Celtics owner update?! Lurie? Celtics insider Meghan Ottolini joins!
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00:00You have some, before we get to the team, you have a little bit of intel on Jeffrey Lurie.
00:05Well, yeah. So I had Ruben Frank, who's a longtime columnist, host, been covering the
00:11Eagles since 1987 on my Slam podcast yesterday, just to get some feeling from somebody who's been
00:18with the Eagles before, or covering the Eagles before and after Jeffrey Lurie bought that team
00:24in 1994, and just kind of trying to figure out what is this guy like as an owner? Because,
00:29of course, Bill Simmons earlier this week had the report that he's in the bidding for the Celtics,
00:34and that was a real surprise name for a lot of people. What's interesting to me is everybody
00:40knows this guy now is a Boston sports fan. He grew up around here, went to high school in Cambridge,
00:45went to three different schools. Brandeis, BU, and Clark University.
00:52Grew up in Newton, or did he start- Chestnut Hill.
00:55Okay. Yeah. Chestnut Hill. So he, I don't know if that's Newton or
00:57Brookline. I feel like we always get trapped in geography. So he's a huge Boston fan. So I guess
01:04from that perspective, it's not surprising. He tried to buy the Patriots once before, back in
01:0893, and was basically talked out of it by a family member. But the guy's 77 years old.
01:14And from a Philadelphia perspective, what I got was, this is someone who people thought was maybe
01:21handing over the reins for the Eagles to his son, Julian. And so it's kind of a surprise that,
01:28hey, now there's interest over in the Celtics, which is clearly a franchise that this guy has
01:33been a fan of growing up around here and being a rabid New England fan like everybody else.
01:38But what does that mean? Does that mean maybe Julian would take over the Eagles and now
01:45Lurie is in charge of the Celtics? Does that mean that they all wrap into this one portfolio?
01:51Does that mean that this guy who apparently, Jeffrey Lurie, is a very active owner with the
01:58Eagles? Not meddling, but very, he puts in a ton of face time, kind of like Robert Kraft.
02:03He looks great for 77, by the way. Doesn't look like he's 77 years old.
02:07I know. And it's that rich.
02:08I feel like he would at least, he's not a carpetbagger in the carpetbagger sense,
02:12like a Bezos is a carpetbagger. I don't even know what a carpetbagger is.
02:16Somebody who moves, it's like a politician term where you move into a city or a state
02:22so you can win an election there and you don't know anything. It's like Mayor Wu.
02:28Long way to get there. I'm not too much of a man.
02:30No disrespect. But he cares about Boston sports.
02:36Absolutely. Absolutely.
02:37Which would be a good thing.
02:38Yeah. I think the feeling is, especially over the last decade,
02:44Eagles fans and the media seem to respect him a lot. This is an owner who maybe in his early days
02:51was a little more hands-on and learned on the job that you don't want to be an owner whose
02:57hands are in organizational functions and everything. But now he's moved beyond that.
03:03And so I think my personal opinion is that he's a good option for the Celtics.
03:08Julian is his son. That's basically saying, okay, Robert Kraft is going to buy the Knicks.
03:14He's a little younger than Robert.
03:16Right. But I'm just saying eventually Jonathan will be the owner. So if you want to look at
03:20the Celtics future, okay, is Julian the right fit for this? And that worries me.
03:25So Ruben Frank, who I spoke to, said that Julian has been hands-on with the Eagles since 2021.
03:31Obviously they've had a ton of success over the last five years. So that hasn't had any
03:36bad impacts on the Eagles. And I think to me, the big takeaway that I had from this conversation
03:44was this is a very shrewd businessman and somebody who moves with a ton of intentionality.
03:49So I don't think that this is a person who just threw a bidding in there,
03:53threw a bid in there because he's a Celtics fan. And he's like, oh, the team's for sale,
03:576 billion. Let me see what I can get there. This guy sold off 8% of his shares in December
04:03in the Eagles because he wanted to put together a plan to bid. We think from the report from Bill
04:09Simmons, that's what it looks like. And I think we know PAGS is in the running. This would be
04:14another option that seems like it would at least on its face be a good outcome for Celtics fans.
