‘Never heard of the guy’

A financer named Bill Chisholm bought the famous Boston Celtics on Thursday for $6.1 billion. This is the most expensive sports franchise agreement in US history.

Still, no one in the world of sports or Wall Street really knows who he is.

Mystery Man is the co-founder of a Silicon Valley private equity company named Symphony Technology Group, and based on his resume he led the agreement to invest in medium-sized companies in technology and software businesses.

“I've never heard of that guy,” said the top executive of a major sports franchise.

This is why people are asking if Chisholm has the money needed to make the transaction work.

Symphony manages an estimated $10 billion in assets. In contrast, Blackstone Group, the largest private equity company, is under $1.1 trillion control. Of course, he has other partners funding Celtics deals, including granite communication billionaire Rob Hale. Chisholm's minority partner, PE Firm Sixth Street, is said to have invested $1 billion.

However, these companies appear to play in a much larger field than Chisholm and Symphony. Sixth Street has $100 billion in assets and a critical footprint for the sports business.

The company bought a 10% stake in the San Francisco giant and added it to its roster of sports-related investments, including another NBA team, the San Antonio Spurs. In New York, it may be best known in New York for its majority stake in legendary hospitality, co-founded by the New York Yankees and the Dallas Cowboys.

According to the banker who worked with him, Chisholm also has a modest presence in Silicon Valley. His resume includes co-founded members known as Valent Groups in the year he worked for Private Equity Powerhouse Bain Capital before establishing the Symphony in 2002.

“We bought the company from (symphonies). That's how I know him. It's not totaling yet. If he had billions, we would know about him, or at least they would have more money,” one Silicon Valley PE executive told the Post.

Chisholm did not reply to requests for comment. In a statement released after the shocking sale, Chisholm said he was a longtime Celtics fan who grew up in the Boston area and attended university in New England. “We understand how important the Celtics are to Boston cities. The role that teams play in our community is different from any other city in the country. We also understand that we are responsible for the people of Boston as leaders of the organization.

One thing is for sure, Chisholm will need all the money he and his partner can drum up the drums to protect the NBA champions.

Plus, he faces a headache about where a very expensive team plays. The Celtics do not own Home Arena TD Garden, a hospitality company called Delaware North.

There are many stories of him wanting to build and own his venue and generate the revenue he needs to fund that expensive salary.

To make the numbers work, sources say he can tap on Wall Street sources. Chisholm, JP Morgan and its controversial but powerful wealth management chief Mary Eldos (her unit allowed convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein to do business with the bank forever after spending time in prison) allowed him to work on the deal, including the final touches of the last part of all moving parts as the news of the shocking sale became official.

He then managed to beat several other bidders, including Stephen Pagliuca and Stan Middleman, the current minority owners of the team that owns a small number of shares in the Philadelphia Phillies, and convinced the Grossbeck family, the majority owners of Seltz, to hand over the rights to the league's most stored franchise.

Grousebels announced it was on sale last summer shortly after winning the Record 18 Championship, citing “Real estate and Family Planning Considerations.”

The post previously reported that father-son duo Irving and WYC were at conflict over how to manage the large pay of the league's biggest teams.

The $6.1 billion deal pending approval from the NBA Governor's Committee will break the $6.05 billion record for a North American franchise, paid by a group led by the highly-known Wall Street man Josh Harris, who paid last year to scooped up the NFL's Washington commander.

The Celtics deal will crush the pre-NBA high set in 2023 when Matt Ishvia bought the Phoenix Suns for $4 billion. Prior to that sale, the Milwaukee Bucks sold for $3.5 billion, and last year Mark Cuban sold most of its Dallas Mavericks stake for $3.5 billion.

Additional Reports by Mark W. Sanchez