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.
Krawczynski tells Hartman that Bloomberg will be a limited partner with Lore and Rodriguez still controlling the fate of the team if they do take over ownership. But there are other ways Bloomberg's large financial backing could help get done.
"If they are looking to build a new arena, which I did report today that they're looking at privately financing an arena, then certainly having Bloomberg around will help with that," Krawczynski tells WCCO's Hartman. "Many other things, looking at a regional sports network, all of those things, I think that he would play a big role in as well. Again, this is all very presumptuous and cart before the horse."
That cart before the horse is because the deal is still very much up in the air.
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 coming in as a "limited partner" will not have an impact on the arbitration ruling.
"Bloomberg's arrival to this does not affect the arbitration one bit because all the arbitrators are going to look at is everything that led up to that March 27th disagreement," says Krawczynski. "That's not going to affect them at all."
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.
"When you add a guy like Michael Bloomberg to a list of very deep pocketed limited partners like the former Google CEO Eric Schmidt and others, I certainly think that strengthens their overall financial position," Krawczynski explains. "Would that be enough for the league? I don't know. We'll find out if they get to that point."
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.