Bill Simmons: Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie a finalist to buy Celtics
"If he bought the Celtics, I think that’s a decent outcome. There’s a couple decent outcomes in this.”
Philadelphia Eagles team owner Jeffrey Lurie will be cheering on his team as they try to prevent the Chiefs from three-peating next month in Super Bowl LIX.
But the longtime Eagles figurehead and Boston native is reportedly also hard at work trying to buy the Boston Celtics, according to The Ringer founder and longtime sports scribe Bill Simmons.
The first round of bids for the Celtics were reportedly due last week, with The Boston Globe’s Michael Silverman reporting that at least four or five bids were expected to be submitted from investment groups looking to become the next owner of the reigning NBA champions.
Speaking on his podcast Sunday night, Simmons echoed Silverman’s sentiments about the number of viable parties looking to take over as owners of the Celtics — adding that Lurie put himself on the radar.
“The Celtics, it was their first round of buyers, they had to cut down their perspective buyers,” Simmons said. “Four or five people made the first round. One of the people was the Eagles owner, Jeffrey Lurie, who is apparently from Massachusetts. There’s been a couple of ‘Hmm, I wonder who these guys are?’ There are a couple I couldn’t figure out but that’s one.”
Lurie, 73, has been the owner of the Eagles since 1994, presiding over the franchise during a 31-year stretch that has included 19 postseason appearances and four trips to the Super Bowl — including a victory over the Patriots in February 2018.
According to Forbes, the Lurie family has a net worth of $5.3 billion.
“I always thought the Eagles were one of the best run football teams,” Simmons added. “So if he bought the Celtics, I think that’s a decent outcome. There’s a couple decent outcomes in this.”
Even with his ties to Philadelphia, Lurie is a New England product — growing up in Boston and earning degrees at Clark University (B.A.), Boston University (Masters), and Brandeis University (doctorate in social policy).
Lurie’s links to the Eagles hasn’t prevented him from cheering on local teams in Boston over the years. A Forbes feature revealed that Lurie became a season-ticket holder of the Boston Patriots in 1960, while another story from Clark University’s alumni magazine took note of his fervent fandom of all teams in the local area.
“The Boston native was fervent about his hometown sports teams to the point where he would sleep overnight outside of Boston Garden to snag tickets for obstructed-view seats to Bruins games,” Clark Now’s Jim Keogh wrote of Lurie in 2018. “When the Celtics reached the playoffs, he and his Clark buddies camped outside the Ticketron office in the parking lot of the Auburn Mall to be the first in line for tickets. “I got to know the lady in charge there,” he recalls. “She was very helpful.”
Lurie, along with Eagles players Jalen Hurts, A.J. Brown, and others, were also in attendance for Game 1 of the 2024 NBA Finals between the Celtics and Mavericks at TD Garden.
Speaking after Eagles punched their ticket to Super Bowl LVII in 2023, Lurie also credited the Celtics for establishing the culture that he tried to carry over to the Eagles.
“Well, I’ve always thought that the sports franchises that make decisions based on what they think is right, it’s never going to be the popular one in that case,” Lurie said, via NBC Sports Philadelphia. “I go back to Red Auerbach, because to me, he made a lot of decisions that were not the popular decisions in the headlines the next day in The Boston Globe but it was best for that franchise to continue their dynasty.
“Whether it was having Bill Russell be the player coach, the first African-American coach ever. Choosing point guard Bob Cousy. Red did things that were unpopular. The (Kevin) McHale trade, getting McHale to go with Larry Bird, waiting on Larry. There were just so many pointers when I look back on the way he ran that team.”
Per The Boston Globe, the sale of the Celtics is expected to be completed in two separate phases, with the new owner set to control 51 percent of the franchise if a deal is completed this spring. The remaining 49 percent will be sold in 2028.
Speaking on CNBC in July 2024 shortly after the plan to sell was first announced, current lead owner Wyc Grousbeck said he expected to remain with the organization through that second phase in 2028.
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