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Shams Charania, ESPN
Minority owners Marc Lore and Alex Rodriguez have $940 million in a bank account ready to wire immediately to majority owner Glen Taylor and the NBA for outright control of the Minnesota Timberwolves and the WNBA’s Lynx should they receive approval, sources told ESPN on Tuesday.
Taylor has said he no longer wants to sell the team.
Lore and Rodriguez have an arbitration hearing with Taylor set for Nov. 4 and then would need to be approved by the NBA board of governors before being able to gain full ownership of the franchises. All team sales require the approval of at least 23 of the owners.
Lore and Rodriguez agreed more than three years ago to buy the Timberwolves for $1.5 billion from Taylor, who halted the sale March 28 because he said they missed the deadline to make the final payment.
Lore and Rodriguez have said they had the cash to complete the deal but were delayed by the NBA in its approval of the transaction and were thus entitled to an extension. After mediation failed to resolve the conflict, the two sides are headed for an arbitration hearing in keeping with the terms of the contract.
Having already made payments to buy 40% of the team in 2022 and 2023, the $940 million represents the rest of the total amount for Lore and Rodriguez to gain 100% ownership of the Wolves and Lynx.
Billionaire businessman and former three-term New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg reached an agreement to join the Lore-Rodriguez group over the summer, sources said.
Source: www.espn.com