THE ED MYLETT SHOW - BOSTON CELTICS OWNER: HOW TO BUILD A CHAMPIONSHIP CULTURE

Episode Date: March 5, 2024

The INCREDIBLE BOSTON CELTICS OWNER is revealing his SECRET on today’s episode! As a lifelong Boston sports fan, this show is extra special for me! Get ready to tip off for a fascinating conversation with WYC GROUSBECK, the primary partner of the BOSTON CELTICS ownership group. This episode isn't just for the sports enthusiasts; it's for anyone eager to learn about resilience, vision, and the power of pursuing your passions with everything you've got. Join us as we dive deep into a world where sports, business, and personal passion intertwine. Wyc isn't just a figure in the sports world; he's a venture capitalist who transformed his love for the Celtics into a groundbreaking ownership that skyrocketed the franchise's value, a philanthropist making significant impacts, and an innovator in entertainment, co-founding Cincoro Tequila with fellow NBA owners, MICHAEL JORDAN, JEANNIE BUSS and WES EDENS, and bringing his life stories to TV screens with his hit show, "Extended Family." Wyc's journey from dreaming about owning the Celtics to raising championship banners is nothing short of legendary. In this episode, we uncover: The heartfelt story behind the acquisition of the Celtics and how a deep-seated love for the franchise fueled one of the most successful eras in its history. The blend of belief and meticulous preparation it takes to chase and achieve monumental dreams. Insights into how personal challenges, like his son Campbell's blindness, shape the legacy Wyc aims to build, both on and off the court. The drive and determination required to fight for what you believe in and the victories that come with it. The exhilaration of clinching an NBA championship and what it teaches about winning in life. Strategies for taking calculated risks to elevate from good to exceptional. This is a masterclass in high-visibility leadership, demonstrating how to navigate the pressures and responsibilities that come with being at the forefront of an iconic organization. And I’m more confident than ever that we’ll see that 18th BANNER hanging in the Boston Garden very soon! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

So hey guys, are you frustrated with where you're at right now? Maybe stunted in your progress? Well, if you are, I want to recommend a place for you to go called Growth Day. GrowthDay.com forward slash ed. It is the number one personal development app on the planet. It's got all kinds of high performance techniques in their courses, accountability, journaling, live speeches from some of the top influencers in the world, including me.

It's an overall environment to change your life. GrowthDay.com forward slash ed. from some of the top influencers in the world, including me, it's an overall environment to change your life. GrowthDay.com Insperity.com and download their free e-book on how to build your dream team. Don't let a lack of talent hinder your success. See how Insperity provides HR that makes a difference at Insperity.com. This is The Admire Show. Hey, welcome back to the show, everybody. I'm honored today as a Lifetime Boston sports fan. To have the primary owner of the Boston Celtics on my show is a real treat for me.

And I can't wait to share his wisdom and insights with you on leadership, on family, on setting standards. But I also can't wait to share with you some of his family background, which I found like super interesting and compelling. He's got a new sitcom out on NBC called Extended Family, which is kind of loosely based on his life. It's Tuesdays on NBC and Peacock. And if any of the show really resembles his real life, this is going to be an incredible interview. So primary owner of the Boston Celtics, Witt Grossbeck. Welcome to the show, brother. Yeah. Thanks a lot. It's nice just getting to know you just recently in our chat and reading

about you. And I'm excited to be on the podcast. Thank you. I am too, brother. So we got to start out with one of the greatest stories I've probably ever heard. Let's start with some Celtic stuff. We're going to weave in the show, family, all this stuff today. It's gonna be a great ride, everybody. But I was reading about how you ended up buying the team. And it is literally like something out of a movie. I mean, it's incredible.

He ends up buying this team for 360 million guys, just so you know. I don't, you know, round numbers. It's gotta be worth between, I don't know, five and seven billion now, probably, this many years later. At least that's what I'd pay for it if you would let me. But tell them the story of how you end up. It's your dream. Let's set the stage with that as a, as kind of a Boston kid growing up and then how it ends

up happening is just incredible. Well, a lot of people helped. I want to start with that, but it was, I was sitting at my desk doing an investment job at age 41. And not sure that that was the be all and end all for me. And I looked up at the wall and I saw a picture from 20 years before when I was on a college team that won a championship, a rower. And I looked at our picture with the oars and the trophy and the shirts over our shoulders, I'm literally getting goosebumps right now thinking about it, which, it says something bad about me okay or something

good but it's something true about me, that I get goosebumps thinking about competing as part of a team. And I was like, I'm 41, I'm past it, but I want to do that again. And so the only way to do that I realized was to try to be part of, you know, buying a Boston team and going winning the championship. So from there, I, you know, went that night or soon to a Celtics game, because I had some season tickets and I noticed that it was not full. And it just was in a down period. And I wondered if there was a chance to, and it was traded by the way on the New York Stock Exchange.

So it was a public company, so you could see their numbers. And I just wondered if I could politely ask the person who owned it, if he would sell me the team. Maybe it was time and maybe not, you never know. And we ended up meeting and having a really nice conversation. And we ended up, I had a deal by the end of the thing to, and I made it clear, I didn't have the money, which I didn't, but I was going to go get the money if I possibly could. And we shook hands and he couldn't have been nicer about it. And so then I'm 41 and I've got this

contract, but I don't have the funds. And so I went and met everybody I knew in Boston and I said, this is gonna be the last Boston team that sells in our lifetime. I've got the contract. We're gonna buy it December 31st. I'd like you to be part of it, but we're gonna do it for love, not money. And this is the whole key to the whole thing.

We're not trying to make money here. And I'm just telling you the truth that we're probably overpaying. It's a record price. It might be too much. In the context of the day, it was an overpayment, probably. But we're going to do it to be paid in love and enjoyment and passion.

