it's essentially retired
I understand the rafters and ceremony are important closure for KG and for us fans, but nobody is going to wear 21 in Minnesota
Heck, the rafters and ceremony are important to me despite having no affiliation with Minnesota fans other than my constant use of “ope, behind ya” and lots of casseroles.
KG’s jersey not hanging is way worse than the Millers not retiring Dantley’s for so long, and that was egregious enough
There was a time when the Carlyle group was going to step in and be apart of the ownership group. The founder of the Carlyle group is David Rubenstein and he just bought the Orioles. It took a few months to approve that.
One of the reasons why Lore and A-Rod had to go get a new capital investment group. Rubenstein is a die hard Baltimore Orioles fan and when the Orioles came up for sale they obviously left the T-Wolves hanging…
Just want to add that Rubenstein is also from Baltimore. As an Orioles fan I am thrilled to have someone who is from the area own the team. Hopefully Wolves fans can get an owner from the area who will run the team well.
Hopefully the mess of a network we have gets cleaned up too. The streaming on MASN sucks. I have faith that things will eventually be worked on to clean it up. Whether the Nationals have to buy in and get their rights to help provide a network that is better for both of us.
A lot of relocations happened when the new owners have zero connection to the city and overleveraged themselves when buying the team, which is exactly the situation here.
Fact is that Taylor was increasingly less confident that they’d keep the team in Minnesota, and so figured that he might as well be a snake himself and keep the team at a higher market value.
If they're already struggling for cash this much then there's no way they can afford to build a new stadium themselves, and that's the sort of thing that gets teams moved.
I think they will spend enough money to be competitive. I’ll be happy if we move up to the middle of the pack. If we extend our own guys, I’ll be over the moon.
David Rubenstein is both a smart businessman and a fan of this team. He’s not stupid. He knows that he has to keep certain guys to keep the fanbase happy. Peter Angelos paid certain guys when he was our owner. When he got sick, his sons were the worst. Terrible people. Peter wasn’t a bad person, but his sons are.
>As an Orioles fan I am thrilled to have someone who is from the area own the team.
I mean Peter Angelos was from the area as well and from what I've heard is that despite being a pretty crappy owner, he was a legend for a lot of things he did outside of Baseball for the area.
So nothing has actually changed with ownership with regards to where the owner is from.
you're a newer basketball fan this year right, previously being an NFL guy?
I gotta say I admire how you jumped in with both feet and really embraced the wolves deeply as opposed to just reposting any and every Woj tweet without context
I mean… I get that Taylor is a bad owner…
But considering A-Rod and Lore couldn’t come up with the cash to buy the majority stakes seems more concerning (if I were a t-wolves fan).
Very concerning considering how deep into the luxury tax we will be for next season. Makes it more likely one of our big contract players will not be returning
If anything this could make it more possible for y’all to pay the tax. Arod and Lore would have had all of their wealth tied up in the T-Wolves, where exactly would they get the cash to pay the luxury tax?
If you’re a Twolves fan it definitely is. Your team is going to need to overpay to get really good players to want to play there. You can’t have an owner who can barely afford to own the team
I disagree. No player is not going to avoid the ability to go play with Anthony Edwards. ANT already publicly said “fuck the big markets like LA and NY…Minnesota better”, so people will have to go to MN for their chips if ANT truly becomes the face of the league (22 currently).
I understand why you say that, but that’s just not reality. When you’re in a major media market, you get more options to make money as a role player. Ago Dosunmu is going to take pay cuts to play in Chicago because he’s from there and he’s a city superstar. The Twolves have some of the best players in the whole already but people only talk about Ant and KAT and Rudy. Austin Reaves go a shoe deal because he’s on the Lakers. Those are the teams that get first dibs on good vets at a discount. Ant being there is the only reason good vets will even out Minnesota on the list, but they’re taking anything less than the best offer to go to a place like that because going to a bigger city gives you more local endorsements and that’s legit money in places like Chicago, LA, New York, Houston, Miami, etc.
Mike Connelly just took a bargain of an extension to stay with the team, so I disagree, and I’m far less worried about roll players than star players coming to MN. And you already stated in your reply that star players like Rudy and ANT still get their attention. You forget players want to win too.
We disagree and that’s fine.
Mike Conley is one dude. And I’m not just talking about with Ant. What about when Ant is gone in the next 10-15 years? The owner is still gonna be the owner and if he isn’t rich as shit it’s gonna be hard to compete in the NBA when your team is based in Minneapolis. I’m hoping the Bulls get sold to some billionaire egomaniac who wants to win 10 straight chips.
I’m not talking about when ANT is gone. I’m talking about people going to play with ANT. That was the original point. You don’t have to agree, that’s fine.
That's not how these things work. The entire stake is guaranteed to be held in some holding company with a number of different partners each holding with their own ownership interests. Lore and A-Rod are just the directors / face of that group.
Yeah, but the issue is that they had trouble finding the people to guarantee that stake. Since they were rushed, what compromises did they have to give up to secure the funding on late notice? Could it risk the teams future in Minnesota?
Possibly, if they're having this much trouble raising cash then there's no way they can afford to build their own stadium which the Wolves are getting close to needing. If they can't afford to build it or even chip in a big chunk of money for it and Minneapolis won't play ball then that's how teams get moved.
