Alex Rodriguez plans to go down swinging.
Roughly a day after the former baseball star and his business partner, Marc Lore, saw their window to buy the Timberwolves close, the duo plans to continue its pursuit. Longtime owner Glen Taylor said Thursday that the team is “no longer for sale,” after the Rodriguez-Lore group missed a deadline. Lore accused Taylor of concocting a narrative to get out of a deal he no longer liked.
“We’re going to be the owners of the Minnesota Timberwolves,” Lore told Sportico in a story published Friday. “It’s just a matter of time, and how much pain Glen wants to put the fans, the players, the town and community through. It’s his choice. It didn’t have to be this way.”
The Timberwolves did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Lore and Rodriguez reached a four-part deal with Taylor in 2021 to buy the team for $1.5 billion by purchasing 20% at a time. The deal came at a time when the valuations of sports franchises were climbing, and Taylor could feasibly get more than the original price should he resell the team. Sportico recently valued the franchise at almost double what Taylor agreed to sell it for.
Rodriguez and Lore own about 40% and were in the process of buying another 40% when Taylor said they missed their deadline. A venture capital group the duo was using pulled out of the deal, leaving them scrambling to find money. Lore said they submitted the financial paperwork days before the March 27 deadline and were entitled to the 90-day extension window from the purchase agreement. Taylor said in his statement Thursday that the circumstances for the extension “did not occur.”
Rodriguez, Lore, and their lawyers are currently talking to the NBA. Meanwhile, the team is in second place in the Western Conference with a record of 50–22.
