The pressure was on Wyc Grousbeck & Co. Their foray into "ping-pong ball hell" had just occurred, exactly a decade after a previous ping-pong ball disaster fell upon the Boston Celtics.
Other than an Eastern Conference finals berth in 2002 and three cursory playoff appearances thereafter, the Celtics have struggled for their place on the bustling Boston pro sports scene.
They were not only third, but they were a distant third. They had resorted to dancing girls, a mascot called "Lucky," and halftime shows that would make Barnum & Bailey proud. But it could have been argued the intermissions were better than the basketball.
Anyway, the negativity started rolling when it sunk in: young phenoms Greg Oden and Kevin Durant weren't walking through the Causeway Street doors to save the Celtics.
The pre-draft excitement disappeared and it got ugly for a few days.
Danny Ainge? Didn't he sign Doc to a contract extension two weeks earlier? Clueless.
Doc Rivers? A nice guy, but not a leader or a champion.
And Paul Pierce? A gunner and a loser.
So what did Grousbeck & Co. do to answer the critics?
Nothing.
No heads rolled. No George Steinbrenner demands. Nothing.
It may have been the best "nothing" in Boston sports history.
"We believed in Danny. We have always believed in Danny," said Grousbeck. "He had been working on things behind the scenes. He had talked about trying to get a veteran player or two with Paul. Basically, Danny realized he had to do something and we believed he would make the right decision."
Paid record price
Wyc Grousbeck, his father, Irv Grousbeck, and Steve Pagliuca bought high in December of 2002.
Boston Basketball Partners, the group headed by the trio, paid a record $360 million for the Celtics. They were coming off an Eastern Conference final (4-2 loss to New Jersey) the previous season, but this followed eight straight losing seasons.
It was the most ever for a NBA franchise.
The Grousbecks and Pagliuca, successful venture capitalists, had been trying since July of 2002 to buy the team that then-owner Paul Gaston had said wasn't for sale.
Gaston, an absentee owner who took control of the team from his father Donald Gaston in 1992, was tagged with "taking the money and running." The new ownership was a breath of fresh air.
Unlike Gaston and much like the Kraft family, they had local ties.
Irv Grousbeck and a partner founded Continental Cablevision in Boston in 1964. He later sold the company for a reported $11.5 billion, and moved from his Weston home to the San Francisco area, where he still resides and teaches at Stanford University.
Wyc grew up a Boston sports fan, going with his father to games at Fenway Park and the Boston Garden.
Born in Brooklyn, Pagliuca lived in Boston from age 1-5 then moved to New Jersey. He attended Duke, where he played on the freshman and JV teams ("I was the worst player on the worst Duke teams ever," said Pagliuca) and later helped build Bain Capital into a multi-billion dollar investment company. He's lived in Massachusetts since 1979.
"When I heard it was a local group, guys that loved the Celtics, a lot of us were very happy," said Celtics legend Bob Cousy. "We had some very lean years after the Bird Era. We needed new life."
The fact that Forbes Magazine estimated the Celtics' worth as $218 million in 2002 made a lot of people wonder what took Gaston so long to sign the purchase-and-sale agreement.
But Forbes apparently didn't take into effect the name, the Boston Celtics, like Wyc & Co. did.
The Celtics had an unsurpassed legacy. They had 16 banners. They had a world-wide fan base, albeit a dormant one.
With reviled coach Rick Pitino out of the picture about 20 months earlier, and aging patriarch Red Auerbach officially in retirement, the Celtics didn't have a face for the organization.
One of the first trips the new ownership made was to Washington, D.C., to talk to Auerbach.
Auerbach had been relegated to meet-and-greet status by Pitino, losing his "presidency," but Grousbeck and Pagliuca wanted his advice on the direction of the franchise.
In John Feinstein's book about Auerbach, "Let Me Tell You a Story," Auerbach said the respect they showed him was flattering.
"They told me they wanted me to come up to Boston more often," said Auerbach, "and if it makes it easier on me, they'll send their plane for me."
Auerbach told them that dancing girls and cheerleaders were still out of the question, as far as he was concerned, and that they needed to bring back the lost art of fast-break basketball.
When the new ownership officially took over the team, on Dec. 31, 2002, finding the next Red Auerbach was at the top of their list.
The search was on.