There's a whole different way to be paid in life is to enjoy yourself. You've got to pay your bills, understood, not diminishing that or minimizing that. But think about being paid in enjoyment and breaking even. That's what we're gonna try to do here. And that's what happened. So I had 20, 25 people joined in in the first meeting

and others did not join in or brought accountants and try to negotiate puts and calls and interest rates and guaranteed returns. And I said, no, we don't have any of that. We're just going to be in it together side by side. And if it works. Well, as a guy that grew up, I was born in Weymouth, but I've been a lifetime fan, you know,

there's a lot of guys like you and I, like I'd love to own the Red Sox, but that's not going to happen ever again. I'd love to own the Celtics. I don't think the crafts are going to let go of the Patriots anytime soon. Bob and I sit on a board together for the college football Hall of Fame.

So I'm real sure of that, I've poked around. And, but the idea here, there's such a lesson everybody. I want you to, I want to unpack a lesson here. The key part here is he didn't have the money. And there's a thing I've learned about people that become successful. And that is that they have their preparation freaks. I think you would agree with me.

They want to prepare. I'm sure you were prepared for that meeting, but their threshold of what they think they have to know before they'll take a step into the room is lower. And people that have a hard time in life succeeding, they're just always getting around to preparing until all the conditions are perfect and you lose the moment.

And so for me, the big lesson of the takeaway was that like you got the handshake, you give them a non-refundable deposit as I understand it anyways. But you had this thing about, you were like, if I can just get in the room, I'll figure it out. I will figure it out. And I think that's a principle of success

with so many people that I meet. They'll put themselves in a position, maybe they're not completely prepared for, but if they know if they can get in the meeting, they can get in the room, they can get in the door, they can get the job, they can get the speech, that they'll somehow find their way through it. And a lot of other people never pursue

one of these opportunities, because they're getting around, and getting around, and getting ready. That had to be part of the reason why you're sitting where you are today. Am I right? I think, Ed, I think, well, I don't want to, I have to agree that your observation is true. I'm not sure how much it applies to me. I just want to be, you know, more humble than my normal attitude. But I, I, I respect what you say. And I think what I, the way I might say it is that I had the idea.

And once I had the idea, I was like, of course this is the idea of my lifetime. So I have to, and you can't always see that so clearly, but I just all of a sudden I started imagining myself as the lead owner of the Celtics, you know, with partners. And I'm like, nothing was gonna stop me from trying. So yeah, I think it's the same thing, but in other words, I couldn't have read anything in the preparation that was gonna talk me out of it.

Once I saw their numbers and they were cash positive, so you give you room to maybe try to improve the roster, borrow some debt, which we had to borrow $180 million and pay it off. So we needed some cash, but we're going to put the rest into the team. There was a whole virtuous cycle that we generated where there was enough. If we didn't all take cash every day, every week, every month, every year, but put it into the team, maybe the team could play a little bit better and then the tickets would sell. And, you know, so I'm coming at it from a different direction,

but I'm agreeing. If you don't really want to do something, what you're going to do is analyze it until you find a no answer. If you want to do something, you're going to get enough information and then try to go for it. I mean, my wife, Emilia, right now is at a meeting

in an undisclosed West Coast location with one of the biggest kind of stars in the world. I mean, one of the top stars, and that person wants to get involved with our Senkoro Tequila as a co-owner alongside Michael Jordan and Jeannie Boss and West Edens and us and Emilia's in that meeting one-on-one with this person

and they're from different backgrounds. And, but the connection has been made already and there's gonna be more coming out of it, but she's not prepared for the meeting. You can't prepare for this meeting. You just have to have, I mean, she's as prepared as she can be, but you just have to have belief and optimism and maybe things will happen.

Wow, that's so good. I actually think if we all step back and look at our lives a little bit different, our lives have been preparing us for whatever moment we're in right now. And if you can have that belief somehow that everything I've been going through in my life, no matter what it is, prepares me for this moment.

So hey guys, as you know, I've partnered up with my good friend Brennen Brouchard who's created the greatest personal development system that has ever been designed called Growth Day. There's everything from journaling to accountability programs, live messages every Monday for myself and other influencers. There's an opportunity for you to get courses that would cost thousands of dollars completely for free. It's incredible. Go to growthday.com forward slash ed and check it out. Bothday.com forward slash ed and check it out.

So hey guys, I've been doing the podcast now for I don't know seven or eight years and I have been talking about NetSuite by Oracle the entire time because they have helped me in every single business that I own. So if this is you, you should know these three numbers. 37,025, one, what does that mean? 37,000, that's the number of businesses which have upgraded to NetSuite by Oracle already.

It's the number one cloud financial system software on the planet, helps you with financial management inventory, HR and more. 25, NetSuite turns 25 this year, so they're making great deals. And one, because your business is one of a kind, so you can get customized solutions for all of your KPIs in one efficient system with one source of truth. Manage risk, get reliable forecasts and improve your margins. Everything you need in one efficient system with one source of truth. Manage risk, get reliable forecasts, and improve your margins. Everything you need in one place.

Right now, download NetSuite's popular KPI checklist designed to give you consistently excellent performance, absolutely free at netsuite.com slash my let. That's netsuite.com slash my let to get your own KPI checklist. Netsuite.com slash my let. So I get asked all the time, how did I get so much attention on social media,

in my businesses, email list, et cetera? I can tell you straight up, it's been constant contact. If you don't know who constant contact is, you need to know about these guys. Constant contacts, award-winning marketing platform has helped millions of small businesses, mind being one of them, stand out, stay on top of mind and seek big results fast.

