The saving of the Green

For Celtics owners, a year of hitting bottom, digging deep, and now, suddenly, reaching for the top

Even before the final ping-pong ball dropped at last May's draft lottery, Celtics co-owner Wyc Grousbeck knew the numbers weren't going the team's way. The two top picks were out of reach, and with them perhaps his dream of restoring, and soon, the luster of the Green.

He slumped slightly in his chair, his face went pale, and his lucky green-and-white pinstriped suit was all wrinkles around him.

"Going through my mind after the lottery," said Grousbeck, remembering that night, "was 'How are we going to do it now?' "

How indeed. Grousbeck and his partners are money men, risk takers accustomed to the big play, the big payoff, and - very occasionally - the big loss. But this felt like catastrophe.

What a difference a miracle year makes.

Out of the crucible of that crushing lottery loss came, paradoxically, the freedom to go another way. General manager Danny Ainge quickly dealt the disappointing number five pick, along with two other players, for Seattle star Ray Allen, he of the effortless shooting touch. The arrival of Allen would make the coming of the savior, also known as Kevin Garnett, a stunning reality.

That plus a barge-load of money - $18 million more for players, alone - and a willingness by the owners to take one more huge risk, and open again that championship window.

"We finally felt we got into that win dow when we traded for Ray Allen draft night," co-owner Steve Pagliuca said. "We wanted to open that window the whole way."

The turnaround has exceeded their wildest imaginings. The team, having won 66 games during the regular season for the biggest one-season turnaround in NBA history, entered last night's game leading the Cleveland Cavaliers by two games and with a realistic shot at winning a championship for the first time since 1986. It has also been a smash at the box office.

The team not only filled the TD Banknorth Garden for all 41 home games, compared with nine sellouts last year, but in a show of dominance reminiscent of Red Sox Nation, became the NBA's top road attendance franchise as well, drawing an average of 19,042 fans compared with 18,671 for the runner-up Los Angeles Lakers.

The most recent figures also rank Boston number one in team merchandise sales. During the regular season, Garnett's jersey was the league's top seller, representing a triple-digit sales increase after he did not make the top 15 last season. During the playoffs, three of the top 15 most popular jerseys belong to Boston's new Big Three - Garnett, Allen, and Paul Pierce. And the NBA store in Manhattan even started stocking Rajon Rondo's jersey by popular request during the first round of the playoffs. The NBA is famous for adeptly anticipating market trends, but the Rondo demand came as a surprise.

With all that, the team, because of its immense payroll (which includes a $6.6 million luxury tax charge, assessed by the league on the top spending teams), probably will not begin to turn a profit unless it makes it into the next playoff round, NBA and team sources say.

"Sports properties are not really bought on economics as investments," said Pagliuca. "Many teams are happy with a 50-game winner because you sell out the building and you're not sitting through a lot of losses. Going young made us take a risk and sit through losses as guys developed. But we knew all along you must win in Boston and we had the legacy of the previous 16 championships to live up to."

"This ownership group went all in," said NBA commissioner David Stern, noting that the Celtics didn't just go after established stars but also costly veterans to fill out the bench. "That's fun. It's not about a windfall profit. When owners sense a real opportunity, they do transformational things, knowing the riskiest part is that there can only be one champion."

Calculated risk

The owners have never been shy about their ambitions.

When the initial ownership group of Wyc Grousbeck, his father, Irv, and Pagliuca committed to purchase the Celtics for $360 million in September 2002, they operated under the company name "Game 7, LLC."

And after they took control in December of that year, the company name that has appeared on the players' paychecks is "Banner 17," a reminder of where their priorities lie. But the team the Grousbecks and Pagliuca inherited was far from championship caliber. Not enough overall talent. Not enough emphasis on player development. Not enough tradeable assets. The owners and Ainge set about to change that.

They also preached patience, and they would need it. It took five years of watching young players alternately shine and stumble, a stream of trades and transactions orchestrated by Ainge, and the stamina to survive a 24-win season last year - including a franchise-record 18-game losing streak - to get to this point.

The team strategy wasn't just built around the willingness to go "all-in" as Stern described it; it was about being ready to pivot and fire when the right moment came.