Old friends reunite
Pagliuca knew Ainge a few years before his group bought the Celtics. They had both been trustees on football Hall of Famer Steve Young's charity, "Forever Young."
Pagliuca was a big fan of Ainge, the player.
"We had talked a lot about basketball every time we were together. I loved talking to him. He had so much insight," said Pagliuca. "When we officially closed (on buying the team), Danny was the first guy I called. I asked him if he could get a list together of candidates to take on that role of running the team."
Ainge called Pagliuca to tell him he was coming to Boston in mid-February as a TV analyst for a Celtics game and they made a dinner date to discuss that list.
"I met him where he was staying, at the Four Seasons Hotel, at about 10 o'clock," said Pagliuca. "We ended up talking until about 2 or 3 in the morning. It was all basketball. I think I asked him if he would be interested in the position, but he said he wasn't."
Ainge called again and told Pagliuca to come to Phoenix, where Ainge lived, so the pair could talk more about prospects to lead the Celtics.
"Danny picked me up," said Pagliuca. "He just drove around the airport and by the end of it, he sounded like he wanted it. I was thrilled."
Ainge soon flew back to Boston to meet with Wyc, Irv, Bob Epstein and a few other partners.
"They all loved Danny, like I did," said Pagliuca. "He is very strategic, the most strategic mind about basketball that I had ever met. He was one of the few guys that had been everything — he was player, a scout, an assistant general manager, a coach and a broadcaster. He also won championships (1984, 1986) as a player. He had knowledge of the game at every level."
By the time Ainge returned to Phoenix, he agreed to a deal.
"I was convinced they wanted to win," said Ainge. "And they had the resources and business background to make it happen."
Follow Pats' example
The fact that the Patriots and Red Sox have been there and done that on the championship stage since the turn of the new century is not a surprise.
At least not from the Celtics' perspective.
Pagliuca had worked with Jonathan Kraft about 15 years earlier at Bain Capital.
The Patriots went from good to great when they hired Bill Belichick to not only coach the team, but more importantly take over football operations.
"The Patriots were a great example for us," said Pagliuca. "The Patriots invested in A-plus talent at the top level of their organization, which was critical to their success. That means not only bringing these professionals in, but trusting them."
The Celtics also wanted to emulate the Patriots' skill in selecting and developing young talent.
The structure in place when Ainge came in was this: Do your thing, just make sure we are on board.
"When deals are discussed, especially anything significant, I have to sell it to Wyc and Steve," said Ainge. "Most trades are not clear cut. There are pluses and minuses. Nine out of every 10 discussions are iffy. Do you buy growth stocks or do you play it safe with a blue chipper?"
That's where the owners' business backgrounds come in.
"These guys are successful for a reason," said Ainge. "They are very bright guys. They challenge me. Getting Kevin Garnett, the player, was one thing. Signing him to a long-term contract extension was another. That's where they come in."
It's apparently a two-way street. From the beginning, despite some questionable trades, ownership realized Ainge's eye for identifying talent is unique.
"If you look at where we drafted with Danny here, you realize he has an eye for talent," said Wyc. "We had not been in the lottery. He was finding talent in the middle of the first round, late in the first round, even the second round.
"Three or four of those players, we could see, were going to be solid NBA players, and another that might be an All-Star. It was then up to us to be patient."
Learn from mistakes
Like the Krafts had to, the new Celtic ownership have learned on the job.
The Krafts learned how to work with politicians after the South Boston dream site for the new stadium was mishandled and they had to remain in Foxboro after nearly moving to Connecticut.
Also, Robert Kraft endured some early ridicule for hinting he was involved in scouting. Then there was the ugly Bill Parcells feud.
The Celtics owners have avoided most (but not all) p.r. slip-ups.
The Ainge hiring was handled poorly as it came out while the Celtics were in the middle of a playoff series with New Jersey. That took the spotlight away from the players and the series. Also that was an awkward situation for then-GM Chris Wallace.
Early on, the young owners' passion and vocal support courtside raised eyebrows. But eventually they won over fans who found that enthusiasm endearing, especially following absentee owner Paul Gaston's unfortunate tenure in Boston.
Beside an NBA warning for Wyc's wife bringing friends into the locker room for autographs shortly after a January 2007 loss to Sacramento, the new owners have avoided the landmines that plague so many around the NBA like the Lakers' Buss family and Dallas' Mark Cuban.