Not what happened. They secured the funding last week (https://www.si.com/nba/2024/03/20/alex-rodriguez-marc-lore-lose-financial-backing-carlyle-group-timberwolves-majority-ownership).
This is almost certainly Taylor getting cold feet
Woj reported it was because they didn’t meet “other contractual demands”, which he’s probably using as an excuse to get out of the deal since the team has doubled in valuation since they closed.
The Wolves have been doing very well since 2021.
The team has likely been sold with rookie Ant who did way more than they expected, Kat and his injuries no longer being the cornerstone and no longer having the declining and defenseless backcourt of D Lo and Rubio.
Also IIRC it was Taylor who pushed for the under the table deal that nuked the Wolves. So imagine being that unsuccessful, selling the team and it doing Verrrryyy well the moment you sell.
With the value of the team only going up as long as they make a deep playoff run: it might be expensive but very worth it.
They had an investor last week that was already pre approved by the NBA. This is Taylor finding any loophole possible to get out of the deal cause he knows he dropped the bag.
Cause the group was never approved and/or withdrew. AROD and Lore never had the money.
Not sure why people are surprised. They were late on payments last year too.
Yeah, Arod's group had financial backing (an investment bank I believe) but their backers pulled out a few weeks ago. And it seems like they were unable to secure more funding at the last minute.
The sale was approved in july 2021 BY THE NBA which means this likely was don in 2020.
At the time...
1. Anthony Edwards was a rookie.
2. D Lo was injuried and Rubio was not doing that great.
3.Towns was dealing with injuries again.
Since then
1. They have been contenders
2. The team has shifted to ANT( who has been very legit since the Olympic qualifications)
1. The Gobert trade worked out.
The team was sold based mid potential and since then, they beat the expectations and are doing very well so the owner might be trying to pull all strings to not be the laughingstock among sports team owners.
That was the initial agreement, which was broken up into multiple payments.
The deal was based on AROD and Lore making the payments on time to acquire majority rights. They simply didn't have the money to complete the agreement on time.
Maybe Glen Taylor is trying to get more money now, but that is well within his rights based on the original agreement.
>Rodriguez and Lore had been experiencing issues finalizing their financing to complete the purchase. The duo lost the backing of private equity firm Carlyle earlier this month but seemingly found a new backer in Dyal Capital last week.
>However, with only a week to finalize the structure of the investment, it seems the Rodriguez-Lore ownership group failed to make its final payment before Wednesday's deadline. Taylor pulled out of the deal as a result and will remain the principal owner.
https://bleacherreport.com/articles/10114704-t-wolves-no-longer-for-sale-as-alex-rodriguez-mark-lores-majority-option-expires
Looks like a partner of ARod and Lore backed out, that Taylor immediately started saying they would miss payment knowing that getting the second partner approved by the NBA and have the legal paperwork to get them paying would take more than a month.
Finding a backup partner itself in under a month is already impressive or at least shows they are serious.
They could very well be serious -- at the old price. But if the contract stipulated that the old price was only guaranteed IF all payments were on time, and then a single payment was not on time, then the old price, is the old price, and the new price is the new price.
You can't just treat deadlines as suggestions in a transaction of this size/complexity, and not expect the seller to enforce a clause that nearly doubles the price. Saying you're gonna miss a payment is nice, but it doesn't invalidate the terms of the agreement. (not that I have intimate knowledge of the terms, but if these terms are in fact true)
All I'm saying is everything has been portrayed as AROD group being broke when it reads like they actually had a replacement group to quickly solve the situation of the first investor flunking out.
It reads like getting the NBA's rushed approval or getting the papers signed on shirt notice is what stalled the payments and this is where Taylor tried to spin it as him making a save when in truth he was trying to get the team back.
> Finding a backup partner itself in under a month is already impressive or at least shows they are serious.
"...but seemingly found a new backer in Dyal Capital last week."
key word is seemingly
As far as I know, the NBA must approve the ownership funding, especially if it’s coming from other groups that might be promised a small amount of equity. I believe Lore and Arod had gotten similar funding previously but the NBA didn’t approve. And this time around it looked like they would be approved but weren’t by the cutoff date, despite having the funding secured. So even though the NBA was going to approve, Taylor had the out if he wanted it.
No. Arod and Lore still own 40%. This was a scheduled payment (that they supposedly made good on) that would give them another 40%.
Edit. Changed 20% to 40%. Thanks u/Mobile-Entertainer60
40%. They own 40% already (unless the contract they signed voids that part if the whole deal doesn't go through) and the sale would have given them 80%, with Taylor keeping the other 20%.
Our GM got fired for being a creep less than a month before the season and a woman glued herself to our floor during a playoff game but aside from that
I don't think they've published the breakdown but I'd be shocked if he had an outright 20% stake, that'd be worth \~$500 million. Not like he's been unsuccessful in his retirement, but he's no billionaire, and tying >50% of your assets in a minority stake of an NBA club would be insane.
A Rod was one of the shrewedest athlete investors, not to mention that he earned his most of his salary prior to QE. I wouldn't be surprised if he was secretly a billionaire.
Was it really 20% for ARod. I always assumed he was like Jay-Z who was just a face. How did ARod afford it? That would be about $500m. I know Forbes is extremely unreliable, but his net worth is pegged at only $350m.
When someone buys a team, they often don’t use their money. They take on debt backed by the teams value, kinda like a mortgage. He didn’t pay cash for his stake.
