Picks 'n Pops: Celtics new owners (plural), a free agency wrinkle, and flying coach

Every week I gather some thoughts about the Celtics, the NBA, and beyond and dump them here. Because I'm happy I can just copy and paste "Jhostynxon," instead of learning how to spell it for everyday use. 

- I’m going to stop referring to the Celtics sale as the sale to Bill Chisholm and start calling it the sale to Bill Chisholm, et al. I don’t know how many investors have pitched into this sale, but I’m betting the list is getting close to looking like the program at a high school graduation. 

According to the Celtics, members of the Managing Board of the Boston Celtics include Chisholm, alternate governors Wyc Grousbeck and Aditya Mittal, Bruce Beal, Andrew Bialecki, Dom Ferrante, Rob Hale, Mario Ho, and Ian Loring.  Global investment firm Sixth Street is also a major participant in the investment group. But these are only the major players. How many other people are involved?

This really has me wondering about veto power on future moves. Are there enough shares in enough hands to vote against what Chisholm has publicly stated? He and Grousbeck can talk about walking arm-in-arm, but what if their rah-rah, win-at-all-costs goals are met with resistance from the rest of the investors? 

- The WNBA (and the NBA by association) is really blowing it with the Connecticut Sun. The league so desperately wants Boston to pay an expansion fee to get a team that they're going to botch a great deal that improves the value of the league. Steve Pagliuca will pay a record price, and he wants to build a massive practice facility. Charge him a relocation fee and be done with it. 

The smallest market team would move into a major market, but that's not good enough for the WNBA. They want to engineer things their own way, and they're going to blow this thing in the process. 

I’ve sat here and argued for this league for a long time, but the way they're handling this makes me think they're more lucky than good. Women’s sports has exploded across the board, and the WNBA is riding that wave. The talent is exponentially better and more people are paying attention, but the league’s power structure is too inept to accept the growth and foster it.

Sometimes things don’t go according to the plan and you have to adjust. The WNBA doesn’t seem to want to do that. 

- Take a page out of Jayson Tatum’s book. If anyone knows how to go with the flow, it’s him. 

I think Tatum is going to be better for this experience. I think it’s going to give him a deeper appreciation for the game. Sitting on the sidelines and soaking in all the coaching all game long, he’ll get a much better idea of what the team is trying to accomplish. 

- Jaylen Brown is back on the basketball court.

This was for some charity thing in China. He dunked. He hit a 3. He left in one piece. Great to see. 

- People are out here debating whether Payton Pritchard can become an All-Star, as if the key to getting three Celtics on the All-Star team is going from championship contender to mediocre. 

- Malik Beasley is back on the free agent market after prosecutors said he’s not a target in their gambling investigation. This puts him in an interesting spot.

Beasley was ready to sign a three-year deal with $14 million per year with Detroit, but they backed off because of the investigation. Now he can only sign with them for $7.2 million. There are teams out there that can give him the full mid-level exception, though. Chicago, for example, has the full MLE and is $17 million under the first apron, so being hard-capped isn’t a problem for them. 

But if they do that, what would they do with the rest of the shooting guards on their roster? Just something to keep an eye on when it comes to moving pieces around the league. 

- Sue Bird’s statue actually looks like Sue Bird. 

I didn’t know that was allowed.

- They can go ahead and start the Paige Bueckers statue now. 

- Someone recently snuck a picture of Joe Mazzulla sitting in coach. 

Joke 1: Someone has to tell him that just because it’s called coach, that's not where coaches have to sit. 

Joke 2: That photo of him is the one they’d use on Dateline if the person who took the picture ended up missing and Joe was a suspect. 

Joke 3: Mazzulla doesn’t need the money, but he’s still moonlighting as an air marshal, just to test himself in case of an attempted hijacking. 

Joke 4: Mazzulla took advantage of JetBlue’s new “high intensity seating.” It’s reserved only for the most intense people in the world. After this photo was taken, he was joined by Willem Dafoe and US Army General Bryan Fenton.

Yes, I Googled United States generals and picked the guy with the most serious picture. 

- Mazzulla recently visited Derrick White in Colorado, rebounded for him during a workout, and visited his family. 

All jokes aside, this is a really cool thing to do. This is the kind of stuff you’d never hear about if a player didn’t say something on a podcast. And I’d bet Mazzulla didn’t want it to come out, either.  

Personal connections are the key to getting pro athletes to compete for coaches. Mazzulla gets that as well as anyone. 

- Al Horford may be getting the full taxpayer MLE, $5,685,000, from the Warriors whenever the Jonathan Kuminga thing is over. The Celtics were never going to pay him that, and Horford never passes up a payday. 

- They say men think about the Roman Empire every day 

They are correct. 

- Jhostynxon Garcia’s nickname "The Password" is the best nickname in sports. 

- Happy trails John Wall, who officially retired and joined NBC as an analyst. I’m looking forward to the NBC broadcasts, hoping they can provide more analysis and less bombast. Tell me what’s going on in the game, not the most outrageous thing that popped into your head. 

- The Toronto Raptors have adopted the NBA Paint logo for their team long enough that it’s showing up on official NBA stuff. 

This is like ESPN having to use the emo Jimmy Butler picture for official stories a couple of seasons ago. So I have to shout out the Raptors and their social team for making this happen. They're definitely having the Best Week Ever!

Yeah, that logo was placed intentionally. That thing isn't wearing any pants. This is a family column. 

- This week’s AI-generated image: This is what we got when I asked for the WNBA shooting themselves in the foot. 

I like that they're so happy about doing it. That's how I picture the WNBA handling the Connecticut Sun sale. Just blissfully being stupid about ruining a good thing that a lot of people are excited about. 

- Here’s my latest podcast, if you’re bored.