Alex Rodriguez and Marc Lore are finally taking control of the Timberwolves from Glen Taylor.
A four-year saga neared its conclusion Wednesday after ESPN reported Taylor would not appeal a February arbitration ruling in favor of the duo. The NBA will now start the transfer process, almost a week after commissioner Adam Silver said Taylor was “considering various options” as well as having discussions with Lore and Rodriguez.
The Rodriguez/Lore group will have 100% of the team going forward, ESPN reported.
The baseball legend and diaper magnate originally agreed to buy the team and the Minnesota Lynx from Taylor in 2021 for $1.5 billion with a multistage acquisition plan that would gradually make them majority owners. But Taylor abruptly pulled the team off the market in March 2024, alleging Rodriguez and Lore missed a payment.
The duo countered that Taylor was having “buyer’s remorse” after the Phoenix Suns sold for $4 billion in December 2022 to Mat Ishbia, more than double what Lore and Rodriguez agreed to pay. Taylor was also reportedly concerned over Rodriguez and Lore allegedly planning to cut the T-Wolves’ payroll, though Taylor himself has long avoided the NBA luxury tax.
The Timberwolves traded away star player Karl-Anthony Towns to the Knicks before the start of the season, but they still went into it with the NBA’s second-highest payroll of $202 million, weighed down by Anthony Edwards’s five-year, $245 million extension and Rudy Gobert’s five-year, $200 million deal.
As Taylor tried to hang on to his teams despite the 2021 agreement, the parties went into mediation and then arbitration. In June 2024, the Rodriguez/Lore group reportedly added former New York mayor Michael Bloomberg to their investment team along the way. Earlier this year, a group of arbitrators ruled in favor of Rodriguez and Lore.
Silver said Thursday the sale was “on hold” until Taylor weighed his options to appeal the arbitrators’ ruling. Now only a board of governors vote awaits, a likely formality.
Despite Silver criticizing the “stepped” sale process, the Celtics have agreed to a similar deal, where a group led by Bill Chisholm would buy a majority stake in the team this summer, and Wyc Grousbeck would stay on as CEO and governor through 2028. Silver called the similar structure in Minnesota “not ideal” and said that “once the dust clears on this deal, it may cause us to reassess what sort of transactions we should allow.”
Last week, Silver said the NBA was “still digesting” the Celtics sale and called the approval stage “preliminary” as the owners have not yet weighed Chisholm’s agreement to buy the Celtics. It may end up being a very similar transaction to the Wolves deal.
“The Grousbeck family and the buyer are still working through those arrangements on how exactly that would work with CEO roles and governor roles,” Silver said Thursday.
The Timberwolves are currently 44–32, seventh in the Western Conference. The team has clinched a playoff berth. Both the NBA and the Timberwolves did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The 83-year-old Taylor, a businessman and politician, bought the Wolves for $94 million in 1994.
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