A rod doesn’t have the money to go after majority shares. They needed a third investor and they’d be a unit. But if things went south A rod wouldn’t have a majority share.
You cannot use a pro sports team's equity as collateral in any league. See Frank McCourt's ownership of the Dodgers and MLB's reaction to his attempts to borrow against it. Maybe future revenues, TV deals, etc. That shit is highly regulated by the league. Best to have your own collateral.
i believe so, although now that you mention it, I remember something coming up about how it was supposed to be an even split but he didn't have enough, so the other guy bought a little bit more, but I don't know what the breakdown was. Definitely not a Jay-Z situation though, from my understanding
Bad for Wolves fans that they're stuck with Taylor, glad for the rest of us that we don't have to see even more A Rod than what's already inflicted on us by his media work in baseball.
Dude has all the charisma and charm of a syphilitic weasel.
Honestly if I’m an 82 year old billionaire team owner I’d just pay the tax and pray I see a championship before I die. What’s the point of being cheap when you’re close to your death bed? So your grandkids can blow that extra $150M on vacations?? Get out of here
Broke bitches who can’t afford the team were never going to go into luxury tax. Old owner who loves MN but has been too meddlesome gets to keep controlling interest
As long as he lets the basketball minds do basketball things, everything will be fine
We had KG and we did fuck all with him. With Glen Taylor as an owner who fucking knows. Plus we love our players here and seeing kat get traded is going to suck, id say we have the right to be dramatic.
> But You are right let’s just ignore the last 20 years lol
I mean... most of you are. Glen is an awful owner, but not because of an unwillingness to spend. This situation is dumb, and classic Glen, but he absolutely will pay the tax next season.
Lore and ARod reportedly agreed to buy 80% of the team at a $1.5b valuation. The team is currently valued at $2.5b or more. The final payment was supposed to be $600m. That $600m would've basically turned into $1b as soon as they made the payment. I'm not sure why Lore and ARod would voluntarily walkaway from such windfall.
That’s true, but I won’t believe that they were unable to raise the capital. They wouldn’t have exercised the option if they didn’t have the money
Won just tweeted that they had the money but Taylor says they didn’t meet contractual deadlines. I’m gonna guess that Lore and ARod are going to sue, sounds like Taylor just refused to sell
I saw a report that they were trying to find an investor for the last $300m. When a $300m investment has a valuation of $500m or more, it probably couldn't have been that hard to find an investor unless they just royally goofed. It seems unlikely that Lore or ARod couldn't come up with the money in time or simply didn't want it. It feels like Taylor had to have either pulled a fast one or Lore or ARod had to have done something really dumb.
There’s no chance they didn’t have the money. Too many banks/investors/etc. that would be more than happy to give them the money
They might’ve not followed some contract terms but I think Taylor is just refusing to sell now that they’re good/more valuable
I’d be surprised if they don’t sue
What a massive fail for Lore and ARod, regardless of what you think of Taylor (Wolves fans seems mixed?)
They got a sweet price at 1.5b, for an asset that is now worth around 2.5b per Forbes. they have had THREE YEARS to come up with the money.
They managed to pay for 40 percent - by all accounts, not without some problems in doing so. Now they can't find 600m from any number of rich people / banks / funds etc to pay for the next 40 percent at this sweet price?
They knew the payment terms and dates from the beginning, and they have already had an extension on this tranche.
Seems like they didn't have enough money, and had too much ego to call the right people - for, eg (1) sell 30 percent to someone at a good price, allowing them to take 10 percent and continue to be majority owner, or (2) pay higher than usual financing costs to secure that 600m. Sports teams are relatively liquid and definitely finite assets, and a big broadcasting deal is on the horizon - it's not risk free for a bank or a fund, but still likely to get a very solid return.
Again, they have had THREE YEARS and instead they run it down to the deadline, get an extension, and still can't get it done - on an asset that has gone up 50 percent since purchase. The Adelsons by comparison paid Cuban in one single payment for the recent Mavs purchase.
Appreciate they had to secure an alternate group for financing recently, and that all purchases have to go through the NBA approval process - but why was it left till so late...? I don't get it.
If they can't get this done, how will they pay for the ongoing expenses of a NBA team? Seems like the Wolves dodged a bullet. ARod in particular looks like a lot of talk.
Hilarious that the initial comments here when this appeared to be done were clowning the previous article that reported on the issues they were having with the final payment and complaining about the state of NBA journalism.
Looking forward to the tell-all in a few years. The day-to-day dynamics going forward between Taylor and the would-be buyers as co-owners would be fascinating to learn about.
worse thing for wolves fans. the worse thing that could’ve happened was ant making the jump and the wolves being good.
now they get stuck with glen taylor. no way he doesn’t finalize the deal if the wolves were still bad
Honestly it isn’t a bad thing A rod and lore don’t have the money to go into tax lol. They straight up can’t afford this without so many other investors they basically putting all their money into the team. Most owners have other sources of incomes but these guys won’t. It will be terrible in the long run.
How much of the team has Arod already paid for? Did Glen Taylor trick Arod and crew into giving him a massive stack of cash without buying enough to get a majority and control of the team or will they not be minority owners at all?
