Report alleges 'civil war' inside tumultuous sale of Timberwolves

"Marc and A-Rod, I've confirmed this, actually did raise the $600 million."

Apr 14, 2024; Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA; Minnesota Timberwolves and Lynx minority owners Marc Lore / Bruce Kluckhohn-USA TODAY Sports

While on the court the Timberwolves are tracking towards the possibility of franchise's first championship, off the court the franchise is in a "civil war," according to a report by Meadowlark Media's Pablo Torre.

Torre, a former ESPN journalist, released an hour long look into the turmoil over the sale of the Timberwolves on his YouTube channel Pablo Finds Out. In the investigation, Torre claims to have spoken to multiple sources "intimately familiar" with the Timberwolves as well as sources that have "dealt directly " with both incumbent owner Glen Taylor as well as Marc Lore and Alex Rodriguez, the duo attempting to buy the Timberwolves and WNBA's Minnesota Lynx.

Taylor, Lore and Rodriguez announced the start of a prolonged sales process in April 2021 that would see Lore and Rodriguez make three payments for a grand total of $1.5 billion to purchase the teams. The agreement was set to be concluded on March 27, 2024. On March 28, Taylor released a statement on the team's website that said the sale was off and he claimed Lore and Rodriguez missed the deadline to complete the purchase. The duo have rejected that claim.

Torre reported Thursday that Lore and Rodriguez did raise the required $600 million to complete the final payment and thus the purchase and that the duo submitted the paperwork to the league office a week before the March 27 deadline.

Torre, saying he's obtained the paperwork, says that Lore and Rodriguez submitted proper documents in advance of the deadline and that doing so should have triggered a 90-day extension in order for the league to approve or reject the deal. Instead, Taylor released his statement on March 28 pulling out of the deal.

Pablo Finds Out

Torre reported that multiple sources stated "lots of people actually doubted whether Marc and A-Rod could come up with the money."

Those doubts went so far that, according to Torre's reporting, "Glen's business-side executives were speculating aloud about how the new owners were having trouble coming up with the money" during an all-hands meeting of Timberwolves employees before the second payment in March 2023.

With the sales process in turmoil the situation resulting in a May 1 mediation, Torre claims that Taylor and the Lore/Rodriguez group were put in separate rooms due to the mistrust between the sides.

"Glen, I am told, in mediation, offers to buy out Marc and Alex. Marc and A-Rod are like 'No.' They want the contract enforced," said Torre. "This goes on for about six hours. They only agree to intensely disagree with each other."

While Taylor has been saying publicly in several local media interviews that Lore and Rodriguez failed to come up with the money, privately, according to Torre's reporting, the crux of Taylor's argument for keeping control of the team is far different, something Torre referred to as "Commercially Reasonable Efforts."

What is that exactly?

Torre explains it as an "inherently subjective threshold for whether the buyer tried to make their payment in a way that seems reasonable when compared to normal purchases of comparable objects."

In this case, the problem rests on the three-year process of transferring the team over to Lore and Rodriguez. Most NBA teams are not sold in this manner. NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said the prolonged sale is "certainly not ideal to have a stepped transaction like this."

Weeks after pulling out of the deal Taylor told Fox9 that the idea of a step-transaction was Lore and Rodriguez's idea.

"It was pretty simple negotiations," said Taylor. "I said that I'll name the price and you can name the terms. And I gave them the price, and they accepted the price, and the terms were they would pay for it over three years."

Torre alleges that is false.

"Now what I've found is that according to multiple high-level sources... it (the installment plan) wasn't Marc and A-Rod's idea. It was Glen Taylor's idea to want the three-year step-transaction format in the first place," said Torre.

That tracks with what NBA Commissioner Silver told media after a recent Board of Governors meeting when asked about the uncommon nature of the sale.

"It's what Glen Taylor wanted and it's what they were willing to agree to at the time," said Silver.

After mediation failed, both sides now head to arbitration that could ultimately decide the fate of the sale of the Timberwolves and Lynx organizations. Arbitration is expected to happen after the NBA postseason, Torre says.

All the while, the Wolves are in the midst of an undefeated playoff run that has many national commentators saying the team is a title contender. Taylor, Lore and Rodriguez have all been present at home playoff games, sitting courtside across the court from each other.

"What I have learned from multiple witnesses in these buildings when they see Glen approach Marc Lore and Alex Rodriguez is that Glen keeps going up to them and hugging them," claimed Torre. "These have been described to me, by witnesses, as 'one-way' hugs."

The Wolves host the Denver Nuggets for Game 3 of their second round playoff series Friday night at the Target Center. Tipoff is set for 8:30 p.m. CT.