04:20Those are the only two bidders that we know about. Is it surprising to you that
04:25more hasn't leaked on who the finalists are? It's not surprising. Lurie also still hasn't
04:30confirmed whether he's in it or not. So this is all just background information. He hasn't said
04:36he's not in it. So that leads me to believe that he probably is one of the bidders. It doesn't
04:42surprise me. I think it'll trickle out. There was some indication that the Celtics expect to close
04:48on this first part of the deal sometime in spring. So I would guess over the next six weeks, we start
04:54getting a little more information here or there. Oh, this person has a bid in, that person has a
04:58bid in, this person's not included. Is there any concern that he maybe cut some meat off the bone
05:04with the Celtics because of all the not owning an arena, the luxury tax, and you know, we've heard
05:11the Dakota rumor, which is that they might move on from Jalen Brown, or he could be a guy that
05:18they could potentially move on from after the season. Wiggy, he apparently has a house on the
05:22vineyard. Maybe he'll have to sell that in order to afford the Celtics. Well, no, is there any
05:29concern with that? Because, you know, he might, you know, does he go down that road because he has
05:35a, you know, other business, but now he owns another franchise. Right. Yeah. I think for
05:40anybody who's going into buying this team, and it's someone like Lurie, someone like Pags, who
05:47they're, no matter, even if they're going in individually, they're going to have to have
05:50backers behind them in order to meet that $6 billion price tag. I think it's kind of hard to
05:58to not see that as a hurdle, right? Like, I don't really see one option of somebody coming in
06:04and not surveying the entire landscape and saying, this is the, this is a crazy roster. Like,
06:10how long are we keeping this together? How many championships are we getting out of that? I don't
06:14think that that's going to be dependent on just one particular buyer. The arena stuff is really
06:19interesting to me, because Lurie bought the Eagles in 94, and then several years later,
06:26they open up a Lincoln Financial Field. And Eagles had played at Veterans Stadium
06:32from 71 on before that. And so, I don't know exactly, like, if that indicates that
06:40they would be interested in building an arena for the Celtics, but I do feel like for an
06:44outside buyer who is in a Jeff Bezos or something like that, and they want their
06:48return on investment, that seems like it might be part of the plan. Not just because it was a
06:53Courtney bomb, but did the story this week about the Fenway Sports Group dumping some equity
06:59in the Penguins indicate to you at all that they may be in this and we don't know about it?
07:05Again, I think that it's a little different, in my opinion, because you have reporters on
07:14the Red Sox beat in the MLB beat, saying we're getting indications where we have sources within
07:19the league who are saying that FSG is not involved. Now, I don't know if that means
07:24a group connected to FSG. That's not FSG. I mean, you can get really particular about
07:29this kind of stuff and then turn it around in a month when something comes out. So,
07:33I don't know about that. Again, like, I do think it's indicative that Lurie dumps 8% of his shares
07:39in the Eagles in December and then emerges as a reported bidder a couple weeks later.
07:46So, I wouldn't say that it's completely unfounded, you know.
07:50All right. Settle a debate that we had on the show this week. Is Imei a better coach than
07:55Joe Mazzullo? Oh, I feel bad. This makes me feel bad. I will say I have gotten negative feedback
08:03from listeners in the past for how much respect I have for what Imei Odoka does on the court.
08:10That he is a fantastic motivator. He really connects with his players. You see that in
08:14the Houston game. I was at that game the other night covering it and it's like, from the jump,
08:19now you have the Celtics down three players in that game, but from the jump, like, somebody
08:24goes down, the entire Houston bench is over there helping that guy up. Like, that team has so much
08:29energy right now. They are rolling through the NBA. To me, that's kind of like indicative of
08:35an Imei team. In the second halves of these schedules, he gets his team, like, so revved up
08:42that they just gain this momentum until the playoffs. And I think that's something that
08:47the Celtics could use a little bit of a shot in the arm right now. I guess you could say Mazzullo
08:52on a different team may not be as great of a coach. You know what? I got to stick up for
08:58Wiggy because when I was driving in, I think Curtis was gaslighting Wiggy a little bit.
09:04And I felt for Wiggy because I could hear Wiggy feeling like he was a crazy person.
09:18I mean, Curtis believes that if the New Orleans Saints would have drafted Brady at 200,
09:23he'd still be the GOAT. They were the Saints. The biggest difference is they had Belichick
09:31as their coach. Right. And who was Belichick before Brady came in? The guy that was about
09:35to get fired again. Yeah, he was. But here's what I would say. The NBA, you said that Mazzullo
09:43is the best coach in the NBA. Yes. He inherited a team that Imei built. And yet you make a
09:49different argument with Brady. It's very interesting. I don't think Imei built that
09:52team. I think that was a team that was built by Brad Stevens. Yeah. And Brad Stevens made the
09:56team better for Joe Mazzullo. But here's the difference. Imei had a similar team,
10:03got to the finals and lost. Mazzullo lost in the conference final. Had a similar team,
10:09got to the finals and won. The difference is with Houston, if you watch Houston play,
10:13I think what Imei does a great job of, and I gave Imei credit, a lot of credit for here,
10:19is getting guys to buy into his role. And if you look at the Houston Rockets,
10:22they are a young team without a bunch of superstars other than Jalen Green.
