On Thursday, Minnesota Timberwolves majority owner Glen Taylor shared that his sale of the Minnesota Timberwolves to businessman Marc Lore and former MLB player Alex Rodriguez had fallen through.
The news comes a week after Lore and Rodriguez took another step in completing their purchase of the organization, which would have given them a combined 80% stake in the NBA franchise and Minnesota’s WNBA franchise, the Lynx.
Taylor joined News Talk 830 WCCO’s Chad Hartman to explain his decision. He shared that Lore and Rodriguez had initially said they wanted to close the sale on Feb. 28, but they missed the deadline, extending it to March 27.
Taylor said that after a deadline was missed, the sale was off the table. Now, he says he will remain the majority owner of the franchises and that “The Timberwolves and Lynx are no longer for sale.”
“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,” Taylor said, adding, “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.”
“I don’t think I have seller’s remorse. I just think that, right now, things are going well,” Taylor said. “We allowed them to come in and purchase at a very competitive price. So they’ll financially do well and come out well.”
In response to Lore and Rodriguez’s statement, Taylor said he didn’t have any “hard feelings or good feelings about it at all.”
Taylor also said that they had “heard that they were having trouble raising the money.”
In their initial contract, Taylor said there is a stipulation that allows him to terminate the sale if pre-set deadlines are missed. This is something he said he chose to accept after the March 27 date was missed.
When asked what he would do if both men came to him today to try to finish the deal, he said they would talk, but that it is most likely too late.
“We’ll listen to them, but I doubt it will be successful in reviving it,” Taylor said. “I think the way we’re going and the way we’re running the team now and the people we have in place, it’s going very well, and I don’t want to disrupt it.”
As for potential litigation that could come from his decision today, Taylor said he is prepared.
“I hope not, but I just think as a business person, I know that’s always open to possibilities, and we’re prepared for that. We always have to assume that good things and bad things that can happen,” Taylor said.