Sale of T-Wolves closer
Minnesota Timberwolves owner Glen Taylor has reached agreement on his $1.5 billion sale of the club to e-commerce mogul Marc Lore and former baseball star Alex Rodriguez, a person with knowledge of the negotiation said on Thursday.
The two sides entered an exclusive negotiating window on April 10. Lore and Rodriguez are 50-50 partners.
Any sale of an NBA club must ultimately be approved by the league’s Board of Governors, which could come later Thursday. The Timberwolves would then become the second NBA franchise sold this season. Gail Miller and her family struck an agreement in October to sell the Utah Jazz to Ryan Smith, a deal that was finalized after Board of Governors’ approval in December.
The 80-year-old Taylor, a lifelong Minnesotan who bought the Wolves in 1994 for $88 million to save them from moving to New Orleans, has said he will continue to run the club for two more seasons until a handover in 2023. The Minnesota Lynx WNBA team is included in the sale.
NBA
The Golden State Warriors signed former Marquette forward Juan Toscano-Anderson to a multiyear deal Thursday.
Toscano-Anderson originally signed a two-way contact with the Warriors in December. He is averaging 5.5 points, 4.3 rebounds and 2.7 assists in 55 games this season. The Oakland native has scored in double-figures 10 times, including a career-high 20-point performance on April 15 at Cleveland.
COLLEGE BASKETBALL
St. John’s has given Big East Conference coach of the year Mike Anderson a six-year contract extension through the 2026-27 season.
The university announced the deal after Anderson delivered consecutive winning seasons in his first two years.
The Red Storm posted a 16-11 record this past season, including a 10-9 mark in the conference after being picked ninth in the preseason coaches poll. It marked the first time St. John’s finished with a league record of .500 or better since 2014-15.
St. John’s did not receive an NCAA Tournament bid and removed itself from consideration for a probable bid to the NIT due to COVID-19 precautions.
AUTO RACING
Texas Motor Speedway president Eddie Gossage is stepping down after overseeing the track since it opened 24 years ago.
The 62-year-old Gossage said that his final event will be NASCAR’s All-Star race June 13, the first at TMS. He said that will be a full-circle moment for his 32 years working for Speedway Motorsports and Bruton Smith.
Gossage previously worked for Nashville International Raceway, Bristol International Raceway and Miller Brewing Co. in motorsports management and public relations capacities. He joined Speedway Motorsports in 1989 at Charlotte.
HOCKEY
The New York Rangers fired coach David Quinn and three assistant coaches after missing the playoffs with one of the NHL’s up-and-coming young teams.
The move is the first major one from new general manager Chris Drury, who took over last week after the team fired popular president John Davidson and general manager Jeff Gorton in the beginning of a major front-office overhaul.
In three years, Quinn posted 96-87-25 record in rebuilding the Rangers with a much younger team that included No. 1 overall pick Alexis Lafreniere this past season.
Assistant coaches Jacques Martin, David Oliver and Greg Brown were also fired.
COLLEGE ATHLETICS
Mike Polisky resigned as Northwestern’s athletic director amid mounting criticism following his promotion last week to replace Jim Phillips.
He is one of four defendants along with the university in a sexual harassment lawsuit filed in January by a former Northwestern cheerleader who said she was groped by drunken fans and alumni at school-sanctioned events and administrators tried to cover up her complaints, according to the Chicago Tribune.
President Morton Schapiro announced linguistics professor Robert Gundlach will serve as interim AD. Gundlach is Northwestern’s faculty athletics representative to the NCAA and Big Ten.