Nearly every player, coach and front-office executive who helped propel the Celtics to their 18th NBA championship will be back for a title defense.

But by the time the 2024-25 playoffs begin next April, Boston’s storied basketball franchise expects to be under new ownership.

Days after their duck boat parade, Wyc Grousbeck announced his family would be selling its majority stake in the Celtics. Once complete, it will be the first ownership change for a big-four Boston team since 2002, when Grousbeck and his partners bought the C’s and John Henry, Tom Werner and Larry Lucchino purchased the Red Sox.

With the Celtics set to reconvene later this month for training camp, here’s a refresher on where things stand with the sale process, which is sure to be a dominant storyline as the new season tips off:

Why are they selling?

In a statement announcing the impending sale, Grousbeck’s ownership collective, Boston Basketball Partners LLC, cited “estate and family planning considerations” as the primary motivation.

Grousbeck drove home the “family” point in subsequent interviews. His father, H. Irving Grousbeck, who also is part of the team’s ownership group, turned 90 this summer.

“I want to just clarify: It’s not my majority stake,” Wyc Grousbeck said on CNBC in early July. “The control of the team is owned by my family. … The family, we’ve been involved (with the Celtics for) 22 years, so there’s been discussions and thoughts about estate planning and family planning.”

He added: “It’s a family (that’s) been in a long time and loves the Celtics. And at some point after 22 — or even 25, 26 — years, you can find somebody else to come in with energy and commitment. We’re going to try to find the right buyer.”

The Celtics are worth exponentially more than the $360 million the current ownership group paid for the franchise 22 years ago. The most recent projections from Forbes and Sportico pegged the team’s value at between $4.7 million and $5 million, and those were released before Boston’s latest championship run, which undoubtedly upped the price tag.

This is the definition of selling high, as the Celtics should shatter the current record for the sale of an NBA franchise, which Mat Ishbia set when he bought the Phoenix Suns for $4 billion two years ago.

In that same CNBC sitdown, Grousbeck said he expected to sell 51% of the franchise “fairly soon” and anticipated “quite a bidding process.” Which brings us to…

When are they selling?

The answer to that question is both “within the next few months” and “several years down the road.” The stated plan of Grousbeck’s group is to have a majority stake in the team sold by “2024 or early 2025, with the balance closing in 2028.”

Boston Basketball Partners retained BDT & MSD Partners and J.P. Morgan as co-advisors for the sale.

Grousbeck said his plan and expectation is to remain on as team governor — representing the Celtics on the NBA’s Board of Governors — until the second closing. Under that setup, he’d remain intimately involved in the operation of the franchise even after his family sells off its majority interest.

Whether that type of tiered sale is feasible remains to be seen. The Minnesota Timberwolves recently attempted to sell their franchise in multiple stages, and that led to a years-long legal battle that has yet to be resolved. The Celtics’ next owners also might not want the team’s current bosses as involved as Grousbeck intends to be.

Pros/cons of buying the Celtics

Several NBA franchises have undergone total or partial ownership changes in recent years. But it’s rare, in any sport, for a team as iconic and historically successful as the Celtics to hit the market — and even rarer for that to happen when said team is inarguably the best in its league at the time of its sale.

The Celtics went a remarkable 80-21 last season, including a dominant 16-3 playoff run, and return nearly their entire roster. Boston’s new majority owners will have a very real chance of hoisting the Larry O’Brien Trophy within months of their purchase.

The NBA also recently signed a new 11-year media rights deal that will funnel more money than ever to franchises in the coming years.

The drawbacks? That championship-winning roster will become exorbitantly expensive a year from now. The 2025-26 Celtics are projected to be the costliest team in NBA history — close to $500 million between salaries and luxury tax penalties. The new owners will need to either be willing to foot that massive bill or be comfortable with the criticism they’d receive from the fanbase for jettisoning key players.

Another key factor: The Celtics do not own TD Garden. The Bruins do. That means the C’s both pay to play there and cannot profit from other events held at the arena, removing a lucrative potential revenue stream. Bruins CEO Charlie Jacobs recently revealed that the Celtics’ lease runs for “another 12 years or so,” but it’s possible their next owners could look to eventually build their own arena, as Steve Ballmer did roughly a decade after buying the Los Angeles Clippers.

Who are the possible buyers?

As of Monday, just one individual or group had publicly confirmed it planned to make a bid for the Celtics: Steve Pagliuca, the most visible of the team’s current minority owners.

“Being a co-investor and managing partner of the Celtics has been a great honor and a labor of love,” Pagliuca, who’s been involved with the Celtics since 2002 and also owns part of Italian soccer club Atalanta, said in a statement. “I hope to be part of the Celtics moving forward and will be a proud participant in the bidding process.”

Selling to Pagliuca and partners would be the cleanest way to ensure the franchise’s high standard for responsible ownership remains intact through this transition. But he’ll likely face competition from some deep-pocketed challengers.

Henry’s Fenway Sports Group and billionaire Amazon founder Jeff Bezos both have been rumored as possible suitors, though other reports have downplayed their interest.

The Celtics’ ownership group on Monday declined comment on the sale process.