They've got an easy way to promote your business with powerful tools like email, SMS marketing, social media posting, and they even do events management, what they've done for me in the past as well. You're gonna reach new audiences, you're gonna grow your customer list big time and communicate more effectively to sell more, raise more and grow fast on social media.

So get going and start growing your business today with a free trial at constantcontact.com. Just go to constantcontact.com right now, constant contact helping the small stand tall, constantcontact.com. There's another little element, and listen, you are being humble, and I love that about you.

And that keeps you making good Decisions when you lose humility you can make big mistakes believing your own press clippings. I agree with that I've made those mistakes in my life But having said that there's another little element to the story before we move off of it that I want everybody to hear and I like I'm gonna make you aware of it because I just think when you're great at something sometimes you're just oblivious to it But the vast majority of people that listen to my show or are watching us right now, they have their own version of buying the Celtics. It's to start their restaurant. It's to write the book, right? It's to find their dream relationship. It's to lose 50 pounds.

It's whatever it might be. Start their charity. And what happens oftentimes in people's lives is a dream stealer, I call them, comes along and talks them out of it. And oftentimes, it can even be somebody whom you admire and respect. I know like in my career, remember when I started, my dad, who's my hero, really questioned what I was doing and wanted to talk me out of it. Not because he was a hater, because he loved me and he wanted to protect me. He didn't want me to make a

mistake. Did you have people that you admired and that you looked up to tell you, you were crazy to be doing this and to be careful? You were, maybe you're paying too much money. Did you have anything like that happen? I did. I also want to come back to what you just said about people's goals. So I'm going to try to remember to do that after I answer your question. Mike, it wasn't that they were haters for sure, but I had people I respected that I went to talked about, I think the first four people I met

after shaking hands on the Celtics, the first four people I met, hoping they would come in, said no. And for perfectly good reasons, overpayment, I had never had an employee before. I had a great assistant. We said that again. I had never had an employee before. I had a great assistant. Wait, say that again. You had never had an employee before? If you can call my assistant an employee, I did have one employee. She's, we're still working together today, 21 years later.

Wendy Cooper, she's fantastic, but she doesn't really report to me, if you know what I mean. But other than that, but I guess I just, I got some very qualified nose, thoughtful nose from people that I really respected, but then I went ahead and signed the contract and wired the money, then when I had the signed contract everything actually got easier. If I can just talk for a minute about your observation that everybody has a dream or hopefully everybody has a dream, the way I say it, or I've said it to people in the past, like a class, a college class or something would be, I got to win a banner with the team in 2008.

Got the ring, we got the banner up in the rafters, had the parade. And I wanna win two more banners before I die. And everybody will normally, yeah, of course, and why doesn't he wanna win five more or something? I said, no, no, no, you don't understand. My son is born blind, Campbell, and doesn't see, has many amazing qualities.

He's everybody's favorite person who meets somebody he's struggled with or had to cope with not being able to see his whole life. I became the chairman of Mass Eye and Ear, which is the world's largest and among the leading, blindness and deafness research institutions affiliated with Harvard, but really stands on its own since the 1820s. And the motto is so that the deaf may hear

and the blind may see. And so one banner I wanna raise is we beat blindness. And one banner I wanna raise is we beat deafness. You know, we're done with it. And my point being that everybody in the room that I'd be talking to, and I think probably every listener here, could raise a banner. They have those talents. But what do you want your banner to say? Do you want to say, I did something about hunger or homelessness or poverty in my community or in the broader world?

I did something about, I did something for someone who was lonely. I did, I helped somebody fight cancer. I was a great parent or a great partner. I mean, it doesn't have to be the biggest banner in history. But what banner, when you're 80 years old, 90 years old, what banner do you wanna have in your Raptors? And then let me know when you do it,

and I'll come to the celebration. So that's kind of what I think about it. That's so good, and you know it. I'm stealing that. Yeah, well, I kind of polished it. I've polished that a little bit, but I think it kind of works because people think, oh yeah, this guy wants to win more banners, big deal.

But no, they're different banners. Brother, that's remarkable. I was going to ask you about Campbell later, but I want, I'll ask you now, since she brought him up, how is having Campbell in your life changed? That makes me emotional and he's not my son. I don't even know what the heck I'm doing right now. Right. Um, I have a sister, uh, wick my son. I don't even know what the heck I'm doing right now.

I have a sister, a wick, who went blind with diabetic retinopathy. So this is a subject that's close to my heart as well. Now, fortunately, we've got some of her vision back, but how did having a child who, I'm sure when that happens, I really have this theory that when God, you know, maybe takes a gift from somebody, he doses them with incredible other gifts that make them superhuman in certain ways. But I'm curious as to having a child like Campbell, how it changed you, it had to some

extent change you or affect you, give you a perspective or something that was different before God blessed him in your life. How did it affect you? Well, I guess I would just say Campbell is and his sister are both spectacular thoughtful people who are generous and giving and Do everything they can for other people And so that's one of his gifts. He's he's beloved by everybody who meets him really that's true. It's not an overstatement he probably taught me and others to by everybody who meets him. Really, that's true. It's not an overstatement. He probably taught me and others to, you know, I don't want any more pain in the world. I don't want people to feel overlooked or left behind in any way. Or, you know, everybody feels this way. I'm not saying

I'm special in that way, but it just made me realize That you know, we have to go fight blindness We have to go find flight deafness who gave me probably a little bit more of a purpose But anyway Campbell doesn't owe me anything, but he's the most wonderful In a sister are spectacular and his mom and I worked hard raising them, but they they started off spectacular anyway You know what does make you different? I'll just brag on you, um, since you, it's, it's pretty clear to me early in the interview, you're going to refuse to do it. So I'll do it for you.