10:28And everybody buys into that role. You got guys like Dylan Brooks. You got guys like Amen Thompson.
10:34These guys, Steven Adams, they know what their roles are. Fred Van Fleet, they know what their
10:40roles are. And he does a really good job with those type of players where when you get a team
10:47that has an Alpha and Jalen Brown, an Alpha and Jason Tatum, a guy that was a unicorn in Chris
10:56Tapp's Paul Zingas, Drew Holliday, who was a tremendous player in Milwaukee, you now have to
11:01manage egos of guys that have already kind of made it to the mountaintop. It's a lot more difficult
11:07to do that than when you're dealing with younger players. I agree. And they're just at different
11:11points where Imei Odoka, we've seen him be a coach who can, again, transform these teams in the
11:17second half of the season, make them these defensively elite teams, and they're all
11:22rolling together, and they all believe in the cause. But defending a championship is the hardest
11:28thing to do in the NBA. And so if Joe Mizzoula is able to get this team back to the finals and
11:33they're able to beat whoever's there, then I think he deserves way more respect on his name than we're
11:38giving to Imei Odoka, because that's just a bigger challenge. But I do think Imei, now you see what
11:44he did with the Celtics, you see what he's doing with the Rockets, he has a certain stamp that he
11:48puts on his teams, and you can identify right away what kind of team that is. Do you think Jimmy
11:52Butler ends up with the Warriors? Oh my god. I just, I didn't know we were gonna get this version
11:59of Jimmy Butler back. When Jimmy Butler, you know, blew his way out of Minnesota, then was in
12:04Philly, and then he ended up in Miami, and he was doing his little coffee commercials, and he was
12:09doing all the emo costumes on media day. It's like, the vibes are so good for Jimmy. Chaotic
12:16Jimmy is back. He is back. I have no idea where he's gonna end up. He's Bulls Jimmy. He's probably
12:21gonna end up in the West. If he's with the Warriors, I don't really think that's relevant to
12:25the Celtics. I don't. I look at one team in the West as a serious threat for the Celtics, and
12:32that's Oklahoma City. And I think he lands in Phoenix, because I know Phoenix wants to get rid
12:37of Bradley Bill, so maybe he lands over there. It'll be interesting, but I still, like, I've
12:42said this all the time, Mego, is I don't see that, I don't see a team in the East or the West,
12:49seven game series, beating the Celtics four games. I just don't see it. I think, I think you need to
12:54see Oklahoma City again, and maybe you'll be able to put together four total quarters, and then we
13:00can have that conversation about that team in the West. But in the East, I agree. I think if you go,
13:04if you end up with seven games against the Cavs, it's gonna be tight. It could go seven games,
13:09but you're okay. All right. Condolences on your commanders. Oh, I know. You know what? I know. I
13:15feel so grateful. It was crazy being able to see a team in the conference championship that you
13:23haven't seen there for 33 years, and the future is so bright for Jaden Daniels. He was trying to
13:27do everything in that game, and obviously the roster just wasn't to that level for that game.
13:32You agree with those who suggest he had the greatest rookie season by a quarterback? Absolutely.
13:39Well, I don't know about ever, but certainly in the modern NFL, when you look at the quarterbacks
13:43who have gone to the conference championship as rookies since 2005, all those guys, respectfully,
13:48because a couple of them turned out to be awesome, all those guys were passengers. Jaden was the only
13:54one who was driving the bus for his team. I agree with you on that. You look at the stats,
13:57they totally back it up. Four quarterback comebacks by him in the regular season,
14:02post-season, obviously backs it up. And so, yeah, I think he's the greatest rookie quarterback ever.
14:07Is he a baby girl? I don't know. I bet he is. I bet he is. I don't get this baby girl thing. I bet
14:12he is. Guys, can I tease something as well? Oh, yes. Meggo and I will have an event coming up
14:17pretty shortly, a little Galentine's Day event. Yes. Really? Yeah. Galentine. So stay tuned.
14:24Okay. So is it just... That's all I'm going to say right now. Galentine's Day is the day
14:28before Valentine's Day. All right. Is every year. Is it just for the ladies or can the baby girls
14:33come? I think the baby... I'm always welcoming the baby girls. Oh, I thought Galentine meant
14:37strictly for the women. It's for the women, but I mean, I'm not discriminating. Are you doing
14:41painting and like wine painting? You'll have to wait and see. Okay. I can say no. You say no to
14:48that? No. All right. Do you win your way in or do you... I know you don't want to say anything
14:52about it, but it's coming up. It's coming up. Oh, okay. What a tease. The two of you. All right.
14:57Awesome. Meggo, great to see you. Thanks for coming. See you guys.