Alex Rodriguez and Marc Lore appear to be taking the gloves off.
In an interview with Sportico that was published on Friday, Rodriguez and Lore spoke out on the recent drama with their bid for majority ownership of the Minnesota Timberwolves. This comes a day after current Timberwolves owner Glen Taylor abruptly announced that the team was no longer for sale.
Taylor indicated in his statement that Rodriguez and Lore had failed to meet contractual deadlines for the majority stake to transfer hands, but the two denied that in the interview with Sportico.
“We’re going to be the owners of the Minnesota Timberwolves,” Lore was quoted as saying. “It’s just a matter of time, and how much pain Glen wants to put the fans, the players, the town and community through. It’s his choice. It didn’t have to be this way.”
Rodriguez and Lore also accused Taylor of fabricating a story in order to back out of a deal that was no longer financially advantageous to him. They further told Sportico that Taylor showed a “complete and utter disregard for the contract” that they had agreed to.
You can read the Sportico story in full here.
Back in 2021, Rodriguez and Lore agreed on a deal with Taylor to purchase the Timberwolves as well as the WNBA’s Minnesota Lynx at a $1.5B valuation (with payment spread out over several installments). Rodriguez and Lore made the first two payments successfully and gained a roughly 20 percent stake in the Timberwolves each time. But the third installment, which had a due date set of March 27 and would have officially had the majority ownership of the team transfer hands, failed this week.
Taylor claimed that Rodriguez and Lore had missed contractual deadlines throughout the transition process. There were indeed rumors (as early as summer 2022) that Rodriguez was having money problems with regard to the Timberwolves deal. A new financial backer also recently came into the picture after Rodriguez and Lore had a different investor pull out on them.
However, Rodriguez and Lore maintained in the interview that they submitted their signed financial subscriptions for the third payment installment on March 21. Though they were not able to secure the NBA’s approval prior to that March 27 deadline, Rodriguez and Lore contend that their timely submission should have given rise to an automatic 90-day extension (pursuant to the terms of the purchase agreement).
Indeed, this may be a case of Taylor having “seller’s remorse” (as Rodriguez and Lore termed it in an earlier statement). The Timberwolves look like a legitimate title contender this season with a burgeoning young superstar in Anthony Edwards, and they figure to be worth much more now than what Taylor agreed to sell them for in 2021. A recent report even confirmed that Taylor had gotten “cold feet” on the deal.
Rodriguez and Lore now tell Sportico that their lawyers are speaking with the NBA’s lawyers and that they are willing to take action to defend their interpretation of the agreement. From the looks of it, Rodriguez and Lore are ready to get ugly in order to secure from Taylor what they believe to be their rightful majority share in the Timberwolves.
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