"The whole reason for assembling this group - the owners, Danny - was so we could go all in," said Wyc Grousbeck. "I don't think there was a sudden gear shift after last season where now the sub is diving and you heard alarms. All in. All in. We finally got to the point where we could do that. We had been waiting for that moment."

Irv Grousbeck, who has been called the Yoda of the ownership group for his professorial counsel, cautions that "all in" should not be confused with "some wild-eyed gamble." True to the venture capital backgrounds of many in the ownership group, it was a calculated risk.

"When you see an opportunity, seize it in a rational way," he said.

The owners point to Ainge, coach Doc Rivers, and the current roster as proof of that philosophy. They remind anyone who will listen how they stood by Ainge and Rivers when there were calls they be fired, how they committed to Pierce when many argued to trade him before the veteran forward lost all value. If anything has changed during five-plus years of ownership, Wyc Grousbeck said, "We are more comfortable saying, 'We're going to do it a certain way. We're going to be patient. We're going to stick to our guns.' "

Sense of pride restored

It was hard, during the down years, to be the owners of a team that seemed to be locked in a long-term slide.

Last season, only the Grousbeck's closest friends dared ask him about the Celtics. Everyone else stayed with safer topics. "We talked about our family a lot more last year," he said.

Bob Epstein, another co-owner, feels the change vividly as well. Attending opening night of a new gallery show in New York on Friday, Epstein hoped to question the artist, but he couldn't get him to stop talking Celtics. A huge sports fan, it turned out.

Last season, Pagliuca recalls, he found himself talking an awful lot about the weather.

"I felt like a meteorologist," he said.

Pierce can relate. He said he knows what it's like to be around friends and "ducking" questions about the team. He did plenty of that early last summer, and he could sense the mounting pressure on Ainge and the owners to turn it around this season.

"I know they were tired of coming to games and being laughingstocks," said Pierce. "They represent the Celtics wherever they go. Amongst their peers, they talk. Just like amongst my peers, we talk. When they got around other owners, they didn't have anything to talk about, so they said, 'Let's do something about it.' Now, when they go to owners' meetings, on vacation, there's something to talk about."

When the call came about Garnett, Grousbeck was at his summer home on Cape Cod, on a remote beach a mile away from neighbors who could have shared his excitement. Emotionally, it was the electric flipside to the draft lottery night. When Pierce heard the news later that day, he said to himself, "We're ready."

As the Celtics' success this season reminded fans of previous championship years, the team became an increasingly attractive investment. According to Grousbeck, last week a buyer offered $600 million for the team, but it is not for sale. The current ownership is looking at a tenure that stretches 20 years and beyond.

But success in the NBA isn't about turning a profit, or even about a winning regular season record. It is about playoffs and banners. If the Celtics don't win it all, it will be a disappointing season, though the owners see themselves as contenders for years to come. Wyc Grousbeck promises when one member of the new "Big Three" departs, he will be replaced by a player of equal talent - though stars of that ilk are not easy to collect. Pierce knows the Celtics have been both good and lucky this season, a trend that will have to continue to win a title.

Other NBA owners, looking on with a trace of envy, see that, too.

"The most difficult part is the recognition that luck plays such an important role in winning a championship," Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban said in an e-mail. "One trade. One miss or make. One blown call. There is no template for success in the NBA. . . . I love that Wyc and Pags recognized the opportunity to lever up and do the trades, taking the financial responsibility. . . . But only one team leaves the playoffs with a victory. Everyone else is tied for last place. So, until then, it's too early to be impressed."

'Starting a really great era'

In a bold sartorial move, Wyc Grousbeck wore the green-and-white pinstriped suit from the draft lottery to Game 7 against the Hawks. The suit redeemed itself, as did the Celtics with a blowout victory. With two minutes left, Grousbeck got a good laugh from hearing the song "Midnight Train to Georgia" blasted at the TD Banknorth Garden as Boston bid Atlanta farewell and looked ahead to the Cavaliers.

"We're just starting a really great era with Garnett, Pierce, and Allen," said Grousbeck. "During this era, it would be fantastic to win the whole thing. Let's hang one or two banners. It would be deeply disappointing if we don't."

Shira Springer can be reached at springer@globe.com.