NBA legal battle could affect Boston Celtics’ $6 billion sale while Adam Silver cools expansion talk that might tempt $198b business mogul Jeff Bezos
A messy Minnesota Timberwolves sale could guide how the Boston Celtics are sold.
While a long-delayed Timberwolves purchase plays out in a legal battle, the NBA's reigning world champion are also on the block.
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The Celtics, the league's record holder for world championships (18), are available to the highest bidder and could go for as much as $6 billion.
Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, whose net worth was valued at $198 billion by Forbes on Wednesday, was previously linked to buying the Celtics.
That report was quickly shot down.
But Boston is still up for grabs and the TWolves sale process is on the NBA's mind as the Celtics await a future owner.
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NBA commissioner Adam Silver said on Tuesday that he doesn't want "stepped" sales that take place over several years.
Minnesota's ownership has become a complicated battle.
Longtime owner Glen Taylor is pitted against entrepreneur Marc Lore and former MLB star Alex Rodriguez in an extended legal battle.
The Timberwolves sale is now mired in arbitration.
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"In terms of the composition of ownership and any potential step transaction, what we've said is present to us what you're considering and we'll look at it on a unique basis," Silver .
"Every one of these situations presents itself differently. I think it remains the case of what I said philosophically about step transactions, but sort of the devil is in the details there."
The Grousbeck family, the Celtics current owners, are the leaders of the Boston Basketball Partners group, a consortium of investors who acquired the Celtics for $360 million back in 2002 -- at the time the highest price paid for an NBA team.
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After Boston defeated Dallas 4-1 in the 2023-24 NBA Finals, the family said in a statement it had "decided to sell the team for estate and family planning considerations."
Grousbeck's group is putting 51 percent of the team on the market.
The deal is expected to be completed in the coming months, with the full sale set to close in 2028.
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Bezos has been linked to multiple NFL franchises, including the Seattle Seahawks and Washington Commanders.
Last year he was outbid by Josh Harris when attempting to strike a deal to buy the Commanders,
Bezos has never commented on the reported interest in the Commanders, and has remained quiet after being publicly associated with the Celtics.
An NBA expansion team could be Bezos' best bet for entry into a highly exclusive club.
Silver acknowledged in February that Las Vegas was a definite possibility for a new team.
Mexico City, Vancouver, Nashville and Montreal have also been floated as possible expansion cities.
But Seattle would be a full-circle sports win for Bezos, who founded Amazon out of his Seattle garage in 1994.
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While everyone else was blasting grunge music, Bezos was harboring bigger plans and on the verge of changing everything from bookstores and record shops to the internet and online shopping.
Seattle lost the SuperSonics in 2008 to Oklahoma City in a cross-country move that is still a sore spot for the NBA.
When the 30-team NBA does expand, Seattle tops the list of potential cities and is viewed as a near lock to receiver another franchise.
But for now, the NBA is staying at 30.
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"There was not a lot of discussion in this meeting about expansion, but only largely not for lack of interest, it was that we had said to them that we're not quite ready," Silver said.
"It was something that we told our board we plan to address this season, and we're not quite ready yet. But I think there's certainly interest in the process, and I think that we're not there yet in terms of having made any specific decisions about markets or even frankly to expand."
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