The Minnesota Timberwolves and Minnesota Lynx ownership saga that has dragged on for three years now has reached a critical point. On Monday, an arbitration hearing will begin in the battle to determine who is the rightful owners of the franchises. And it is a battle.
Current majority owner Glen Taylor will be face-to-face with minority owners Marc Lore and Alex Rodriguez and in front of a three-person panel that will decide whether Taylor was justified in calling off his agreement to sell the teams to Lore and Rodriguez or if the two partners have fulfilled the contract and should be able to complete their $1.5 billion purchase.
The two sides started in heartwarming fashion, meeting at the Taylors’ winter home in Naples, Fla., in 2021 and bonding over homemade hamburgers and a desire to solidify the Timberwolves’ future. At the time, Taylor was ready to bring on partners who would eventually take over the teams, and he connected with Lore on his self-made, entrepreneurial background and Rodriguez for how he parlayed his baseball stardom into success in the business world.
Taylor approved an unconventional pathway to ownership for the two friends, but the deal hit the rocks in March when Taylor claimed that Lore and Rodriguez had not fulfilled their end of the bargain. Lore…
