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Celtics Cash Out as Tatum Cashes In

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BOSTON – (Staff and Wire Service Report) – The Boston Celtics and All-NBA forward Jayson Tatum are finalizing a five-year supermax extension worth $314 million, which would be the largest deal in NBA history, according to multiple media reports on Monday.

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The deal comes after Tatum helped guide the Celtics to the NBA title this summer, the 18th in franchise history. The report also coincides with the announcement the franchise will be placed up for sale in the near future.

Tatum, 26, averaged 26.9 points, 8.1 rebounds and 4.9 assists per game in 74 regular-season starts before adding 25.0 points, 9.7 boards and 6.3 assists per game in Boston’s 19-game romp through the playoffs.

Tatum was an All-NBA first-team selection for the third straight year and has been named to five All-Star Games. He has spent his entire seven-year NBA career in Boston and has career averages of 23.1 points, 7.2 rebounds and 3.5 assists per contest over 513 games.

The Celtics also locked up starting guard Derrick White to a $126 million contract extension earlier Monday.

–Field Level Media

The Boston Celtics | For Sale

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BOSTON – (Staff and Wire Service Report with Team News Release) – Investors with deep pockets willing to purchase a champion can line up for bidding on the 2024 NBA Champion Boston Celtics.

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The franchise is available for purchase, according to a team issued news release.  The imminent sale comes on the heels of a record 18th NBA title secured last month, as the league’s most storied franchise defeated the Dallas Mavericks in a five-game NBA Finals.

No purchase price was reported. Earlier this year, Forbes estimated the franchise’s value at $4.7 billion.

The potential sale comes at a time when the Celtics could approach a record payroll — and payroll tax to the NBA — with All-Star and MVP candidate Jayson Tatum discussing a contract that would make him the league’s highest-paid player.

Boston Basketball Partners was formed in 2002 and it completed the purchase of the Celtics on New Year’s Eve of that year from previous owner Paul Gaston for $360 million. Reports at the time indicated the actual sale price was $310 million since $50 million of debt was not assumed by the new ownership group.

 

NBA Draft: Hawks Pick Risacher at No. 1

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BROOKLYN – (Staff and wire Service Report) – The Atlanta Hawks selected forward Zaccharie Risacher with the No. 1 overall pick of the 2024 NBA Draft on Wednesday night.

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Risacher comes out of France, where he most recently played for JL Bourg-en-Bresse of LNB Elite, the country’s premier division of professional basketball.

In 32 games last season, Risacher averaged 10.1 points, 3.8 rebounds and 0.9 assists for JL Bourg. The 19-year-old is 6-foot-9 and weighed in at 195 pounds at the draft combine back in May.

Atlanta does not own another pick in this year’s draft, which has been split into two days. Wednesday’s first round is being held at Barclays Center in New York. ESPN’s Seaport District Studios — also in New York — will host the second round.

The Washington Wizards will be on the clock next.

–Field Level Media

NBA Draft: Who’s Got Next?

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BROOKLYN – (Staff and Wire Service Report) – The second round of the 2024 NBA Draft tips-off  tonight switching from Barclays Center in Brooklyn to ESPNS’s New York City studio. The second round will begin with the No. 31 pick, held by the Toronto Raptors.

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With well-known names and unknown talents vying to be selected before the draft ends with the 58th pick, here are 10 prospects viewed as the top available players:

1. SG Johnny Furphy, Kansas
Australian late bloomer lacks pure strength but has the traits to be an-off-the-bench shooter at 6-foot-9 while he grows into his frame at age 19.
2. PG Tyler Kolek, Marquette
Not explosive enough to run by NBA on-ball defense but crafty with the vision to lead the second unit and dominate in pick-and-roll sets.
3. Kyle Filipowski, Duke
Fundamentally sound with the touch as a shooter to be a mismatch problem. NBA teams fear he’ll be in chase mode too often on defense.
4. SG Cam Christie, Minnesota
Lead guard with room for growth at 18, he’s more of a project than most shooting guards in this class but patience could be richly rewarded.
5. PF Bobi Klintman, Sweden
More mobile than given credit for, Klintman has size (6-9, 212) and the range to space the floor.
6. SG Justin Edwards, Kentucky
All the tools to take off in the right role, Edwards has a nearly 7-foot wingspan, giving him a foothold as a defensive stopper until his 3-point shot becomes more consistent.
7. Tyler Smith, G League Ignite
Southpaw shoots it well and at age 19 has enough upside to earn a spot because of his potent finishing skills.
8. PG Juan Nunez, Spain
From the Ricky Rubio mold of pass-first point guards with a slick handle and creativity, Nunez lacks the mid-range game and jump shot to be more than a backup for now.
9. SF Kevin McCullar Jr., Kansas
Competitive and experienced, McCullar isn’t elite in any single area. His value is versatility, particularly consistent rebounding and defense for his 6-7, 212-pound frame.
10. SG Pelle Larsson, Arizona
A gamer who makes winning basketball plays and decisions. Size and savvy are Larsson’s calling cards, even if he didn’t test exceptionally well or finish with ease against NBA bigs.