And this isn't just you. A lot of people have feelings about things in life, Wick. And this is why I do my show. They feel like they want to change their emotions. They feel like they want to change their family station in life. They feel like they want to make a difference. But what separates people, isn't that you have that feeling. It's that you use the word that you just used.

They fight for it. And, you know, life's not going to give you what you'd like to have or you want to have, or you feel like having. It gives you what you're willing to fight for. And what separates people in life is their willingness to fight for something that's bigger than them. And to your point, this banner is one of those things. But that is what separates you. A lot of people would have liked to own the Celtics. You fought for it. That's why you have it. And I think there's a lesson there.

You're not going to say it about yourself, but it's, it's a fact. And I think when you're in the midst of doing something great in your life, you really don't even realize it because you got the meetings every day and the pressure and we lost in the finals last year. So it doesn't really dawn on you probably till it's long done. And you are 80 years old, Wickey. Like I owned the flip in Boston Celtics and I even have the money to buy the team. The other thing that dawned on me about you is the sitcom.

So it's called extended family guys. And it's sort of loosely based on Wic and his family. Tell me this isn't really how this happened. Cause it's like, if I understand the premise, I understand the premise. And by the way, I've heard unbelievable things about Amelia, just so you know, for mutual friends of ours, they're like, wicks pretty good, but Amelia's remarkable. And I'm serious.

Whenever I go to a Celtics game up in Boston, Amelia lives primarily down in New York. And so whenever I met a game in Boston, everybody's like, hi, wick, where's Amelia? Where's Amelia? Where's me? I mean, I will hear it 12 to 15 times a night, including tonight's talk. And where's Amelia? And so I asked her the other day, I said, Amelia,

has anybody ever once asked you, where's Wic? And she's like, oh honey, and she's like the big smile. She's like, she's crunching up her face, thinking of a time someone might have asked, where's Wic? Like, that's the biggest up her face thinking of a time someone might have asked where's wick like that's the She asked her reflect. I'm sorry, man. Well, I'll ask where you are next time. I'll ask around But I gotta tell you I think people look at someone like you or you know Anybody who they see on TV or like their family dynamic must be perfect as well

Right and so then I'm reading into your background. Like, well, he's got a beautiful and incredible family, but there was, I'm sure the day you found out that Campbell had an issue with his vision, that's something to process, right? That's not, that's a curve ball. We'll call it a curve ball. Hey guys, I want to talk to you about Shopify.

You know, when I started the show, the furthest thing for my mind was doing online business and now I can't imagine my life without it. So I love Shopify because they're a global commerce platform that helps you sell at every stage of your business. So whether you're in the startup phase where you're just launching your online store or you're at that really big business where you're like, hey, we just hit a million bucks in order stage, Shopify is there to help you grow.

They've helped me through every single stage. I wouldn't even know what to do without them. So whether you're selling shipping supplies or promoting productivity programs, Shopify helps you everywhere, from their all-in-one e-commerce platform to their in-person POS system, wherever and whatever you're selling,

Shopify's got you covered big time. They help turn browsers into buyers, they convert their checkouts 36% better than all the leading competitors. And I've used them for everything I do online. So every single thing you see that I market online, Shopify is somehow involved. I wouldn't even know what to do without them. Sign up for a $1 per month trial period at Shopify.com slash My Let all lowercase.

Go to Shopify.com slash My Let now to grow your business no matter what stage you're in. Shopify.com slash Mylet. Named one of the best personal finance podcasts, the Stagging Benjamin show with Joe and his friends makes financial literacy fun. I got an email today from the Lenpenzo.com HR department. I find it really interesting. I'm an employee of one at this company. So, but somebody from the HR department sent me an email telling me that I had a raise. If

I just open the attachment, I can see how much my raise was. Make sure you click on the links that are in there too. Oh, absolutely. Yeah, I can't wait. I'm excited. Find out more by searching the Stack in Benjamin's podcast, wherever you listen. And then I don't know that this is accurate, but I know the premise of the show The premise of the show is that you you and there's there's a woman who ends up getting divorced And she ends up living under the same roof With her ex as they decide to raise the children and this really successful guy owns a sports team ends up dating her And then there's this crazy dynamic that takes place

Tell me that that's actually accurate. Did that actually happen? I'm sitting in the communal apartment right now in Manhattan. George Emilius X was born and raised in Boston, went to BC, born in Needham. Huge Boston sports fan. There's been more back to that later. But hilarious guy, brilliant guy, worked on Wall Street for many, many years and really, really funny and really nice guy and a great dad.

But eventually, apparently, the marriage ran its course and but they were both, they said, look, we're gonna be better friends. So what if we stop being married but we kept the kids intact, you know, as best we could. This is the story of the show. So speaking for George and Amelia here, who are co-creators and co-executive producers,

the idea was that they had, which I think was brilliant was to cut, basically it's called nesting and it happens every now and then if you can get along with your ex, the ex switches in for a week and then you switch in for a week and the kids stay put in their bedrooms. And the kids I think were young, I think there were eight and 11 at the time or something or nine and 12 and it just probably provided more stability and calm that moms here or dads here,

maybe there were Sunday dinners, but everybody got along and they went, I mean, I, they may have still gone on family vacations. To this day, we all have Thanksgiving and Christmas together and so on. So George is part of the family. He has welcomed me to the family. There was a family event. There was a family funeral. And I just met George that evening. Neil and I had been dating a little bit.

And in front of the whole family, George stood up in this emotional time, said I just want to welcome Wic to the family. Like he knew it was serious. George is a fantastic guy. And so when George is willing to go that far for his kids and the happiness of not only his ex, Amelia, but his two kids, and Amelia was willing to go that far.

And of course, I'm happy to share everybody's life together. I mean, it's an amazing thing when it can happen. We didn't start the show to give people a lecture. It's just kind of funny because of Boston Sports Band's head explodes when his dynamic beautiful wife ex-wife brings home the owner of his favorite sports team. It's a little bit much, OK? That's crazy.

