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Speaker 1: I'm thrilled to say we're joined by with grauseback at

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Speaker 1: the Greenwich Economic Forum. He, of course is the lead

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Speaker 1: owner and governor for the Boston Celtics. It's great to

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Speaker 1: have you with us, and I'll start with a softball.

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Speaker 1: How are you feeling just a few weeks away from

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Speaker 1: the start?

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Speaker 2: Well, so excited. We made a major trade over the weekend.

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Speaker 2: We hope it's finalized later today formerly inked. And we

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Speaker 2: really love our team, love the roster. Everybody in the

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Speaker 2: league feels great. In early October, we're all undefeated, but

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Speaker 2: we hope this could be a strong year for the Celtics.

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Speaker 1: A strong year for the Celtics. And talk to us

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Speaker 1: a little bit about valuations in terms of players right now,

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Speaker 1: How has that changed over the past few years versus

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Speaker 1: when you took over for the Celtics.

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Speaker 2: Evaluation some players maybe meeting their salaries increasing.

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Speaker 1: Yes, yes, in terms of trading for example, oh and.

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Speaker 2: Trading for them. Well, the superstar perbs and the very

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Speaker 2: best players are global superstars of the NBA. You know,

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Speaker 2: some of the ten or twenty most famous people on

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Speaker 2: the planet and really drive our whole business of offering

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Speaker 2: entertainment to people, and we have great stars in the

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Speaker 2: game now, and we share our revenues with our players

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Speaker 2: and they share them with us in a sense, and

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Speaker 2: we really have a nice partnership. So I'm thrilled to

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Speaker 2: see players be super well paid and to be performing

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Speaker 2: on the global stage. I mean, I've been in the

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Speaker 2: league twenty years and it's grown so much and it's

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Speaker 2: been such a joy. So I feel very, very fortunate.

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Speaker 3: When it comes to the media partnerships here with and

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Speaker 3: I guess how people consume sports these days. We know,

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Speaker 3: of course, some of the traditional networks still kind of

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Speaker 3: have a hold on that, but we know a lot

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Speaker 3: of people have just gravitated to different platforms. So when

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Speaker 3: you go in there and you're having these negotiations on

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Speaker 3: new media deals here, what exactly do you want to see, Like,

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Speaker 3: what do you think would be most beneficial to not

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Speaker 3: just to the Celtics, but the NBA overall.

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Speaker 2: Well, I'm on the media committee at the NBA, but

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Speaker 2: we're not allowed to talk about anything that's going on.

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Speaker 2: We'll be negotiating next year with our existing partners and

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Speaker 2: then potentially with new partners next spring. But in general,

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Speaker 2: what I'd like to see as a team owner and

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Speaker 2: as a longtime fan of the NBA is I'd just

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Speaker 2: like us to see to keep globalizing. We have almost

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Speaker 2: I think forty percent of our league, our players come

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Speaker 2: from overseas. We've got fans in two hundred and ten

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Speaker 2: countries around the world who get to stream our games now.

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Speaker 2: But we think that the international growth can be really

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Speaker 2: super exciting. We're doing great in the United States, and

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Speaker 2: we appreciate the fans here, but the global game is,

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Speaker 2: you know, the global attention is really turning the NBA

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Speaker 2: as well.

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Speaker 3: It is, and I mean obviously the Celtics to a

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Speaker 3: certain extent, at least through history, it's sort of been

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Speaker 3: a big component of that. I mean, I at least

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Speaker 3: I'm going to date myself, but when you know, coming

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Speaker 3: of age, I mean it was basically the Celtics and

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Speaker 3: Lakers and the Bulls and Pistons and that sort of

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Speaker 3: bad boy era here. And you know, I was watching

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Speaker 3: the most recent documentary or not documentary, I should say,

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Speaker 3: I'll be the most recent show about the Lakers, which

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Speaker 3: I guess could be a documentary if you wanted to

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Speaker 3: be here. It had an interesting end to it. I mean,

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Speaker 3: the Lakers somehow were overtaken by the Celtics, which you know,

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Speaker 3: I don't know how the Lakers what happened.

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Speaker 2: In nineteen eighty four, I were watching. We were thrilled

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Speaker 2: that that second season of winning Time contained two Celtics championships.

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Speaker 2: And you know, we're great friends with the owner of

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Speaker 2: the Lakers, Genie Buss. She's a close friend of ours

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Speaker 2: and our partner in our Cincoro tequila as a matter

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Speaker 2: of fact, And so we're friends even though we're competitors.

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Speaker 2: And we've had two finals against the Lakers just in

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Speaker 2: the last twenty years that I've been around. So there

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Speaker 2: are always a lot of fun. Love to have another one.

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Speaker 1: And Mick, have you thought it all about investing in

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Speaker 1: other sports or other leads I have.

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Speaker 2: Back in the day, I looked at an NHL team.

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Speaker 2: I looked at with a partner or two, we looked

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Speaker 2: at some soccer, you know, we looked at some hockey.

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Speaker 2: But really, the Celtics is more than enough for me.

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Speaker 2: I really am the day to day CEO as well

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Speaker 2: as the governor, and so it's my responsibility. When it

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Speaker 2: goes badly, for sure, you can blame me, and I

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Speaker 2: blame myself so I spent a lot of time on

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Speaker 2: Celtics and care deeply about it, as anybody should who's

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Speaker 2: trying to run a team like this.

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Speaker 3: All right, so let's talk about the season here. Katie

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Speaker 3: mentioned at the top here the tip off. I think

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Speaker 3: sometime at the end of this month. Yeah, obviously got

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Speaker 3: Drew Holliday, that was a big trade. Of course you

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Speaker 3: got Borzingis, who I don't think anybody has any doubts

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Speaker 3: about his abilities. Al Horford and Jalen Brown, and I

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Speaker 3: think Tatum is on that roster as well. Here, I mean,

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Speaker 3: what do you think your chances are? I mean, I

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Speaker 3: know you're going to just say, of course we'll win,

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Speaker 3: but I mean when you look at that lineup here,

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Speaker 3: I mean, how do you think they really are in

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Speaker 3: a stack up against the other dominant teams out there.

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Speaker 2: Well, I don't want to, Jink said, I wouldn't say

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Speaker 2: that we would win in any case, but I will

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Speaker 2: say that Las Vegas has us sort of as co

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Speaker 2: favorites with the Bucks were thought to be the two,

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Speaker 2: but then just behind us or a couple other great teams,

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Speaker 2: and then it goes on from there. So we really

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Speaker 2: like our chances. We've improved our chances, we think with

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Speaker 2: some of the moves, although we let go some really

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Speaker 2: terrific people players who happen to be great people as well.

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Speaker 2: And you know, these trades are difficult, but it's really

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Speaker 2: the most challenging part of the job. But we hope

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Speaker 2: we got it right this summer. We hope we can

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Speaker 2: really make some noise. We love this team and love

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Speaker 2: the chance to go out there and compete.

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Speaker 1: All right, Well, best of luck, Wick. That is Wick Grouseback.

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Speaker 1: He is the lead owner and governor of the Boston Celtics.