This article appeared on Forbes.com
Race 1 of NBA Finals saw the Celtics triumph, who overwhelmed the Mavericks 107-89 to take a 1-0 lead in the series. The two teams are among the 10 that have recorded the greatest growth since 1998, the year in which Forbes began tracking the value of sports franchises. In the period considered, an average revaluation of NBA teams of 2,200% was calculated.
Regardless of which team wins the trophy this year Larry O’Brien, growth shows no signs of slowing. The NBA is reportedly nearing a new round of media rights deals that would pay the league 76 billion dollars in 11 years, more than double the previous average annual rate.
But how much is the assets of Wycliffe Grousbeck and Mark Cuban, billionaire owners respectively of the Celtics and the Mavericks who are competing in the 2024 NBA finals? Forbes retraced the careers of both, starting from the first entrepreneurial experiences up to the purchase of the two companies which contributed to increasing their fortunes.
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Grousbeck’s early career
For Grousbeck, the idea of owning a team began with his father, who in the 1980s contemplated buying the Boston Red Soxbut “never found an agreement that made sense to him.”
By then, Wyc had embarked on its own entrepreneurial journey. Law school took him to the West Coast, but he abandoned his days as a corporate lawyer in favor of an MBA from Stanford and a career as a venture capitalist. He got his start at a time when the Internet was just taking shape, achieving great success with companies like digital retailer eToys.com, the search engine and web portal Lycos and medical technology company Conor Medsystems.
After moving his family to Boston in the 1990s, Grousbeck quickly became hooked on the city’s rich sports scene: In addition to buying season tickets for the Celtics, he also had seats for the New England Patriots, Boston Red Sox and Bruins.
Buying the Celtics for $360 million
The Celtics were partially owned by a limited partnership listed on the New York Stock Exchange, which gave a clear vision of a cash flow positive business. Confident in his vision to improve the team, Grousbeck met with the then-owner of the Celtics Paul Gaston at his home in Manhattan. Ten minutes later, she walked out with a handshake.
The purchase price was 360 million dollars and Grousbeck did not have such a sum at his disposal. With three and a half months to raise the money, he mortgaged his house, posted an eight-figure non-refundable deposit and borrowed 50% of the sales price.
To secure the balance, Grousbeck assembled a group of more than 20 partners, including his father, Bain Capital co-president Stephen Pagliuca and TPG Capital co-founder David Bonderman. The group, Boston Basketball Partnerscompleted the sale in 2002.
Grousbeck took the reins as governor of the Celtics, a position required by the NBA to own at least 15 percent of a franchise. But the presence of a wide range of owners worked in the franchise’s favor. Pagliuca, for example, was instrumental in bringing back the former Celtics great Danny Ainge to the franchise as director of basketball operations.
Under the hypercompetitive Ainge, the Celtics acquired future Hall of Famers Kevin Garnett And Ray Allen to pair with longtime player Paul Pierce. The team won the NBA championship in 2008 and has since reached the playoffs 15 out of 16 times. Today the Celtics are the eighteenth most profitable team in sports, with an estimated operating income of 269 million dollars in the last three seasons.
According to estimates by ForbesBoston is worth today 4.7 billion dollars, including debts, with an increase of approximately 1,200% compared to the price paid by Grousbeck and his partners. This exponential growth has also translated into considerable wealth. Forbes estimates that the family of Irving Grousbeck, Wyc’s father, is worth 1.8 billion dollars.
The investment in Cincoro Tequila with Michael Jordan
Basketball opened the door to another venture for Grousbeck. In 2019 he launched the Cincoro Tequila together with his wife Emilia FazzalariLos Angeles Lakers co-owner Jeanie Buss, Milwaukee Bucks co-owner Wes Edens and a basketball Hall of Famer who cost them all a few championships, Michael Jordan.
According to Grousbeck, Cincoro has sold about two million bottles in the past five years and recently added new investors, including legendary athletes Serena Williams, Derek Jeter and Michael Strahan.
Mark Cuban, from software to selling Broadcast to Yahoo
Like his Celtics counterpart, Mark Cuban He has a lifelong passion for basketball. He graduated from Indiana University in 1981, the same year legendary coach Bob Knight won his second national championship with the Hoosiers.
Cuban bought the Mavericks for 280 million dollars in 2000. In October, Forbes rated the deductible at 4.5 billion dollarsthree places behind the Celtics.
The son of working-class parents, he founded software retailer MicroSolutions in 1983 and sold it seven years later for 6 million dollars: “The day I sold MicroSolutions, I took off my watch and said I would never wear a watch again because I never want to be of service to anyone else,” Cuban said recently on the Draymond Green Show. A brief retreat ensued, but did not last long. In 1995, Cuban joined forces with an old college friend, Todd Wagner, and purchased Broadcast.comthen called AudioNet, which explored the idea of giving fans access to commentary from out-of-market locations.
The company was struggling, couldn’t find the right medium, and even experimented with shortwave radio before Cuban and Wagner brought it online. With the explosion of the Dot-com bubble, Broadcast.com had the best IPO of its time, surpassing a market value of 1 billion dollars on its first day of trading.
A year later, in 1999, Yahoo purchased the company for $5.7 billion (and then closed the website in 2002), earning Cuban an estimated sum of 1.1 billion dollars net of taxes.
Cuban leading the Mavericks
It didn’t take long for Cuban to start spending his new fortune. Cuban purchased i Mavericks by Texas real estate developer Ross Perot Jr. in 2000, admitting he hadn’t even negotiated.
Under Cuban’s leadership, the Mavericks achieved numerous successes on the court. They have qualified for the playoffs in 19 of the last 25 seasons and defeated LeBron James and the Miami Heat in the 2011 NBA Finals. However, his tenure has not been without controversy. In 2018, Sports Illustrated spoke to several current and former employees in a detailed investigation that revealed a hostile work environment in the Mavericks organization.
“It’s wrong. He is repulsive. It’s not a situation we tolerate,” Cuban said in a response to Sports Illustrated. While claiming no knowledge of the scandal, Cuban took responsibility and later hired AT&T’s former chief diversity officer Cynthia Marshall as CEO to clean up the organization.
A fortune of 5.4 billion dollars
But last November, Cuban’s time as Dallas’ majority owner ended when Miriam Adelson and his family purchased 68% of the Mavericks at a valuation of 3.5 billion dollarswith the option to purchase more.
With a net worth of 29.7 billion dollarsAdelson is the second richest owner in the NBA, after Steve Ballmer, owner of the Los Angeles Clippers, who is worth an estimated $122.4 billion.
The sale of the Mavericks was a boon to Cuban’s fortune, which amounts to today 5.4 billion dollars. Despite the sale, the entrepreneur managed to maintain a share of the 27% of the team and control of the basketball decision-making process.
When asked why he sold the Mavericks, the entrepreneur highlighted his new partners’ strong ties to the casino and hotel industry, given that Texas has been struggling for several years to legalize gambling and sports betting.
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