And, of course, as the Krafts and the Celtics have learned, winning cures everything.
Trusted embattled Ainge, Rivers
Ainge goes back to last spring and summer as the test of their relationship.
"We are all big boys here. We understand this is a business and changes have to be made at the top sometimes," said Ainge. "But last year was the real test. A lot of people, especially in the media, were down on a lot of us. When an issue came up with Doc, people questioning him, Wyc and Steve believed in me.
"Anybody can believe in me now. But they did when it mattered most. It's a real testament to them."
Ainge says the James Posey signing last August, while it didn't make big headlines around here after the monumental Ray Allen and Garnett trades, best exemplified the trust.
With the Celtics already having three of the top 15 salaries in the NBA for the 2007-08 season (Garnett, first, $24.75 million; Pierce, 11th, $18.1 million; and Allen, 15th, $17.4 million) and total payroll in excess of $70 million, the team was well over the salary cap, $55.63 million.
It meant the Celtics were already paying a luxury tax to the league.
"James Posey was a guy I believed could be a final piece," said Ainge. "We really needed to add some toughness. It was a big, big financial commitment after KG and Allen. I was really pushing it. We discussed it in detail. It wasn't an easy decision. But they agreed to do it."
Ainge said all decisions, like the one to sign Posey (one year, $3.5 million with a player option for 2008-09), only get done when it is unanimous between he, Grousbeck and Pagliuca.
"Nothing is clear cut," said Ainge. "I value their experience in business, managing the payroll and salary cap. They value my opinions on basketball. It's a great marriage."
'Family guys'
Ainge says the fact that Grousbeck and Pagliuca are "good people" was vital to his taking on the responsibility of being the face of the Celtics.
Ainge was touched that Wyc moved his family back to the Boston area from San Francisco because of Perkins School for the Blind. The Grousbecks have a son, Campbell, who is blind.
"The thing I like about those guys is that they are family guys," said Ainge. "I think fans see them at most of the games, and that's always a good thing. It shows how much passion they have for this team. But they have other priorities in their lives.
"Wyc will miss a game to attend a charity event. Steve travels a lot for business. They have lives outside of this. I like that about them."
Classy organization
Cleveland Cavalier and ex-Celtic Wally Szczerbiak said his two injury-plagued seasons in Boston were among the best he spent in the league.
Minnesota Timberwolves Al Jefferson and Ryan Gomes, two more ex-Celtics, both made playoff appearances at the TD Banknorth Garden with envy in their eyes.
"Would I love to be playing in the NBA finals with the Celtics right now?" said Jefferson. "I am happy for the Celtics. I am happy in Minnesota. Let's just say I grew up a lot here in Boston. This franchise treats people right."
Ainge concurred with Jefferson's assessment.
"You have guys on our team that have played a lot of years for a lot of teams," said Ainge. "Guys like Sam Cassell and P.J. Brown are saying things like this is the best organization they have ever played for.
"That means so much because players talk to other players around the league. Ownership allows us to treat players with class. That's where it all begins."
And in the end, ownership was paid back handsomely, with a championship.
E-mail Bill Burt at bburt@eagletribune.com. You can check out his blog, "Burt Talks Sports," at blogs.eagletribune.com/sports.
Brains behind the world champions
The Celtics owners have impressive educational backgrounds
Name%Position%Education
Wyc Grousbeck%Managing partner and CEO%Princeton, Michigan Law School, Stanford MBA
Irv Grousbeck%Managing partner%Amherst, Harvard Business School
Steve Pagliuca%Managing partner%Duke, Harvard MBA
A historical look at Celtics owners
Walter Brown%1946-64
Marjorie Brown%1964-1965
Marvin Kratter/National Equities%1965-68
Ballantine Brewery %1968-69
E.E. Erdman's Trans-National Communications %1969-71
Investors Funding Corporation %1971-72
Robert Schmertz-Leisure Technology %1972-74
Robert Schmertz, Irv Levin %1974-75
Irv Levin %1975-78
John Y. Brown, Harry Mangurian%1978
Harry T. Mangurian, Jr. %1979-83
Don Gaston, Alan Cohen, Paul Dupee %1983-92
Paul Gaston %1992-2002
Boston Basketball Partners LLC (Wyc Grousbeck, Steve Pagliuca, Irving Grousbeck) %2002-present