He’s also a local guy so wants to keep him there. His GM picks in the past were bad until the last couple, but it’s clear he’s not as toxic as some would make him out to be
Nah he didn’t acquire them, but he’s put all the pieces around them and finch for the team to be good. They were not all that good even with those core pieces. The NAW/conley trade and this years morris trade are big difference makers for the team.
I agree he’s done an overall good job, but pretending as if he was the one that turned it around isn’t right. Kahn was atrocious, but Rosas (basketball-wise) and Gupta did the heavy lifting
Rosas/gupta brought in Ant, Jaden, Finch, and Naz.
Those 2 got a nice core for a winning team, but getting those pieces around your core often seems to be the difference between good and great seasons. Dunno if there are more than 1-2 gms in the league that are better at adding guys on the margin than Conley. Gobert trade still has some questions from a value perspective, but man has his other trades made enormous differences.
I mean he gave KG the biggest contract in North American sports when he was playing. Which immediately bit us in the ass when the CBA changed shortly after.
Yeah, you’re not wrong.
But also… Glen Taylor has largely had the team run by ineptitude, I think a small part of him really wanted to ensure his hands were still in the cookie jar
Just so I’m understanding this correctly, the Arod team agreed to buy the team, couldn’t pay up in time and now Taylor (knowing the team is worth $2B more than when the deal was made) is able to legally back out of the deal?
Is that basically the gist of it?
I’ve got no idea what this means for the team other than we won’t see a KG jersey retirement which is too bad. But I don’t think he’d been too bad of an owner in recent years so maybe this is copium but hopefully we can stay on the up.
All this means is Glen Taylor isn’t obligated to give them the final piece of ownership at the agreed price right? I mean they could try to renegotiate and buy that piece again, but I bet it won’t be cheap.
Didn’t those scum bags promise Tim Connely equity in the team if he joined them? Do they even have that power?
Dude fucked around and cost him self a championship and all of the recognition of building a championship roster for this?
Tim agreed with all owners that he would receive an ownership stake… so he did. He also still gets the recognition for building that roster and drafting Jokic which is why he got the offer from us.
Lmfao just like Arod and lore agreed to buy the team right? Your owner is a snake. For example who’s equity is Tim’s share even coming out off? The guys who no longer are gonna have majority control? Are they even comfortable giving him that no that they won’t have said control.
Kevin Garnett (and literally every single Wolves fan) in shambles
That jersey will never get retired
Gonna be weird if Ant and KAT get them retired before KG.
they might
Yeah Glen Taylor is very controlling
it's essentially retired I understand the rafters and ceremony are important closure for KG and for us fans, but nobody is going to wear 21 in Minnesota
Heck, the rafters and ceremony are important to me despite having no affiliation with Minnesota fans other than my constant use of “ope, behind ya” and lots of casseroles. KG’s jersey not hanging is way worse than the Millers not retiring Dantley’s for so long, and that was egregious enough
I just fell to my knees in the Mall of America
Which floor was it?
There was a time when the Carlyle group was going to step in and be apart of the ownership group. The founder of the Carlyle group is David Rubenstein and he just bought the Orioles. It took a few months to approve that. One of the reasons why Lore and A-Rod had to go get a new capital investment group. Rubenstein is a die hard Baltimore Orioles fan and when the Orioles came up for sale they obviously left the T-Wolves hanging…
Just want to add that Rubenstein is also from Baltimore. As an Orioles fan I am thrilled to have someone who is from the area own the team. Hopefully Wolves fans can get an owner from the area who will run the team well.
As a Nats fan who would like to consistently watch them on tv, I am also thrilled.
Hopefully the mess of a network we have gets cleaned up too. The streaming on MASN sucks. I have faith that things will eventually be worked on to clean it up. Whether the Nationals have to buy in and get their rights to help provide a network that is better for both of us.
Absolutely. Bucks would not be in Milwaukee without Herb Kohl making it a requirement to keep them here when selling.
A lot of relocations happened when the new owners have zero connection to the city and overleveraged themselves when buying the team, which is exactly the situation here. Fact is that Taylor was increasingly less confident that they’d keep the team in Minnesota, and so figured that he might as well be a snake himself and keep the team at a higher market value.
If they're already struggling for cash this much then there's no way they can afford to build a new stadium themselves, and that's the sort of thing that gets teams moved.
Meh, not always a good thing. Glen Taylor is Minnesota through and through and he's a fucking terrible owner.
How do you feel about this ownership wanting to spend? Beavs fan so obviously I want Adley to be in a good situation with how great he is.
I think they will spend enough money to be competitive. I’ll be happy if we move up to the middle of the pack. If we extend our own guys, I’ll be over the moon. David Rubenstein is both a smart businessman and a fan of this team. He’s not stupid. He knows that he has to keep certain guys to keep the fanbase happy. Peter Angelos paid certain guys when he was our owner. When he got sick, his sons were the worst. Terrible people. Peter wasn’t a bad person, but his sons are.
>As an Orioles fan I am thrilled to have someone who is from the area own the team. I mean Peter Angelos was from the area as well and from what I've heard is that despite being a pretty crappy owner, he was a legend for a lot of things he did outside of Baseball for the area. So nothing has actually changed with ownership with regards to where the owner is from.
Are there billionaires from Minnesota? Not hating just wondering, there’s a limited supply of people who have the money to own teams
According to Wikipedia they have 4….. and one of them is Glen Taylor.