He literally said, and he named a couple NBA owners, what about this guy or that guy? You know, Mark Cuban, can't you date Mark Cuban? You just can't, Boston sports is all I have. Okay. So he's so funny. He's now a writer on the show, by the way. So he's in the writer's room out there in LA half the time. That's awesome. You guys just picture this.

You're really, first off, it is unique that you're living essentially in the same house with your ex-wife. And then you're the chairman of the Celtics and she dates the guy that owns the team. So we've got Donald Faison playing the Celtics owner and he's thrilled. He actually won the celebrity basketball league in LA.

He was like on the winning team. He's a real basketball player. He's a hilarious guy. And I personally wanted him for my role because I wanted to have, I just imagined Donald Faison owning the Celtics. It seemed to work for me. And then Abigail Spencer, very talented,

with Scotty on suits, and then in Raisin Attabee and Mad Men. She looks a lot like Amelia, but she's just very talented in her own right. And she's playing Amelia's role. And then the very super talented John Crier is playing George. And so that's why we were actually last week, the number two show on all of Tuesday night.

Congratulations. By the way, the reason I know about the show is John Crier, my huge two and a half men fan. And I think he's just, he's awesome. So you guys go check out the show and just this man's life is so interesting. Like everyone's that sold to me. Hey, if you get the owner of the Celtics on the show, do it. And then I start to research and cause I don't want to just have any owner on

the show. I only do 52 interviews a year and I'm like, my gosh, this man is so compelling. It's so interesting. What's it like? What's it like when the dream comes true? Take us through this. 2008, uh, it finally happens. You've owned it.

I guess you probably own the team about six, seven years by that time. Right. And you get to actual raise the actual Celtics banner with the parade. I read some stuff like when you were selling people on investing in the team, it was not just the fun of it, but it was also like, imagine the parade day. You know, imagine this raising the banner.

You actually sold the dream to investors, which is what I think all great leaders do. They've got a vision. They've got an ability to sell a vision in a dream and repeat it and get buy-in from people. That's one element of the things that you're great at that you discount about yourself. But what is it like when you actually step into a dream?

Cause most of us, most people listening to this, pray for that day where they actually meet their dream, they're stepping into it. What's it feel like? I was almost like bewildered. It was so, I didn't let myself believe it almost because it just seemed too implausible. I know it was half time of game six

and we were up by 28 points at half time. We went on a run right before half time. We were up like 26, 28 points at half time. I went into our courtside club and I've got Steven Tyler in there from Aerosmith and Bill Belichick from the Patriots who was a terrific guy off the field, on the field, you know, he's non-communicative or whatever he is,

off the field, he's hilarious. And I'm sitting next to, standing next to Belichick and I said, Bill, what do you think? Like, what do you think? I figured if anyone's gonna take me down a notch, it's Bill Belichick, right? Like take a one-play at a time like the most Right by the book and he goes are you kidding me? You're the bleep and world champions We can celebrate now. He goes tequila for everybody in the bar like he what at halftime

I'm like, well, you just got jinxed by Bill Belichick, but we But we won by 39, you know, but I still didn't believe it. I'm like, well, they could come back, we're up 30, you know, and then they put these velvet ropes at our feet that they were preparing to raise. And then like all of a sudden I remembered, oh my God, the trophies in the building. Like I hadn't even allowed myself to think about the trophy.

And I'm like, I'm about to be handed this trophy. And I had no remarks prepared. You know, I just didn't let myself prepare because I didn't want to jinx it. I was superstitious, I guess. And I just didn't believe it was true. But you know, to this day, every day I walk out and I'm like, I'm sitting in these great seats.

I'm like, I guess it must be me and my partners who are sitting with me because like who else would be sitting in these seats? Like I, it's kind of a pleasant surprise every day. I swear to God, it's that good. Are you telling me Bill Belichick bought a round for the bar or am I exaggerating that story? Yeah, he did. That's the way I remember it. We're going to go with that.

We're going with that. You, uh, you win. I don't know, for me, people have asked me like different dreams of mine that have happened. If I'm being honest, when they happened, they were incredible, but it didn't last as long as I thought it would if I'm being candid, meaning the joy of it in the U4. This is just me. I'm just sharing from my perspective. I'm curious for you because of the pressure of now doing it again or doing something bigger. And so it's, it was almost like for me, I got as much joy and almost pursuing the dream as I did in actually the achievement of it. And there's actually some studies that say you get more dopamine in the pursuit

of a goal than you do actually when you hit it in your brain. I know. I can, I can refute that. Okay. Give it to me. I want to hear your perspective. It's been 16 long years, but every day I'm happy about it. And You are. Yeah. I mean, because it wasn't just me, I didn't make any of the baskets, you know, it was us as a group and we got there.

And I don't know, I'm just, maybe it's just, it's my character or lack there ever, whatever, but I'm real about it. Could that explain why you haven't won another one in 16 years? I'm just kidding, I'm just kidding. We're on top of the league right now, my friend. We are five or six games ahead of like everybody else, but we

don't want to jinx it because it's only two thirds the way through the season. What about that though? So the team itself right now, I'm a huge fan. And so we've been knocking on the door. I say we and I don't have an ownership piece until this interview is over today. But, um, but the, we've been knocking on the door. I don't know, five Western Conference finals, couple finals. And that's frustrating.

It is the joy of winning for you, greater than the pain of defeat at least as the owner. Meaning you said it's frustrating, but it looks to me like it's frustrating, but that that championship meant so much to you that, you know, you can grind through the, man, we were so close. We were so close. What's that feel like?

