty ten, yeah,
win that shit.
We probably did, and I love Perk to this day.
He wasn't invited to our parade last year. That is
true because you've been giving people a lot of shit,
you know, And so I had family members of players saying,
if that guy's in the parade, we're not in the prade.
I said, well, that's you know, okay, you win.
Yeah you should see what I try to get jef
t and back in gains Bridge. Just the same type
of conversation. Oh yeah, I'm not welcoming the Pacers facilities anymore.
But it's all good for sure, man, we got to
get for you know, we appreciate you pulling up. Shout
out to the crowd. Man, make sure y'all walk out.
Tommy John, gotta get you some Tommy John here, sir, Oh,
thank you absolutely, sir. Man one time for Tommy John.
We appreciate y'all. Today's hot take ball handling matters. Pause, Yeah,
on the court, But I'm talking about your draw Keep
your palls handed with Tommy John underwear. Tommy John has
the forest Hills more stretched and competing brands soft breathable fabrics.
Man tap in with Tommy John. Man, take care of yourself.
Presented with underwear before. Thank you very much, tom Make
sure you check the sizes on them too. I don't
think they once saw specific say you.
Okay us it ain't throw draw say not the way around.
But you don't say we're here anyway.
Fish Now, I wanted to talk to you about the tequila,
Bria said, Carol, Yes, sir, how did death start?
How did that come about?
My wife is gonna be thrilled she runs it, but
it's with it was uh. I met Amelia nine ten
years ago and on the Labor Committee talking to the players.
It was me and Michael Jordan and Genie Busts of
the Lakers and Wes Edens, and the four of us
are very good friends for years and years and years
ownership in the league. We all do stick together, you know.
I said, you got to meet Amelia, Let's go out.
So we all went out. By the end of that
dinner and then another dinner, they're like, she's unbelievable. And
we're starting a tequila So the five of us, that's
the Sinko five oh an Oral for gold and we've
sold two and a half million bottles. We won twenty
nine gold medals in spirits competitions and we're going global.
That's dope.
Yeah, but MJ is an amazing partner. Jeanie West send
a million of their amazing partners.
Okayank you.
And that's interesting you say that because our first time
having sacrow was actually with him. He's the one to
introduced us to that the small world. For sure. We
won the championship in twenty twenty twenty one and I
celebrate with a bottle the whole night. I walked around
West like, Hey.
You like it.
I would love it.
Yeah, we put those in the Lakers SLocker room. I think, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Yep, and we drank it all night. But I had
it at my house. I thought I was cool. I
thought I knew I had the inside school.
Thank you. And we never seen that bottle before. That's
a beautiful bottle. So you don't wear your ring at
the podcast.
Man, Nothing said summer like long days in the sun,
clutch plays and a few bests on the game, all
with Draft Kings Sportsbook.
The summertimes, so you know the baseball best are getting hot,
and Draft Kings Sportsbook had you covered with live Ben
home run props, eye boosting.
More.
Here's something specially for you first timers. New customers. Bet
five dollars and get one hundred and fifty dollars in
bonus bets. Downloaded Draft Kings Sportsbook app and use that
promo called Club five to twenty. That's all right, cold
Club five twenty for new customers. You get one hundred
and fifty dollars at bonus bets instantly. We bet just
five bucks on your DraftKings. The crown is yours.
Gambling problem called one eight hundred gambler in New York
called eight seven seven eight hope and wy or text
hope and why four six seven, three six nine In Connecticut.
Help is available for a problem gambling called eight eight
eight seven eight nine seven seven seven seven or visit
CCPG dot org. Please play responsibly on behalf of Boothill
Casino when resorting Kansas twenty one on over agent eligibility
varies by jurisdiction, void and Ontario. Bonus bets expire one
hundred and sixty eight hours after rishuins four. Additional terms
and responsible gaming resources see dknng dot co slash audio.
Nah, I don't want to stunt on them like that, man,
I man, and I don't wear his Ain't that big
though it is. I got more diamonds a month.
Oh, don't get us. Well, just wait till next year. Hey,
did you think I was gonna win this year? Did
you think I was gonna win this year?
Yeah? I thought we had a chance.
Uh.
The Knicks played real well, to be honest, and uh
then obviously JT got hurt, but they were already beating
us before then, So that was a down year. It
was a little disappointing, but uh, I don't know who's
gonna win. Game seven. The Pincers are coming. It's in
ok C. It's probably okay. See, but good job Pacers.
Oh, I know when you see the hair right there,
you know the Bob's paces at seven, it's up. J
C told me that was the hardest series they had
on the championship run against the Pacers. He was like, was, yeah,
that's what and we and we sweat.
Oh, let me check on the inside of it says
right here. Because people were dissing us about who you beat.