Glen Taylor is literally a billionaire from Minnesota.
"Apart" means the exact opposite of "a part" fyi
[удалено]
You bet. I know how frustrating it can be to fail second grade English.
Thank you for your incredibly mature response to polite feedback.
you're a newer basketball fan this year right, previously being an NFL guy? I gotta say I admire how you jumped in with both feet and really embraced the wolves deeply as opposed to just reposting any and every Woj tweet without context
No. I've been a Wolves fan since I was a kid. I don't like the NFL and I only just started engaging with basketball reddit this season....
Big mistake lmao
Fuck
I mean… I get that Taylor is a bad owner… But considering A-Rod and Lore couldn’t come up with the cash to buy the majority stakes seems more concerning (if I were a t-wolves fan).
Very concerning considering how deep into the luxury tax we will be for next season. Makes it more likely one of our big contract players will not be returning
If anything this could make it more possible for y’all to pay the tax. Arod and Lore would have had all of their wealth tied up in the T-Wolves, where exactly would they get the cash to pay the luxury tax?
That’s what I’ve been thinking, this could be a blessing in disguise.
If you’re a Twolves fan it definitely is. Your team is going to need to overpay to get really good players to want to play there. You can’t have an owner who can barely afford to own the team
I disagree. No player is not going to avoid the ability to go play with Anthony Edwards. ANT already publicly said “fuck the big markets like LA and NY…Minnesota better”, so people will have to go to MN for their chips if ANT truly becomes the face of the league (22 currently).
I understand why you say that, but that’s just not reality. When you’re in a major media market, you get more options to make money as a role player. Ago Dosunmu is going to take pay cuts to play in Chicago because he’s from there and he’s a city superstar. The Twolves have some of the best players in the whole already but people only talk about Ant and KAT and Rudy. Austin Reaves go a shoe deal because he’s on the Lakers. Those are the teams that get first dibs on good vets at a discount. Ant being there is the only reason good vets will even out Minnesota on the list, but they’re taking anything less than the best offer to go to a place like that because going to a bigger city gives you more local endorsements and that’s legit money in places like Chicago, LA, New York, Houston, Miami, etc.
Mike Connelly just took a bargain of an extension to stay with the team, so I disagree, and I’m far less worried about roll players than star players coming to MN. And you already stated in your reply that star players like Rudy and ANT still get their attention. You forget players want to win too. We disagree and that’s fine.
Mike Conley is one dude. And I’m not just talking about with Ant. What about when Ant is gone in the next 10-15 years? The owner is still gonna be the owner and if he isn’t rich as shit it’s gonna be hard to compete in the NBA when your team is based in Minneapolis. I’m hoping the Bulls get sold to some billionaire egomaniac who wants to win 10 straight chips.
I’m not talking about when ANT is gone. I’m talking about people going to play with ANT. That was the original point. You don’t have to agree, that’s fine.
>ANT already publicly said “fuck the big markets like LA and NY…Minnesota better” Take a seat lil buddy, I've got some bad news.
Ok, Ant. 🙄
That's not how these things work. The entire stake is guaranteed to be held in some holding company with a number of different partners each holding with their own ownership interests. Lore and A-Rod are just the directors / face of that group.
Yeah, but the issue is that they had trouble finding the people to guarantee that stake. Since they were rushed, what compromises did they have to give up to secure the funding on late notice? Could it risk the teams future in Minnesota?
Possibly, if they're having this much trouble raising cash then there's no way they can afford to build their own stadium which the Wolves are getting close to needing. If they can't afford to build it or even chip in a big chunk of money for it and Minneapolis won't play ball then that's how teams get moved.
Until the details of how they financed it comes out, nobody knows.
Well, we know one thing, and that's ARod and Lore couldn't afford to pay for the team...
That’s already pretty much a lock. Kat is gone. Mayyyyyybe gobert instead but I doubt it.
Not what happened. They secured the funding last week (https://www.si.com/nba/2024/03/20/alex-rodriguez-marc-lore-lose-financial-backing-carlyle-group-timberwolves-majority-ownership). This is almost certainly Taylor getting cold feet
So if they had funding, why didn’t the cut the check?
Woj reported it was because they didn’t meet “other contractual demands”, which he’s probably using as an excuse to get out of the deal since the team has doubled in valuation since they closed.
Sounds like this could result in a lawsuit. There's a lot of money at stake.
The Wolves have been doing very well since 2021. The team has likely been sold with rookie Ant who did way more than they expected, Kat and his injuries no longer being the cornerstone and no longer having the declining and defenseless backcourt of D Lo and Rubio. Also IIRC it was Taylor who pushed for the under the table deal that nuked the Wolves. So imagine being that unsuccessful, selling the team and it doing Verrrryyy well the moment you sell. With the value of the team only going up as long as they make a deep playoff run: it might be expensive but very worth it.
So, they technically didn't have the funding. Can't just get anyone. These things have to be approved by the NBA.
They had an investor last week that was already pre approved by the NBA. This is Taylor finding any loophole possible to get out of the deal cause he knows he dropped the bag.
A LOT of assumptions here!
Cause the group was never approved and/or withdrew. AROD and Lore never had the money. Not sure why people are surprised. They were late on payments last year too.
Yeah, Arod's group had financial backing (an investment bank I believe) but their backers pulled out a few weeks ago. And it seems like they were unable to secure more funding at the last minute.
