Eagles Owner Jeffrey Lurie Is Reportedly In The Running To Buy The Boston Celtics

With the formal bids to purchase the defending NBA Champion Boston Celtics due a few weeks ago, it was only a matter of time before we started to hear some leaks about who made it out of the first round. When you're looking for around $6B and you don't even own your own arena, we're not talking about a huge pool of candidates here. It's going to have a very unique person (or group) who is willing to shell out that kind of cash despite your limited revenue streams. You also most likely aren't getting a new arena yourself anytime soon, so that's all things to consider.

And while for some reason we keep hearing reports about Fenway Sports Group despite all of them being complete bullshit, we finally have a leak of a potential owner that actually has some weight. 

I'll remind you, Bill Simmons is extremely plugged in when it comes to this stuff. He was all over the Clippers' price,and  he nailed the Suns situation when that team went through their sale, so if there's one thing I put stock into it's whenever Simmons is "reporting" on a potential franchise sale. I'd say 9 times out of 10 he's on the money or pretty damn close to it.

So, given his MA background (shoutout Clark and Worcester MA!), this tracks. Google tells me Lurie is worth just $5.3B, so he may in fact need some help here if the Celts are looking for $6B, but I'm sure there are fancy rich people ways around that. Form a group, take out a loan, who the hell knows. The point is he's rich as shit, from the area, and interested in the team. I see no reason why Lurie shouldn't be taken seriously as a bidder.

In terms of an owner, I think Philly fans would tell you he's been pretty awesome during his tenure of owning the Eagles. Since 2017 they are 4th in the entire NFL in wins (5th all time since he bought the team), they are pretty much always competitive and are now back in the SB for the 2nd time in 3 years. During his tenure, I feel like we've always seen the Eagles go out and spend for talent which is one of the biggest requirements of whoever the new owner of the Celts becomes. Being willing to cut the checks in order to win is crucial during this window.

Also, he fits so far into my biggest 4 rules for whoever this owner is going to become:

1. You must accept and bow down to our lord and savior Brad Stevens. He calls the shots, you do what he wants without questioning it.

2. You must be willing to spend hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars on luxury tax and second apron penalties to keep this roster together for as long as this current window is open

3. You believe in Mazzulla Ball and everything it stands for

4. You are not John Henry and FSG

We certainly can't answer 1-3 just yet, but we absolutely know the answer to #4 and that's a great place to start. Jeffrey Lurie is not John Henry and is not FSG. As badly as aggregating accounts and WEEI want you to believe FSG is in the final mix, instead let's focus on the real candidates who just so happen to not be FSG.

I think it's important to understand that whoever takes over, things are going to be different from the Wyc/Irv era. That is of course unless those two come to their senses and just sell the team to Stephen Pagliuca's group. I mean the guy has been there 20+ years and is also rich as shit. He's as much a part of this organization as any other owner, so just let him be the top dog already. I think most fans would be happy with that outcome.

But if it can't be Pags, I guess I'd have no problems with Lurie, as long as his plan for the team aligns with where they are trending, which I assume would be a pretty obvious question for Wyc/Irv to ask at this stage. I would hope that if Lurie made it through to the next round, that his intentions with the team got the thumbs up, and now it's all about price.