I'm like, we're on the inside.
Yeah, it says Boston for Miami, won, Boston for Cleveland, won,
Boston for Indiana, nothing Boston.
For I love. Yeah, it's crazy.
I mean it's not like we just snuck by. They
were sixteen and three.
Yeah. The hardest was the Pacers, even though it was
four nothing. Every one of those games we were behind, yeah,
and we had to come back and they were a
very very good team.
Yeah, most definitely.
No.
When I asked, obviously the league changes so much. You
look at what's going on now with the way free
agency is going, how did you adjust as an owner
with the different periods, with the new payments of contracts,
the way people wanted to go to different destinations just
the way the league changes. How do you adjust like that?
And does it start with you? Do you funnel down
to the rest of your organization? Do you go get
people who fit the changes that the league is going towards.
Yeah, I mean we don't have a team where the
players put it together.
You know.
Our eight team was Danny putting it together with a
brilliant move. We waited three years to get Garnett and
got ready for it and built up people like Al
Jefferson and Tony Allen who we love both of them,
but could include them in trades. Not Tony, actually I
was wrong, but Al is the centerpiece for seven to
one for Garnett, and so we build up for that
for three years. That was Danny we put you know,
he and we put the team together, and then we
made the trade in thirteen and had those draft picks
we picked Jalen and Jason.
So but we did have a period of time. Kyrie
came and he thought maybe.
He could put something together and was thinking about making
calls and then he ended up just feeling like he would.
Try to do that somewhere else. And I respect that.
We're friends to this day. So I don't know if
we ever adjusted to it or not. Okay, this one,
I mean I don't have a problem with it. But
the team, well, first of all, there's no league without
the players. And people are not playing to come see me. Obviously,
they're paying to see the players, so they get to
do what they want to do, and we're all benefiting
from them.
Definitely.
I wanted to ask how important is there for like
an owner and player like relationship.
It's amazing.
I mean, first of all, the guys know that, the
owners in general and in our case for sure, all
my whole group, we're in it to win it. Yeah,
they don't have any doubts about that. And we you know,
we tried to do everything first class. Not everything always
works out right or whatever, but we are we legitimately
are friends, and then when you win together, you're friends
for life.
Nah for sure.
I mean it's just and I see Kg of all people,
and he's like running across the room, or I'm running
across the room. We see Shaq when he's jing and
he'll stop and bring my wife up onto the like
the decket.
Know.
I mean, it's just it's magic, nah for sure. Love
those guys, Nah.
It's amazing. The organization is first class. When I was there,
I always made fun of because I came from Atlanta
and not saying it's not first class. But when I
first got to Atlanta, we didn't have a practice facility
really nice. They had to They have those things now.
But when I got to Boston, I'm like, yeah, it's
a little different. The vibe here is different. We getting
it was COVID time, so we were getting the mills
and all the extra stuff you guys were giving us,
And I was just like, I see why people fall
in love with being here. It's an amazing organization.
Well, there's a big history. We're just trying to keep
it going, you know. And thank you for being there, Na,
thank you for sure.
I have a question for you. When you see things
happen like the Luca tree right catches everybody off guard.
What the fuck?
I was gonna ask what was your initial reaction to that?
And it's just like y'all hop an owner's group said like, hey, yo,
what's really going on? Because like y'all really kind of
set in the tone and how everybody has to conduct
business going forward.
Well, I you know, I hate to I don't want
to really pick on anybody, but I'll give you an
honest answer. I think if we traded somebody of that level,
which we're not, but if we were, we would call
everybody and it.
Would probably leak out.
But you just kind of take it and then you
get five picks back or six yeah. I mean Bain
got four picks in a swap. Yeah, and they got
like one pick or maybe two. And I so, I mean,
it just feels like, you know, but then now they
ended up with Cooper Flag. It's not not all connected.
Really that way. I don't know.
I just I guess I feel like it it must
have been painful for them to do it, so they
didn't want to let everybody know about it, probably, and
that's kind of human nature.
I guess.
Yeah.
I just want to go, like you probably open up.
Joe Fault like everybody else did at one o'clock in
the morning, said what is this untail? Like?
Yeah, if I was awake at one o'clock in the morning,
I would have opened up.
I'm a grown up most stepping out again. I'm a
grown up. But he's in a rock band. I'm gonna say, you.
Up like working man, I know, I know I might
have been up.
Now we look across the league and some of the
recent news that just take place. The Lakers obviously big
news of them transition from different ownership. I did something
else that sets the tone in the NBA. We see
somebody that's especially with the Bus family law ownership of
the team, not saying what'sh our thoughts behind it? Because
obviously you're a good friends business far as we are,
but what's your initial reaction to, like, really like this
is going on now?