–Field Level Media

Championship Window is Wide Open

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BOSTON – (Staff and Wire Service Report) – With a Game 5 win on Monday night the Celtics sealed the NBA title, but Boston had actually been waiting for this moment for over a decade. Just over five years after the Celtics claimed their 17th championship, Boston went into a complete rebuild on June 28, 2013, trading franchise centerpieces Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce to the Brooklyn Nets in exchange for a package that included role players and draft picks.

What followed was a stretch of nearly 11 years that featured ups and downs, plenty of change and a constant belief that Banner 18 was always just one season away.

Two of the draft picks in the Brooklyn deal ended up turning into Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum, drafted third overall in 2016 and 2017, respectively. The Celtics decided to build around the duo, and it ended up being the right choice.

But before the arrival of Brown and Tatum, Boston went through the 25-57 2013-14 campaign that featured Jeff Green as the frontman. Then a 5-foot-9 Isaiah Thomas came to town and started to establish himself as “The Little Guy,” in the words of the late Tommy Heinsohn.

Those teams may not have realized it at the time, but they were laying the foundation for something special.

Once Brown’s rookie season rolled around, the Celtics were really starting to look like contenders. Thomas averaged 28.9 points per game during the 2016-17 season, leading Boston to its first Eastern Conference finals appearance since 2012.

The Celtics came up short but proceeded to load up the following offseason, trading for Kyrie Irving and signing Gordon Hayward. Even though Hayward fractured his left tibia just minutes into his Boston debut, the Celtics ended up returning to the East finals, where they fell to the Cleveland Cavaliers in seven games.

From there, Boston overcame a fallout with Irving and an underwhelming two seasons with Kemba Walker running the point to punch its ticket to the Finals in 2022. Heartbreak was again in the cards, though, as the Golden State Warriors raised the coveted Larry O’Brien Trophy after beating the Celtics in six games.

After getting bounced in the Eastern Conference finals once more a year ago, Boston went all in.

The Celtics parted ways with fan favorite Marcus Smart, considered by many to be the heart and soul of the team, to acquire Kristaps Porzingis via trade, and they also made a deal with the Portland Trail Blazers to bring in point guard Jrue Holiday.

Those moves paid off, and now a league-record 18th banner will be raised this fall.

While this year’s team was the one that broke a 16-year title drought, Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla is forever thankful for Green, Thomas, Smart and every other player that checked in for Boston over the past 11 seasons.

“I think the most important thing, something that’s really been going through my mind throughout this process, is you can’t lose sight of the people that came before us,” Mazzulla said. “And I want to make sure every person that’s worked for the Celtics, that’s played for the Celtics that didn’t win, knows that their work and what they have done has not gone unnoticed

“It can be so easy when you work for this organization and you don’t win that the work that people put in just gets brushed over or gets ignored. … So I think that’s one of the first things that came to mind, was just because we won this doesn’t mean what the people have done before us isn’t just as important.”

Through everything over the past seven years, Brown and Tatum have been the one constant.

“We’ve been through a lot, the losses, the expectations,” Brown said. “The media have said all different types of things: We can’t play together, we are never going to win.

“We heard it all. But we just blocked it out, and we just kept going. I trusted him. He trusted me. And we did it together.”

Brown was named Finals MVP. He averaged 20.8 points, 5.4 rebounds and 5.0 assists in the series, and Tatum quickly shot down any notions of him being jealous of his co-star.

“Extremely happy for him. This is a hell of an accomplishment,” Tatum said. “The main goal for us was to win a championship. We weren’t — we didn’t care who got Finals MVP.”

The Celtics traveled to Miami on Tuesday to celebrate for a bit before returning to Boston for their championship parade on Friday morning. And if all goes to plan, Celtics fans should get used to lining the streets and watching the city’s duck boats roll by.