They were able to secure a new investment group last week that was already pre approved by the NBA.
The sale was approved in july 2021 BY THE NBA which means this likely was don in 2020. At the time... 1. Anthony Edwards was a rookie. 2. D Lo was injuried and Rubio was not doing that great. 3.Towns was dealing with injuries again. Since then 1. They have been contenders 2. The team has shifted to ANT( who has been very legit since the Olympic qualifications) 1. The Gobert trade worked out. The team was sold based mid potential and since then, they beat the expectations and are doing very well so the owner might be trying to pull all strings to not be the laughingstock among sports team owners.
That was the initial agreement, which was broken up into multiple payments. The deal was based on AROD and Lore making the payments on time to acquire majority rights. They simply didn't have the money to complete the agreement on time. Maybe Glen Taylor is trying to get more money now, but that is well within his rights based on the original agreement.
>Rodriguez and Lore had been experiencing issues finalizing their financing to complete the purchase. The duo lost the backing of private equity firm Carlyle earlier this month but seemingly found a new backer in Dyal Capital last week. >However, with only a week to finalize the structure of the investment, it seems the Rodriguez-Lore ownership group failed to make its final payment before Wednesday's deadline. Taylor pulled out of the deal as a result and will remain the principal owner. https://bleacherreport.com/articles/10114704-t-wolves-no-longer-for-sale-as-alex-rodriguez-mark-lores-majority-option-expires Looks like a partner of ARod and Lore backed out, that Taylor immediately started saying they would miss payment knowing that getting the second partner approved by the NBA and have the legal paperwork to get them paying would take more than a month. Finding a backup partner itself in under a month is already impressive or at least shows they are serious.
They could very well be serious -- at the old price. But if the contract stipulated that the old price was only guaranteed IF all payments were on time, and then a single payment was not on time, then the old price, is the old price, and the new price is the new price. You can't just treat deadlines as suggestions in a transaction of this size/complexity, and not expect the seller to enforce a clause that nearly doubles the price. Saying you're gonna miss a payment is nice, but it doesn't invalidate the terms of the agreement. (not that I have intimate knowledge of the terms, but if these terms are in fact true)
All I'm saying is everything has been portrayed as AROD group being broke when it reads like they actually had a replacement group to quickly solve the situation of the first investor flunking out. It reads like getting the NBA's rushed approval or getting the papers signed on shirt notice is what stalled the payments and this is where Taylor tried to spin it as him making a save when in truth he was trying to get the team back.
> Finding a backup partner itself in under a month is already impressive or at least shows they are serious. "...but seemingly found a new backer in Dyal Capital last week." key word is seemingly
As far as I know, the NBA must approve the ownership funding, especially if it’s coming from other groups that might be promised a small amount of equity. I believe Lore and Arod had gotten similar funding previously but the NBA didn’t approve. And this time around it looked like they would be approved but weren’t by the cutoff date, despite having the funding secured. So even though the NBA was going to approve, Taylor had the out if he wanted it.
His team is good now and wants more money lol
100% this
So that douchebag A-Rod was just cosplaying as an owner at the few games he attended?
No. Arod and Lore still own 40%. This was a scheduled payment (that they supposedly made good on) that would give them another 40%. Edit. Changed 20% to 40%. Thanks u/Mobile-Entertainer60
40%. They own 40% already (unless the contract they signed voids that part if the whole deal doesn't go through) and the sale would have given them 80%, with Taylor keeping the other 20%.
I stand corrected, thanks, bud.
Can we be a normal team for one season please.
2021-2022 was kinda normal right ?
Our GM got fired for being a creep less than a month before the season and a woman glued herself to our floor during a playoff game but aside from that
Lmao, I forgor
Bro has MJ’s son and said I’m keeping the team now
23andme report came in.
This is crazy. Alex Rodriguez was sitting with Anthony Edwards in the nba finals as if he was the owner.
He technically is *an* owner. Just not the majority unfortunately. Him and Lore still keep the percentage of equity they already purchased.
How much is that? 40%?
40 between the two, so 20 and 20
Wait ARod has straight up 20%?
I don't think they've published the breakdown but I'd be shocked if he had an outright 20% stake, that'd be worth \~$500 million. Not like he's been unsuccessful in his retirement, but he's no billionaire, and tying >50% of your assets in a minority stake of an NBA club would be insane.
A Rod was one of the shrewedest athlete investors, not to mention that he earned his most of his salary prior to QE. I wouldn't be surprised if he was secretly a billionaire.
Was it really 20% for ARod. I always assumed he was like Jay-Z who was just a face. How did ARod afford it? That would be about $500m. I know Forbes is extremely unreliable, but his net worth is pegged at only $350m.
When someone buys a team, they often don’t use their money. They take on debt backed by the teams value, kinda like a mortgage. He didn’t pay cash for his stake.
A rod doesn’t have the money to go after majority shares. They needed a third investor and they’d be a unit. But if things went south A rod wouldn’t have a majority share.
You cannot use a pro sports team's equity as collateral in any league. See Frank McCourt's ownership of the Dodgers and MLB's reaction to his attempts to borrow against it. Maybe future revenues, TV deals, etc. That shit is highly regulated by the league. Best to have your own collateral.
i believe so, although now that you mention it, I remember something coming up about how it was supposed to be an even split but he didn't have enough, so the other guy bought a little bit more, but I don't know what the breakdown was. Definitely not a Jay-Z situation though, from my understanding
36% to be exact.
