“The Celtics, it was their first spherical of patrons, they needed to reduce down their perspective patrons,” Simmons said on “The Bill Simmons Podcast” on Sunday. “4 or 5 folks made the primary spherical. One of many folks was the Eagles proprietor, Jeffrey Lurie, who is seemingly from Massachusetts. There’s been a few ‘Hmm, I ponder who these guys are?’ There are a pair I couldn’t work out however that’s one.”
That is fairly the plot twist, on condition that the Eagles’ foe in Sunday’s contest is equally owned by a businessman with Philly ties. That may be Josh Harris, who has a stake in the NBA’s Philadelphia 76ers.
Lurie is beloved by Eagles followers and the Metropolis of Philadelphia for his immensely profitable tenure since buying the crew for $195M again in 1994. The Eagles have made 19 playoff appearances in Lurie’s 31 years as owner, together with seven NFC Championship recreation appearances, 4 Tremendous Bowl berths (together with 2024) and one Tremendous Bowl title (2017).
Regardless of these accolades, although, Lurie seems keen to sacrifice a few of his good standing in Philadelphia to buy one of many metropolis’s key sports activities rivals. It is mot precisely information that can excite Eagles followers forward of their much-anticipated Tremendous Bowl rematch with the Kansas Metropolis Chiefs.
Regardless, this transaction would make sense for Lurie: He is a Boston native with ties to that space. And he’s a large Celtics followers, which might solely gasoline his want to buy the crew.
However past the Boston ties, Lurie instructed the media again in 2023 that he fashions his Eagles possession off of Celtics legendary coach and government Purple Auerbach.
“Nicely, I’ve at all times thought that the sports activities franchises that make choices based mostly on what they suppose is true, it’s by no means going to be the favored one in that case,” Lurie said via NBC Sports Philadelphia. “I am going again to Purple Auerbach, as a result of to me, he made lots of choices that weren’t the favored choices within the headlines the subsequent day in The Boston Globe but it surely was greatest for that franchise to proceed their dynasty.”
Lurie and the Celtics nearly appears like fait accompli. However thankfully for Philadelphia sports activities followers, that actuality hasn’t arrived … but.
Additionally of observe is Lurie’s latest sale of an 8% share of the Philadelphia Eagles, which he conducted in December for a whopping $664M. That transaction valued the crew at over $8B, a determine that isn’t insignificant when contemplating the Celtics’ reported promoting value.