If we can get back there, it'd be super sweet. John Henry once told me his second one was his favorite because you could prove the first wasn't a fluke, but Red Auerbach of the Celtics always said the first one was always the best. So I'd love to have the debate. I'd love to have the chance to have the debate. I'm glad I got one is better than nine,

but there'll never be a loss that's bad enough to make me want to leave. I actually think the losses put the wins in perspective in a way they make them sweeter. If you're just undefeated every year, what's the fun of it? I mean, I'd love to try it, but it doesn't happen. Life isn't that way.

One thing you've been willing to do, I don't know if this is a lesson, but I'd like you to describe it. You've been willing to break up and shift. There's a great book I've read many years ago. You might have read a two-call, Good to Great, by Jim Collins, and he talks about, if you read the book, you don't know what I'm talking about.

I took his class. He was my probably favorite teacher at Stanford Business School in 1991. Yeah. Okay, there we go. Yeah, by the way, if you're sensing an IQ deficiency in this interview, guys, he's a Princeton Stanford dude, and I'm not. So that's probably what you're hearing

through the audio here. Which which direction is the deficiency is the question? I think we know. I think we know. I buy the floor seats at Celtic Games and you own the team. So I think we know. Having said that, though, the you've been willing to change the seats. And so picture this guys, you're getting to the conference finals, the Eastern Conference Finals or the NBA Finals, which is darn good. And yet he's still willing to move pieces. Now, like, you know,

Brown and Tate and were kind of been benchmarks on the team. But the pieces around it, you've been able to make some bullmows, even this last season, you don't have to talk about the specific players, because most of my audience wouldn't know them, they'd be like, trading smart. You know, I was like, wow, that's a big move. Why is that you're willing to do that?

Is it that you really aren't willing to settle for pretty good and you're willing to break apart? There's a risk, you could have hurt the team by bringing Prozingis in potentially and losing smart and these other things. Sounds like you're still willing to break apart. There's a risk. You could have hurt the team by bringing prosengus in potentially and losing smart and these other things. Sounds like you're still willing to take risks to get to great. Yeah, I didn't think we were super consistent over the last few

years. We were leading the finals and then we lost. We were way down in the conference finals last year. And then we tied it. But then we lost. Jason did sprain his ankle. But that's whatever. We should.

We lost our first three games of the series against Miami. We got beaten by two good teams, the Warriors and the Heat, but it just didn't feel like just bringing it all back the same. It made sense, but maybe the first, if there's a lesson here, it's that you do have to know what you don't know. I don't have the basketball mind to be able to say, let's make this trade or let's, I looked at film of a hundred college players and I think we should draft this one. That's not my, I don't have that ability. I think they all look pretty good and I can't tell who's the best.

But guess who does have that ability? Brad and the staff, right? Not come wood, but I mean, they proved it. And Danny before him. And so I went in and talked to Brad and Joe Mozzola, the coach and I said, guys, you know, what should we do? Should we make some changes?

I want to make some changes. I don't want to just bring it back. So I would like some changes. And Brad, you know, broke a lot of hearts by trading Marcus, Mark, Grant Williams, Rob Williams, three fabulous people and great players. But we didn't know he'd be able to get back Drew Holiday and Chris House, Pursingas, or that they played this well. Nobody wins a trade, right?

You lose, you gain. But we mixed it up. And Brad confidently recommended and I approved some moves that we can't say how it all worked out. All I can say is the team's playing well at the moment. Hi there. Sorry for the interruption, but are you enjoying this show on Google Podcasts? You should know that the Google Podcasts app is going away this spring. That's right, going away, gone as in no longer available.

You can still enjoy this show elsewhere, though. Try out Spotify or Amazon music or maybe tune in as more your style. Whatever app you switch to, be sure to follow so you never miss the next episode. And thanks for listening. Wherever you listen. Okay, I want you to brag about something.

I've observed you and read about you and we have some mutual friends. And so I want you to, if it's bragging, do it please, because I want them to get the lesson from something that I think you're great at. And my answer for you, and why you make these changes, and my observation is, there's a standard you expect your organization to run at.

And you don't accept being the 25th or 23rd best team in the league in practice facility or wins or losses. I think most great leaders set a culture. Maybe they do it with humility like you do by saying I'm not a basketball guy, I'm a this, but you are a guy. The leader sets the tone and the culture. And it seems to me like you understand, we're the Boston Celtics, we got 17 banners. No offense, I'll say it, no offense

to the Oklahoma City Thunder. They're a great team, they've got great young players. But you're the Celtics, right? And so there's a standard, a cache, an expectation that comes with leading an organization that's got that type of tradition. And I think great leaders, one of the things they do, they may do it subtly, quietly,

some of them do it brashly and boldly like Steve Jobs did, but they set a standard and they expect a standard. I'm curious as to your thoughts on that and leadership. Well, thanks for asking. The only way I could be in a conversation about success is by just believing that I go with my gut instinct sometimes. I mean, that's how I do whatever I do. And it goes wrong.

There are times when it doesn't work, obviously, but back in our back when I was closing December, we were closing December 31st, 2002 on this purchase with my new mortgage on my house. That was when you can mortgage your house to buy a Boston, you know, an NBA team a long time ago. But I named, we had three different classes of stock in there and one was Boston, Boston Championship basketball LLC and one was Boston basketball partners LLC. These are meaningless names just for paperwork purposes, right?

And then the lawyers called that morning before the closing and said, we need one more name. And I'm like, another name. And I thought I gotta do a little better on these names. I said, all right, Banner 17 LLC. And there were 16 at the time, right? And in the press conference, when we closed that day, it was at half time of the Celtics-Brisleys game

on December 31st, which we won. I have the game ball. But after the game, all the Boston press is there and we're the new owners. And the oldest member of the group, the most revered sports writer said, Mr. Grossbett, I looked through the paperwork, a company named Banner17 LLC just bought the Celtics.

