Is Alex Rodriguez’s bid to buy the Minnesota Timberwolves back on?

Minnesota Timberwolves fans would likely have thought they were about to welcome a new franchise owner this week. That is until they were informed that the sale of the franchise was off. With reports now indicating the deal is still in play, what comes next?

A-Rod’s Timberwolves bid is still on

If you caught our previous report, then you will know that the sale of both the Minnesota Timberwolves and Minnesota Lynx fell through this week, with owner Glen Taylor declaring that the NBA and WNBA franchises were “no longer for sale.” To be more specific, Taylor is claimed that prospective buyers Marc Lore and former MLB star Alex Rodriguez did not meet their deadline to finalize the deal. To be clear, when Lore and Rodriguez agreed to purchase a majority stake in the franchises for a reported $1.5 billion in 2021, they agreed to pay Taylor in installments. To that end, the final payment should have been made on Wednesday, which we have to assume - with Taylor’s subsequent statement in mind - was not the case. You can see the full press release below:

Glen Taylor, Chairman of Taylor Sports Group, Inc., the general partner of Minnesota Timberwolves Basketball Limited Partnership (“Timberwolves and Lynx”), this morning confirmed the expiration of the option of Marc Lore and Alex Rodriguez to acquire controlling interest in the Timberwolves and Lynx. Under the terms of the purchase agreement, the closing was required to occur within 90 days following the exercise notice issued by Lore and Rodriguez. That 90-day period expired on March 27, 2024. Under certain circumstances, the buyer could have been entitled to a limited extension. However, those circumstances did not occur. “I will continue to work with Marc, Alex and the rest of the ownership group to ensure our teams have the necessary resources to compete at the highest levels on and off the court,” said Taylor. “The Timberwolves and Lynx are no longer for sale.”

Where do Alex Rodriguez and Marc Lore stand?

Now, it’s worth noting that the relationship between Taylor and Lore/Rodriguez has not been the best in recent times, even though the pair had secured the necessary funds to meet Taylor’s asking price. Taylor’s issue appears to be the notion that they took too long. To be more precise, Taylor asserts that Lore and Rodriguez are not entitled to any form of extension because the NBA’s advisory/finance committee has not reviewed the final part of the sale, the board of governors has not approved it and the money has not been exchanged. As you can probably guess, Lore and Rodriguez don’t have the same view of what transpired. You can see their statement below:

“We are disappointed with Glen Taylor’s public statement today. We have fulfilled our obligations, have necessary funding and are fully committed to closing our purchase of the team as soon as the NBA completes its approval process. Glen Taylor’s statement is an unfortunate case of seller’s remorse that is short-sighted [sic] and disruptive to the team and the fans during a historic winning season.”

What’s interesting here, is that the agreement appears to indicate that such disputes should be settled via mediation and arbitration. Indeed, that seems to be one of the principle points with which Rodriguez has taken issue. “It is now personal,” Rodriguez said “We can be in this (fight) for five years, 10 years, whatever. We’re not going to let go.” A similar sentiment was echoed by Lore, who went on to speak to the idea of regret on Taylor’s part during an appearance on the Dane Moore NBA podcast: “I think Glen just decided this team is worth a lot more than when he did the deal, and he no longer wants to abide by the contract. It’s plain and simple.”

As always, context is key and to that end, we should point out that Lore and Rodriguez have up to this point acquired 40% of the franchises. This week was supposed to see the finalization of a deal that would see that stake increase to 80%. There were of course some setbacks such as the Carlyle Group reported backtracking on a $300 million investment, but that was overcome when Lore and Rodriguez secured the assistance of Dyal Capital Partners, another private equity firm. It was at that point that the group submitted the requisite documents to the NBA, and here we are. As for the Timberwolves themselves, the team is currently 51-22 and in a dogfight for the Western Conference’s top spot.