“I think we definitely have a window,” Brown said. “We take it one day at a time. We definitely have to make sure we stay healthy. But, you know, we’ll enjoy the summer, enjoy the moment, and then we get right back to it next year.”

– Field Level Media

Koch Industry Heir Invests in Nets

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BROOKLYN – (Wire Service Report via Sportico) – New York billionaire Julia Koch and her children are purchasing a minority stake in BSE Global, which owns the Brooklyn Nets of the NBA, the New York Liberty of the WNBA and Barclays Center in Brooklyn.

BSE Global announced the pending transaction but did not disclose financial terms. The NBA Board of Governors must approve the deal.

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Sportico reported the Kochs will buy 15 percent of BSE Global, adding that the value assigned to the company’s sports holdings was $6 billion. Under that scenario, the Kochs would pay $900 million for their share.

Forbes ranks Julia Koch as the 23rd-richest person in the world, with a net worth of $65.7 billion. She and her children inherited 42 percent of Koch Industries — one of the largest privately held companies in the nation — upon the death of her husband, David, in 2019.

BSE Global and the teams will remain under the control of Joe Tsai and Clara Wu Tsai. Joe Tsai’s net worth is $8.6 billion, per Forbes.

Brown, Tatum Lead Celtics to Banner 18

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BOSTON – (Staff and wire Service Report) – Forward Jayson Tatum dominated with 31 points and 11 assists as the Boston Celtics locked up their league-record 18th championship with a 106-88 blowout of the Dallas Mavericks on Monday night in Game 5 of the 2024 NBA Finals.

Tatum also had eight rebounds while teammate Jaylen Brown added 21 points, eight boards and six assists for Boston, which celebrated the 16th anniversary of its previous title by completing a 16-3 playoff run. The Celtics defeated the Los Angeles Lakers in the 2008 Finals, and those two teams shared the league record with 17 championships apiece before Monday.

Jrue Holiday had 15 points and 11 rebounds and Derrick White chipped in 14 points as Boston wrapped up the best-of-seven series on its home court.

Luka Doncic paced the Mavericks with 28 points and 12 boards, but he committed seven turnovers. Kyrie Irving finished with 15 points and nine assists for Dallas, and Josh Green netted 14 points.

After Dallas called a timeout with 3:11 left in the second quarter, trailing by 11 points, Boston completely broke the game open.

The Celtics scored 17 of the next 24 points, six of which came from Brown. Boston reserve guard Payton Pritchard capped the outburst in jaw-dropping fashion, canning a 49-foot heave from beyond half-court at the buzzer to send Boston into the break with a 67-46 lead.

Holiday’s layup pushed the Celtics’ lead to 78-52 with 9:10 to go in the third quarter. Green then converted a putback and knocked down a 3-pointer as part of a 10-2 run that got the Mavericks within 80-62.

Dallas later got the deficit down to 17, but Boston took an 86-67 lead into the fourth.

The Celtics were on top by at least 18 the rest of the way.

A three-point play from Tatum put the Celtics up 46-31 with 7:08 remaining in the first half, but Dallas then took over down low. The Mavericks scored all of their points in the paint during an 8-2 spurt to get within nine before Al Horford stemmed the tide with a hard-nosed layup.

Horford’s bucket came just before the Mavericks’ timeout that preceded Boston’s game-changing run.

Boston came to life in the final 1:39 of the first quarter, ripping off nine unanswered points to take a 28-18 lead into the second.

The Celtics wound up shooting 42.7 percent from the floor. Dallas shot 44.9 percent overall but was outscored by 10 points at the foul line and committed 13 turnovers to Boston’ nine.

– Field Level Media

Can Celtics Close Out Mavericks?

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BOSTON – (Staff and Wire Service Report) – If any player knows how badly the Boston Celtics want to close out the Mavericks in Game 5 of the NBA Finals on Monday night, it’s Dallas guard Kyrie Irving.

Irving spent two seasons with Boston (2017-19), but he’s been a villain in the eyes of Celtics fans since leaving to sign with the Brooklyn Nets in the summer of 2019. Chants ragging on Irving frequently echoed throughout TD Garden in Games 1 and 2 — a pair of Mavericks losses — before Boston hit the road and came out of Dallas with a 3-1 lead in the series.

And with the Celtics now knocking on the door of the 18th title in franchise history, Irving has seemingly found peace with his place in Boston history as he prepares to return to a hostile environment.

“Now being older with hindsight looking back, I definitely would have taken time to know the people in the community and talked to some of the champions that have come before me,” Irving told reporters on Sunday. “They have championship pedigree here. … They expect you to seamlessly buy into the Celtics’ pride, buy into everything Celtics.

