A-Rod, partner in agreement to buy T’Wolves
MINNEAPOLIS >> Former baseball star Alex Rodriguez and e-commerce mogul Marc Lore signed a letter of intent Saturday to buy the Timberwolves and keep the NBA team in Minnesota, owner Glen Taylor said.
The agreement, which also includes the WNBA’s Minnesota Lynx, opens a 30-day window for negotiations to be finalized. If accountants and attorneys for both sides agree, the deal would then need to be approved by the league.
The Athletic first reported the $1.5 billion sale.
Under the conditions of the deal, Taylor would keep control of the club for the next two years and bring on Rodriguez and Lore as partners until a handover in 2023. In a phone interview with The Associated Press, Taylor said their connection went “terrifically well” and that he was “happy” and excited” about what’s to come.
“They’ve asked that I would be there for any decisions that would need to be made,” Taylor said. “I would enjoy that. I love teaching people. These are a couple of very bright guys, and I think it could be helpful to the club and I think I could be helpful to them so that they feel confident once they take over 100%.”
Taylor, who put the teams on the market last year, said he was first approached by Rodriguez and Lore a week ago. The pair traveled to meet Taylor and his wife at their winter home in Naples, Florida. Taylor, who turns 80 on April 20, has spoken with numerous suitors over the years but taken a deliberate approach to finding a buyer he’s comfortable with. He said he’s done that with Rodriguez and Lore.
“I was concerned if I got ill or something happened to me what would happen to the club. This gives me a path that I know it’s going to happen. I feel confident that they’ll take care of the franchise and move it ahead,” Taylor said.
Throughout the sale process, he told interested parties that keeping the franchises in town was a prerequisite for purchase.
“There was no use talking to them if they didn’t agree to that,” Taylor said.
The Timberwolves, who entered the league in 1989 as an expansion club, were on their way to New Orleans in 1994 before Taylor, a lifelong Minnesotan who built
his fortune from a small commercial printing business, bought the team for $88 million.