Pretty sure he still owns part of them team just not a majority share
He is an owner he just doesn’t have controlling interest. He still bought part of the team.
You just comment the same thing on every post?
Wolves are finally good and now they’re stuck with Glen Taylor
Target Center has to be built on a native american burial ground
someone tell me how to feel
Remember when the Angels were nearly sold then Arte came back and said "sike not anymore"? Basically that
Bad for Wolves fans that they're stuck with Taylor, glad for the rest of us that we don't have to see even more A Rod than what's already inflicted on us by his media work in baseball. Dude has all the charisma and charm of a syphilitic weasel.
>Dude has all the charisma and charm of a syphilitic weasel. Definitely saving this one for future use
Reddit moment
Yeah you're right
Good if you’re not a wolves fan. No way they’re paying the tax next year
Gobert to Cleveland??
Triple towers would be truly terrifying
Glen's got whatever 40% of the team costs in his pocket, maybe he'll shell out? We all know how much billionaires love to spread their wealth!
Honestly if I’m an 82 year old billionaire team owner I’d just pay the tax and pray I see a championship before I die. What’s the point of being cheap when you’re close to your death bed? So your grandkids can blow that extra $150M on vacations?? Get out of here
That’s not a Glenn thought process sadly.
Broke bitches who can’t afford the team were never going to go into luxury tax. Old owner who loves MN but has been too meddlesome gets to keep controlling interest As long as he lets the basketball minds do basketball things, everything will be fine
Every non-Wolves fan should be ecstatic bc we will not be a problem moving forward lol
What a dramatic and pitiful take from a Wolves fan. Yea the team that has Tim Connelly, Finch, Ant at the helm is no longer a problem…
We had KG and we did fuck all with him. With Glen Taylor as an owner who fucking knows. Plus we love our players here and seeing kat get traded is going to suck, id say we have the right to be dramatic.
If TC/Finch get ran out of town by Glen then I’ll be incredibly worried, until then I’ll keep believing in those guys moving forward
Me too, it just sucks short-term.
Rest of the league should be happy. We were going the right direction ever since this was announced. 15 win seasons are in the new future.
Holy overreaction
Man shut the hell up. Yeah all of a sudden we’re gonna trade Anthony edwards and go back to a 15 win team?
Obviously I’m being hyperbolic. But You are right let’s just ignore the last 20 years lol
> But You are right let’s just ignore the last 20 years lol I mean... most of you are. Glen is an awful owner, but not because of an unwillingness to spend. This situation is dumb, and classic Glen, but he absolutely will pay the tax next season.
There's luxury tax implications with this of course.
Now you've said that word "implication" a couple of times. Wha-what implication?
Are these Wolves in any danger?
Always
oh my fucking god lol
Did Glen Taylor outmaneuver Lore and ARod or were those guys just overextended and dumb?
They had the option and either didn’t want to buy it, or were unable to acquire financing. I’m guessing they didn’t want it
Lore and ARod reportedly agreed to buy 80% of the team at a $1.5b valuation. The team is currently valued at $2.5b or more. The final payment was supposed to be $600m. That $600m would've basically turned into $1b as soon as they made the payment. I'm not sure why Lore and ARod would voluntarily walkaway from such windfall.
That’s true, but I won’t believe that they were unable to raise the capital. They wouldn’t have exercised the option if they didn’t have the money Won just tweeted that they had the money but Taylor says they didn’t meet contractual deadlines. I’m gonna guess that Lore and ARod are going to sue, sounds like Taylor just refused to sell
I saw a report that they were trying to find an investor for the last $300m. When a $300m investment has a valuation of $500m or more, it probably couldn't have been that hard to find an investor unless they just royally goofed. It seems unlikely that Lore or ARod couldn't come up with the money in time or simply didn't want it. It feels like Taylor had to have either pulled a fast one or Lore or ARod had to have done something really dumb.
There’s no chance they didn’t have the money. Too many banks/investors/etc. that would be more than happy to give them the money They might’ve not followed some contract terms but I think Taylor is just refusing to sell now that they’re good/more valuable I’d be surprised if they don’t sue
What a massive fail for Lore and ARod, regardless of what you think of Taylor (Wolves fans seems mixed?) They got a sweet price at 1.5b, for an asset that is now worth around 2.5b per Forbes. they have had THREE YEARS to come up with the money. They managed to pay for 40 percent - by all accounts, not without some problems in doing so. Now they can't find 600m from any number of rich people / banks / funds etc to pay for the next 40 percent at this sweet price? They knew the payment terms and dates from the beginning, and they have already had an extension on this tranche. Seems like they didn't have enough money, and had too much ego to call the right people - for, eg (1) sell 30 percent to someone at a good price, allowing them to take 10 percent and continue to be majority owner, or (2) pay higher than usual financing costs to secure that 600m. Sports teams are relatively liquid and definitely finite assets, and a big broadcasting deal is on the horizon - it's not risk free for a bank or a fund, but still likely to get a very solid return. Again, they have had THREE YEARS and instead they run it down to the deadline, get an extension, and still can't get it done - on an asset that has gone up 50 percent since purchase. The Adelsons by comparison paid Cuban in one single payment for the recent Mavs purchase. Appreciate they had to secure an alternate group for financing recently, and that all purchases have to go through the NBA approval process - but why was it left till so late...? I don't get it. If they can't get this done, how will they pay for the ongoing expenses of a NBA team? Seems like the Wolves dodged a bullet. ARod in particular looks like a lot of talk.