“And if you don’t, then you’ll be outed. I’m one of the people that’s on the outs. I’m perfectly fine with that, you know what I mean. I did it to myself.”

But the Celtics greats of years past are the last thing on Boston coach Joe Mazzulla’s mind.

Mazzulla was asked how special it would be to join coaches such as Red Auerbach, Bill Russell and K.C. Jones as those to lead a Celtics team to a championship. Without hesitation, he immediately shifted the focus to Game 5.

“That will never happen if you don’t run back on defense, rebound, execute and get to your spacing,” Mazzulla said. “That’s the most important thing.”

Boston lacked those fundamentals on Friday, failing to put the Mavericks away while ending up on the wrong end of a 122-84 blowout in Game 4.

Jayson Tatum finished with a team-high 15 points for the Celtics, and he’s hoping that Boston rediscovers the brand of basketball that has led it to 79 wins in 100 games between the regular season and playoffs here in 2023-24.

“I think we maybe put too much pressure on ourselves at that moment to be perfect or think it was going to go how we wanted it to go,” Tatum said of why the Celtics came up short on Friday. “Joe did a great job (Sunday) of reminding us that it’s OK to smile during wars. It’s OK to have fun during high-pressure moments. That’s what makes our team unique and special.”

Luka Doncic went for 29 points and Irving supplied 21 on Friday to keep Dallas’ season alive. The Mavericks are trying to become the first team in NBA history to overcome a 3-0 deficit in a best-of-seven series.

Teams are 0-156 when losing the first three games of a series.

“I think the most important thing is to show that we believe,” Doncic said. “I think we showed in Game 4. If not, if we wouldn’t believe, we probably wouldn’t have won that game. So I think obviously the talk is easy to talk about it, but then showing it is another thing.”

The stars could be aligning for Boston, though, as Monday marks the 16-year anniversary of the Celtics’ 2008 title. Boston hasn’t gone all the way since.

– Field Level Media

Can Mavericks Make NBA History?

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DALLAS – (Staff and Wire Service Report) – Luka Doncic wasn’t going to let the Dallas Mavericks go down quietly. With Dallas facing a 3-0 deficit in the NBA Finals, Doncic rose to the occasion and led the Mavericks to a 122-84 shellacking of the Boston Celtics on Friday night in Game 4 on his home court.

Doncic went for 29 points, five assists, five rebounds and three steals, a performance that virtually erased a fourth-quarter collapse in Game 3 that subjected the Dallas star to scrutiny from media across the country.

In that game, the Mavericks trailed by 21 following a Derrick White 3-pointer with 11:07 left in the game before mounting a feverish rally that got them within 93-90 with 6:11 to go. But with 4:12 remaining, Doncic stepped in front of Jaylen Brown to try and draw a charge and was called for a blocking foul — his sixth personal.

Dallas challenged the call, which stood, sending Doncic to the bench for the remainder of the contest. Doncic committed four of his fouls in the final quarter.

Jeff Van Gundy in Demand

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BOSTON – (Staff and Wire Service Report) – The Boston Celtics are reportedly considering moving Jeff Van Gundy from his senior consultant role to one courtside, but they may not be alone in a desire for Van Gundy’s services.

While the Celtics are exploring making Van Gundy an assistant coach, the Los Angeles Clippers are reportedly interested in doing the same, according to NBA reporter Marc Stein, via Substack.

Stein reported Friday that the Clippers have a “strong interest” in Van Gundy as an assistant coach, and that L.A. has “a strong chance at succeeding in that pursuit after the NBA Finals are complete.”

Clippers coach Tyronn Lue is already very familiar with Van Gundy, having been coached by Van Gundy on the Houston Rockets in 2004. The two were also together on the Team USA staff at the 2023 FIBA World Cup.

The Celtics are likely eager to keep Van Gundy on board. Boston coach Joe Mazzulla has sung the praises of Van Gundy’s work using a “non-biased perspective” to help the organization.

Additionally, the Celtics already know they’ll lose top assistant Charles Lee, who accepted the head coaching position with the Charlotte Hornets, and could lose veteran assistant Sam Cassell, who has been interviewed for multiple head coaching openings.

The Celtics can claim a record 18th NBA title if they win Friday night’s Game 4 against the Dallas Mavericks.

Van Gundy, 62, compiled a 430-318 record as head coach of the New York Knicks and the Rockets.

–Field Level Media