Bill Belichick is known as one of the most serious and focused coaches in all of professional sports. That makes a new story from Boston Celtics CEO Wyc Grousbeck even funnier.
On Saturday’s episode of ‘WEEI Extra Sauce with Greg Hill,’ Grousbeck recalled how he sought counsel from Belichick with the Celtics up 23 points on the Los Angeles Lakers in a potentially decisive Game 6 of the 2008 NBA Finals. Grousbeck wanted Belichick to calm him down a bit, but the Celtics CEO did not get the reaction he expected.
“I go ‘Bill, what do you think?’ and I was thinking he would calm me down because we could have won the championship that night, or not if we blew it,” Grousbeck said, via Ryan Hannable of WEEI. “If anyone is going to give you the party line, ‘One play at a time, do your job’ it’s going to be Bill. I looked to him for that and I said, ‘Bill, what do you think?’ He goes, ‘Are you kidding me? You’re the bleeping world champions. You can celebrate right now.’ I was like, ‘I just got jinxed by Bill Belichick.’
“He bought a round of tequila shots for the entire bar, the entire club and we beat them by 30. I love Bill.”
The Celtics did, in fact, go on to win the game by 39 points to clinch the title. No jinx from Belichick there.
There is plenty of evidence Belichick has a softer side that comes out when he’s not focused on his duties with the Patriots. It’s just that very few people get to see it. Grousbeck, it seems, is one of the fortunate few.