Yeah, I mean my family had a right after twenty
years to asked me to sell for on behalf of
all of us. And so we are as the Celtics
just got sold. We're gonna I'm gonna tell my piece
in twenty twenty eight. Others are going out now in
twenty twenty five, so the Celtics have new ownership coming in.
It was a really good group and that must have
given Genie an idea. And she she's so much of
a good friend that when Amelia and I got married, Jeanie.
Like presided at the wedding.
Oh and she literally said, wick if you don't marry her,
I will, which is funny because Gani's straight but anyway,
you know this, so we're close friends. So the Celtics
and Lakers are changing hands. You know, we got a
new media deal and a whole new future for the league,
and a lot of people really want to come in.
Nobody buys these things for money, especially at these prices. Yeah,
you can't say you're gonna get rich off of it.
You got to be one of those people and then
say this is the time of my life. And I
can tell you personally it's been the time of my
life for sure.
Still still now. Is there any moves that you regret
not doing?
Oh, I'm sure, well I do regret like trading work,
to be honest, that was one that we all thought
and there was discussions around the table, and I got
to sign off on the trades as the governor lead owner,
and you know, I feel like I got kind of
talked into it, but I did sign off. It's not
you know, we're all in it and it you know,
Jeff Green came back and then he had a health problem,
and you know, nothing against Jeff Green, and he just
won a championship, you know, so you know, but anyway,
our team didn't feel the same after Berk was gone.
So not everything goes perfect. Nothing everything went perfect this year.
You know, JT lost his achilles.
So you just you go for the highs and you
get through the lows and you you have a brotherhood
that lasts for life.
Most definitely. Obviously we're in New York. You know, the
Knicks moved on from Tibbs. In that situation, I saw
how to unfold it and that situation, how do you
go about when you have to make a decision like that.
You go to everybody and think about it, because I
know it's easy to overreact in a moment, right, always
not always.
I had one coach who told me, I'm not gonna
mention who the one coach who told me years and
years ago, we see you working out in the gym
at our old practice, Cilly, you wouldn't have liked it.
This wasn't very nice. And and I'm like, yeah, I'm
working out. I'm working out at eight am. And the
guys come in at like ten, you know, or whatever.
And he goes, well, it's players only, that's the NBA way.
And I'm like, but there's nobody here and it's my
gym and I'm gonna work out. And the next day,
I come in and there's a sign says players only.
Oh so that guy ended up departing coaching very long
and I didn't ask anybody.
That's the thing.
You just now that's probably a jerky thing to say
in that way, But when you're running something and there's
something just going to complete opposite direction, I don't put
up with it for sure, And I take the blame
if it doesn't work. And I got the ring if
it does. Actually, the trophies in my living room. Wow,
that both of them.
That's fire.
So you're gonna take the trophy, you also got to
take the blame.
Yeah, that's all right. Anyway, I like that.
Can I actually have.
Any Celtics fans out there? I saw a few? Hey,
I got off right. Look, I'll meet you. I'll meet
you over here at the end.
Of the way. If you want to take a picture
with the ring.
All right, that's fire. So how did you know Brad
Stevens was like the perfect guy? Because when I was there,
Brad was the coach and he was kind of telling
me he was going to try to transition to something else.
How did you know he was a perfect guy to
move up to the front office because the things he's
putting together are amazing.
That happened real quick.
I didn't know, but Danny came to me and said, look,
I'm going to move on for medical just because of
my stage of life. And I'm like, Danny, I don't
want you to leave, but all right, And so I
knew I had to get somebody. I called in Brad.
Between the lead owner and the coach is the general manager,
and we got all three but yond the same page.
We got to be able to say yes, no, yes, no,
but agree at the end and not have a fight
about it, just agree and respect. I said, we need
a partner, and what's the short list? And Brad led
me off the short list of six GM candidates and
I'm like, I don't want that guy. I don't want
that guy, and I don't know the other four. We
don't have anybody here. And then I looked at him.
I looked at him and said, Brad, it might be you,
because you've been here eight years, nine years, and you
are a partner, and you know putting together teams at Butler,
and you've worked with Danny here. This could actually be you.
He did not ask for the job. I said, I
think it's you said, I got to think about it.
I said, tell me tomorrow morning. Came in the next morning,
he said, I accept. That was a lucky guess.
Man.
He did an amazing job.
Yeah, he's doing a great Executive of.
The year yet last year and then he's an amazing guy.
Just just hung up with him. Now we're coming onto
that time of the year or drapped in the trades.
So I just was talking to him about a half
hour ago.
For sure, most definite man. Shouts of Brad Stevens, Indiana
legend man. What makes a noise? Mister Groco man. We
appreciate you man.
Thanks guys, serious
The volume