Are you familiar with how many banners are actually in the garden? I said, I am familiar, I born and raised here. He said, can you explain to the fans, are you guaranteeing a championship? Are you guaranteeing the 17th banner? And you know that you never would guarantee anything in sports. You know, you don't guarantee the coach's job.

You don't guarantee that you're going to win the championship. And I thought, am I going to start off this whole thing with a lie? No. So I said, here's what I'm guaranteeing. I'm guaranteeing we're going to win B banner 17 or I'm going to die trying. And that's been the motto ever since, except now we're onto 18, hopefully. Okay. Now you got me with goosebumps. That's good. Yeah. You did it to me in the interview. That's the point.

That's what we love. That's what we love around here is Celtic pride means something. And the day that it doesn't mean something to me, I'll step down. See, I think there's a lesson there, everybody. Forget the Celtics because like 90% of you right now hate me because I love the Celtics today and like, you know, it's the Celtics. But if you're going to lead a great organization, just a little lesson in here, there has to be a little bit of pride to be a part of that team. I don't care if it's your dry cleaners, your restaurant, you know, your family. There should be, there's a great book written many years ago called Team Ego. It's actually about the Celtics.

And so there's got to be something about your organization, your team, your business where people feel a pride to be a part of it. They play better, that there's a standard of being a part of your organization. And, and leaders like Wick didn't have to create that. Bill Russell created that. Larry Bird created that, right? But you as a leader have to maintain and hold that standard when you're leading something great.

And it's important. There's a reason why the Celtics and Lakers win most of the championships. When people go there, there's an expectation that just making the playoffs isn't good enough. You should look at your business and look at your family. What are the expectations? What are the standards for your company, for you personally, for your family?

Because in life, you don't always get your goals. You don't, but you ultimately almost always get your standards. Standards are what deliver on goals. And that's why that important question is so important. And it's by no coincidence, this man names at the 17th banner. There's, it's no coincidence to me. And then it happened. All right.

That's my little soapbox lecture for today during our interview. What about dealing with stress and controversy? We don't need to go into what they are, but you've had your dose of that. Well, you've been leading the team. You had to make a coaching change at one point. That wasn't the most pleasant experience probably in the world. Um, you took a coach from being on the bench and put them in charge of running the whole thing, the GM position.

You've had players get sick and ill and players make mistakes. How have you dealt and do you deal with, just owning the Celtics and being that guy plums with some stress and pressure? How do you deal with that? The only way I can really deal with it, I mean, I rely on my family partly

and for a lot of comfort and support and enthusiasm, but the only way I can really deal with it, I guess, is to feel like I've done with my team. I've got the best people with me, teammates, players, staff, front office, corporate partners, fans. We're all kind of in it together. but feeling like we've done what we can do. And I guess I come back and I got, I brought back, read our back, we brought back red to be team president. He had been sidelined before we got in in 2002 slash three. We brought red back as our first act really.

And we, I just kind of think of, I get to work with him for I think four years before he passed away, but I learned a lot. And so what would Red do? What would Red do in this situation? What does Celtic pride demand? I mean, if you just, the thing about sports teams is if you do them for money, I think it's very hard.

It becomes transparent, you know, fans don't, fans want you to do it for love. When we authentically organized this group and my partners and I, we did it for love, even though I as an example had a mortgage and still do probably, yeah, I do, I have a mortgage. It's a different mortgage, but I have a mortgage. So if you've tried to follow your own internal rule book

and you've done what you can do, then the ball goes in the basket or it doesn't, you can deal with it either way. Let's put it that way. What about having a big life? You have a big life. And I evaluate this myself. I want people on the inside of pursuing a dream for a minute,

like be as vulnerable as you can on this. I've ended up with a life that's big, it's maybe not the right term, but I think you know what I mean, like there's a lot of moving parts to my life. And, you know, whether it's managing your assets and people and expectations and, you know, when you climb up a ladder in life,

your, your Rolodex gets bigger. There's more phone numbers, there's more emails, there's more stuff and it's a lot and it can be overwhelming. And then, you know, you got a TV show, you got your family, you got the Celtics, you got other business ventures, I'm sure. And sometimes I wonder, I'm always modest,

honest with my audience, I'm 52, you're 10 years older than me. Sometimes I do wonder when's enough enough, so to speak. Sometimes I do wonder when's enough enough, so to speak. When is it just, I sometimes see friends of mine that I used to judge for not climbing higher. Why aren't you expanding? Why aren't you growing? And now there are a lot of days candidly where I go,

I don't, is having all this big stuff that I dreamed about, you know, the, the life that I want or that I should have or that it's cracked up to be. I wonder if anyone's ever asked you that before, but you have a big life. You know, I'm not meaning in a more important life than someone else, but you know what I mean, Wic, you know, you know exactly what I mean. It's not simple. I'd like, I'd like to, I'd like to try to answer but or comment by saying that If it feels right for you go for in other words, it's your life and there's one of them in my opinion

I'd love to come back, but I don't know if I'll be invited back And reincarnated or something like that like if it feels right to you to Say I've done it and and this is what how I want to spend my time going forward, that's you and that's right for you. I mean I'm very comfortable with that. In the last seven years, Emilia and I got married seven years ago and in those seven years we've started at Tequila with Michael Jordan, Jeannie Boss and Wes Eadens and Emilia has been the CEO and is now the executive chairman. We started a TV show with her ex and Tom Werner and Michael Malley, really the show creator and show runner.

