'Do whatever we can to win': New owner Bill Chisholm lays out vision for Celtics

BOSTON — Flanked by four of his top lieutenants, Bill Chisholm addressed reporters Thursday for the first time as the new majority owner of his childhood team: the Boston Celtics.

“I’ve loved the Celtics my entire life,” Chisholm said in his opening remarks. “My wife Kimberly and I have raised a family of diehard Celtics fans. The Chisholm family are so grateful to be part of this Celtics organization, the greatest sports franchise in the world and the greatest sports city in the world.”

Chisholm, a Georgetown, Mass., native and Dartmouth College alumnus, assembled an investment group that bought the Celtics for $6.1 billion earlier this year. His offer was accepted in March, with the transition finalized last month following approval by the NBA. This season will be Chisholm’s first as Boston’s lead governor.

As someone who grew up listening to Gil Santos and Bob Cousy call Celtics games on the radio, Chisholm called his purchase of the team both “a dream come true” and “a tremendous responsibility.” He hopes to carry on the legacy and success of Boston’s previous ownership group, which brought the franchise its 17th and 18th championships in 2008 and 2024 and trailed only the San Antonio Spurs in total victories during its 23-year run.

“The Celtics have brought me joy my entire life, and I’m so grateful for what the ownership group has done to this point,” Chisholm said. “I feel like I have something to add here, and I’ve got tremendous people around me here. And ultimately, this was an opportunity. It was a dream that came true. And I can’t speak for other people, but for me to have this chance, I would’ve never forgiven myself if I didn’t go for it.”

Seated on stage with Chisholm was ownership holdover Wyc Grousbeck, who will remain involved with the franchise but in a smaller role as CEO and alternate governor. Grousbeck and fellow alternate governor Aditya Mittal — who invested a reported $1 billion after being approached by Grousbeck — will serve on the team’s eight-person managing board, but Chisholm will have, as he put it, “final say” on all decisions.

How involved does the first-time sports owner intend to be?

“I’m a huge fan, first of all, so I’m so excited to be there and have the best seat in the house, frankly,” Chisholm said. “So I will absolutely be there. I will do whatever it takes, whatever the Boston Celtics need me to do. If they need me to be doing press conferences every day, I’ll do them. If they need to stay out of the way, I’ll do that. I feel like I have enough self-awareness to know where I can be helpful and know where to get out of the way. And the biggest thing I think I can bring is support to folks on the stage.”

Those folks also included Brad Stevens and Rich Gotham, who lead the Celtics’ basketball and business operations, respectively. This offseason, Stevens oversaw what he considered a necessary teardown of Boston’s championship-winning core, with Kristaps Porzingis, Jrue Holiday, Al Horford and Luke Kornet all departing in order to drop the Celtics beneath the second apron of the luxury tax.

Thanks to those moves — which Grousbeck said would have been made whether or not the team was being sold — coupled with Jayson Tatum’s ongoing recovery from Achilles surgery, Chisholm inherited a Celtics roster that is significantly weaker than the groups that either won 60 games, reached the conference finals or both in each of the last four seasons.

The Celtics are unlikely to contend for Banner 19 in Year 1 of the Chisholm era, but the new boss said the franchise’s goals have not changed.

“I mean, let’s go for it, but let’s do it in a reasonable way,” Chisholm said. “My goal and my high-level direction to Brad and the team is let’s do whatever we can to win championships and raise banners, and raise as many as we can, both in the near term and also in the medium to the long term, as well. So definitely taking that approach, and the flexibility that Brad talked about, I think that’s paramount to doing that. But ultimately, we’re going to do everything we can to win. That is job No. 1. And not just win games — win championships.”

Chisholm, Stevens and Grousbeck all noted that trades like the team’s pivotal moves for Derrick White, Porzingis and Holiday would not have been possible had it stayed above the second apron. Avoiding those restrictions opens new roster-building options, though none that will help the Celtics on the court this season.

For now, they’ll rely on a group led by title-winning mainstays like Jaylen Brown, White, Payton Pritchard and Sam Hauser, supplemented by a largely unproven supporting cast. Tatum has not ruled out a possible return this season, but that wouldn’t happen until spring at the earliest, by which point the new-look C’s could be out of contention.

Chisholm, though, is optimistic.

“I’m not going to put a ceiling on the team,” he said. “We’ve got a lot of talent, and we’ve got some very strong character people. I’m actually pretty excited for what this team can do. When I look back, those Isaiah Thomas teams (in the mid-2010s), those are some of my favorite. I do think there’s a smaller margin for error, but I do think that this team has the potential to be pretty special, and I think we’re going to embrace the kind of underdog mentality, as well. So I’m super excited for what’s around the corner.”