A new report from The Athletic is adding a new, very rich, partner to the Alex Rodriguez, Marc Lore team that has attempted to buy the Minnesota Timberwolves-Lynx franchise from majority owner Glen Taylor.
The story, originally broken by Jon Krawczynski and Shams Charania of The Athletic, says that former New York City Mayor and presidential candidate Michael Bloomberg has agreed to join Lore and Rodriguez in purchasing the teams.
Bloomberg is worth an estimated $106 billion which they rank at twelfth richest in the world. Taylor is worth an estimated $2.8 billion.
"Here is Michael Bloomberg, coming in with that type of money and he's going to have the billions and billions and billions of that, and he's just gonna be the minority owner? He's going to let Alex and Mark run this thing? Because that's been the debate, they've wanted big money people to come in, but they went to him and said we still want to run it. That's very interesting," said WCCO's Chad Hartman.
That deal is still very much up in the air however.
In March, Taylor shared that his sale of the Minnesota Timberwolves to Lore and Rodriguez had fallen through after they failed to meet a deadline, something they deny. Currently, the deal is with an NBA arbitrator.
Krawczynski notes that Bloomberg's arrival as a "limited partner" will not have an impact on the arbitration ruling. That ruling is tied to the March 27 deadline that Taylor claims was not met, which is long before Bloomberg surfaced in the deal.
Should an arbitrator rule that Lore and Rodriguez can continue with their purchase, adding someone of Bloomberg's caliber and financial standing should greatly enhance their approval chances with the NBA.
Taylor said that after that deadline was missed, the sale was off the table and that he intends to remain the majority owner of the franchises.
“The Timberwolves and Lynx are no longer for sale," he said at the time. “It’s strictly a business deal. They set the dates, and they didn’t fulfill the dates that they said they were going to have the information done. We already moved it once from February to March.”
Lore and Rodriguez have said that Taylor is only having seller’s remorse and that they have the funds to complete the purchase. Taylor says he doesn’t see it like that, instead noting that “it’s just business.”
Taylor acknowledged his change of heart but said that was because of the good vibes around the organization during a 56-26 season that went down as the second-best in franchise history. The Wolves were eliminated in five games by Dallas in the Western Conference Finals.
NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said in April that the league likely would not have a reason to intervene in the dispute.
Lore, an e-commerce entrepreneur, and Rodriguez, the former Major League Baseball star, struck an agreement with Taylor in 2021 to buy the Timberwolves and the Minnesota Lynx WNBA franchise for $1.5 billion. Taylor, who bought the team in 1994 for $88 million, set up the deal in phases so he could serve as a mentor of sorts to the newcomers as they learned the league, the organization and the Twin Cities community. Lore and Rodriguez together own 36% of the club.
Silver said the dispute might prompt the NBA to change its rules around such transactions so as to avoid future conflicts.
The Associated Press contributed to this story.