Lionsgate and NBC. We've continued working on the Celtics. I've got a venture capital fund. We just invested in the PGA tour yesterday and raised a good part of our third fund at Causeway Media Partners, now called Causeway Partners, with my couple of three of my great friends and we've been investing together now for 14 years. So we're doing all those things, playing in two bands. I picked up the rhythm guitar, first the bass and the rhythm guitar three years ago.

I've been a drummer my whole life, but I'm in a classic rock band and a blues band. Like I'm adding things. That doesn't mean I'm better than anybody else who's listening. He may be all sick of me by now, but it's not that. It's that I'm having so much fun. I want to go till I'm 80 or 90. My father's 89 years old. He's still teaching. He's teaching at Stanford Business School. I tease him. I said, you know, you must be saying the same stuff over again. You don't even remember, but it's he's a revered professor out at Stanford and And rightfully so so I'd like to go a long time and I'm trying to add things on

That's just me. That doesn't mean it's better It means that's what I've chosen to do Yeah, he was on stage the other night with flow ride and billy idle and he's humbly told me that he was at least ranked second on the stage that night. Well, he's my band. Yeah, we played well that night. He's adding stuff to his play. All right, last question for you. First of all, let me just say something to you. Thank you for today. I've enjoyed it and your your wisdom and humility is refreshing.

It's refreshing and I see now why you're so successful and why people I don't have either one of those, but the one you want to talk to is Amelia. We'll have to arrange that because I would love that. You will lay out the screen. Yeah, I'll have you up to Hope Island and we'll have some we'll do a lobster bake or something up there on the island. We'll do that. Let me ask you a question. Give advice here. Lastly, someone's driving in their car right now. They're running on the treadmill. here lastly. Someone's driving in their car right now, they're running on the treadmill, they're in their living room watching, you and I chop it up here today and they've heard this sort of inside conversation about life and family and success and they said, you know, I have a dream myself like you did

Wick, where you you wanted to own this team and they ran into you at a Starbucks said, you know, Mr. Grossbeck, can I get five minutes with you? And they said, I've got this dream. I just, what would your advice be to me to get started to any words of wisdom to me in the pursuit of what I've got to do, what I'm going to face, what I'm going to see? If I could ask this man who's obviously accomplished several of his dreams, and actually dreams he never even knew he had a decade or two ago, what would your advice be to that person?

You know, I'll take it pretty much from Jim Collins back in the day, dreams he never even knew he had a decade or two ago. What would your advice be to that person? You know, I'll take it pretty much from Jim Collins back in the day, because you go come full circle on that. He said, you have to have your big, hairy, aggressive goal. You have to have your, you know, climb Mount Everest. What would you do if you wanted to climb Mount Everest, which I think he's done. He was a world-class climber and his wife, I think, won the Iron Man triathlon, and he showed a film of Joanne winning it, like, crawling over the finish line after she completely collapsed, and still going for it. You know, he was so inspirational, is so inspirational. But he said, set your goal, and then figure out exactly

what it's gonna do to accomplish it, what it's gonna take. And so, for example, Everest, as I understand it, it's three or four years of climbing. I mean, it's a decade of climbing. It's three or four years of climbing the world's highest peaks in other continents, everywhere, Akankagua and McKinley and maybe it's, lots of newbs right next to Everest to get used to it.

You've got to do, it can't be your first mountain, right? It's got to be your 25th mountain or 50th mountain and, and then get very lucky. But, and then don't stop, you know, but get, get up there. You know, if you, if you're not going to come to it, if you stop, you may need to stop. If it's Everest, right? You may need to turn around. But I mean, the point being, don't just say, I'm going to climb Everest.

Let's try it tomorrow. You're going to try it in three or four years. And so figure out what it's going to take. Talk to people. Listen. Change your mind about what you're, oh, I wanted to do it this year. No, you can do it in three or four years.

OK. I mean, you've got to be realistic about what it actually takes. Don't kid yourself. Don't fool yourself into it. Because it's a false dream. Or it's a false path if you're if you're just sort of trying to make it happen quickly. So we wanted to win a championship, it took us seven years. Danny had the plan to go get Kevin Garnett. You know, we needed, we analyzed the past 25 teams in the NBA who had won,

and 24 of them had won with a big three concept of two all-stars plus an all-time great. We didn't have an all-time great. We had two all-stars and we had just prayed to one away. So we're down to one all-star. Danny put a plan together that took three or four years. They culminated in bringing Ray Allen and Kevin Garnetti into join Paul Pierce. We waited for that. We set that up. We did the math, the research and the statistics. We toughed it out for three years or so until KG became available. We did have enough assets to make the trade and convince him to come

and convince Minnesota to send them to us. And then it did win, but it wasn't an accident really. It was good luck, but it wasn't an accident. It was planned out and it happened. So I guess that's what I'm trying to say is if you really have the dream, make it happen. Don't just hope for it. Very good, Wick.

Yeah, and there's lessons like listening today. There's this great Chinese proverb that says, if you want to know the road ahead, ask those coming back. Oh, smart, yeah. And that's why I have someone like you on the show today. You've traveled a very unique, very unique road that very few people in life get a chance to travel, which is catching the biggest of the big dreams in their life and

I'm really I'm really honored that we had a chance to share this space today and this time together I can feel the internet reverberating and buzzing right now with all the shares about our conversation I'm glad people got a little more of a inside look at you as well. And so thank you for being here today very much Thanks for the invitation. I really enjoyed it. I learned a lot as well and I've become a fan instantly and I'm on team Ed. So thanks very much. Thank you. And by the way guys, go check out extended family Tuesdays on NBC and Peacock. It's got a great cast and obviously you heard the background of the story.

So all right everybody, share today's episode. God bless you. Max out your life. This is the Ed and Mylon Show. So, all right, everybody, share today's episode. God bless you. Max out your life. This is the Edmmerland Show.