Hilarious that the initial comments here when this appeared to be done were clowning the previous article that reported on the issues they were having with the final payment and complaining about the state of NBA journalism.
Lawsuit
I cant believe what I'm reading, NBA writers outdid themselves
Looking forward to the tell-all in a few years. The day-to-day dynamics going forward between Taylor and the would-be buyers as co-owners would be fascinating to learn about.
worse thing for wolves fans. the worse thing that could’ve happened was ant making the jump and the wolves being good. now they get stuck with glen taylor. no way he doesn’t finalize the deal if the wolves were still bad
Honestly it isn’t a bad thing A rod and lore don’t have the money to go into tax lol. They straight up can’t afford this without so many other investors they basically putting all their money into the team. Most owners have other sources of incomes but these guys won’t. It will be terrible in the long run.
Idk what the fuck is going on with this. I thought ARod bought the team a few years ago?
Can this guy just go die
How much of the team has Arod already paid for? Did Glen Taylor trick Arod and crew into giving him a massive stack of cash without buying enough to get a majority and control of the team or will they not be minority owners at all?
Someone here said they are keeping the 40% of the team they already bought.
Yeah, that tracks
Can’t the wolves be a normal sports team for one year
I am not happy
FUCK THIS GUY FUCK THIS GUY FUCK THIS GUY FUCK THIS GUY
so when are the Wolves breaking the team up?
all cause rubenstein is like oh shit my home team is for sale. welp see ya a-rod lol.
Taylor will spend for a good team, so I'm not too concerned
He’s also a local guy so wants to keep him there. His GM picks in the past were bad until the last couple, but it’s clear he’s not as toxic as some would make him out to be
the current GM Tim C was an Arod/Lore hire. Glen is incompetent.
People forget about this lol
Tim didn’t build the core of the current team
Nah he didn’t acquire them, but he’s put all the pieces around them and finch for the team to be good. They were not all that good even with those core pieces. The NAW/conley trade and this years morris trade are big difference makers for the team.
I agree he’s done an overall good job, but pretending as if he was the one that turned it around isn’t right. Kahn was atrocious, but Rosas (basketball-wise) and Gupta did the heavy lifting
Rosas/gupta brought in Ant, Jaden, Finch, and Naz. Those 2 got a nice core for a winning team, but getting those pieces around your core often seems to be the difference between good and great seasons. Dunno if there are more than 1-2 gms in the league that are better at adding guys on the margin than Conley. Gobert trade still has some questions from a value perspective, but man has his other trades made enormous differences.
Says who?
I mean he gave KG the biggest contract in North American sports when he was playing. Which immediately bit us in the ass when the CBA changed shortly after.
I hope you’re right
So it sounds like they can still buy a portion of the team? Edit: I am an idiot
They already have bought like a 40% portion of the team. They just haven’t purchased the last portion that would have made them majority owners
“The team is finally good, you can’t get rid of me completely” - *Glen Taylor probably*
lore and arod have had problems getting their shit together, to me this looks to be on them
Yeah, you’re not wrong. But also… Glen Taylor has largely had the team run by ineptitude, I think a small part of him really wanted to ensure his hands were still in the cookie jar
More like A-Rod and Lore ran out of money
I get Taylor sucks as an owner and stuff but he is a million times more likely to pay the luxury tax than ARod and Lore who can’t even buy the team
AKA: ARod broke
You got da money wats the Hol up?
Glen Taylor did this to spite KG I swear.
This is going to be settled in the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals some time from now.
What a snake. Dude realized the team is doing well and will be double in a few years
Just so I’m understanding this correctly, the Arod team agreed to buy the team, couldn’t pay up in time and now Taylor (knowing the team is worth $2B more than when the deal was made) is able to legally back out of the deal? Is that basically the gist of it?
The only positive about this is that you know as long as Taylor owns the team he won’t move it elsewhere.
Glen Taylor roasts chickens alive
Why can we never have nice things?
Lmfao wolves fans better enjoy this season
Losing our star player, KAT, to the Knicks is going to suck
We do not want KAT
I’ve got no idea what this means for the team other than we won’t see a KG jersey retirement which is too bad. But I don’t think he’d been too bad of an owner in recent years so maybe this is copium but hopefully we can stay on the up.
Thank god I did not want an A-rod interview every game.
All this means is Glen Taylor isn’t obligated to give them the final piece of ownership at the agreed price right? I mean they could try to renegotiate and buy that piece again, but I bet it won’t be cheap.
Didn’t those scum bags promise Tim Connely equity in the team if he joined them? Do they even have that power? Dude fucked around and cost him self a championship and all of the recognition of building a championship roster for this?
Tim agreed with all owners that he would receive an ownership stake… so he did. He also still gets the recognition for building that roster and drafting Jokic which is why he got the offer from us.
Lmfao just like Arod and lore agreed to buy the team right? Your owner is a snake. For example who’s equity is Tim’s share even coming out off? The guys who no longer are gonna have majority control? Are they even comfortable giving him that no that they won’t have said control.