It’s been a long, winding three year partnership-turned-battle between Alex Rodriguez, Marc Lore and longtime Minnesota Timberwolves majority owner, Glen Taylor.
But here we are, just weeks away from these long awaited arbitration hearings between the two parties, and yet there is still no official date set. Is that because the arbitration hearings aren’t going to happen?
No way. Well, that would have been my answer last week. Neither side has showed any indication of folding, to this point, so why would it happen now? But that was before Charley Walters (Pioneer Press) posted his most recent column.
NBA planning to offer Seattle expansion franchise to Marc Lore and Alex Rodriguez?
That’s where the longtime St. Paul insider (and Glen Taylor confidant) wrote that “it wouldn’t be surprising” if the National Basketball Association dangles an expansion franchise opportunity in front of Lore and A-Rod, in order to get them to back off from their fight with Glen Taylor.
It wouldn’t be surprising if the NBA , in an effort to avoid an arbitration hearing over Timberwolves-Lynx ownership with Glen Taylor, offers the Alex Rodriguez-Mark Lore tandem that initially agreed to buy the teams for $1.5 billion, first chance at an expansion team in Seattle, where Rodriguez was a popular player with the Mariners.
Charley Walters – Pioneer Press
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I did not see this escape plan coming about for Taylor. I thought the impending NBA owner vote would be the end of the line for those two. That, if Lore and A-Rod won the arbitration battle, Glen would just turn to his NBA owner buddies and ask them to vote “No” on Lore/A-Rod.
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This route, however, seems to be a win/win for both ownership groups. Marc and Alex get their NBA franchise, and they get it in Seattle. No doubt, that is a location that makes a lot more sense for both guys.
Not only would they get their NBA franchise in a more ideal situation. But they’d also get paid out about double on their three year investment in the Wolves. Money they could then use to help fund their expansion project in Seattle.
In any deal, it would expected that Taylor buys out Rodriguez-Lore’s 40 percent investment at nearly double what the pair initially paid because of the dramatically increased value of the franchises the past three years, especially after the NBA’s new media deal last week, apparently worth $76 billion (that’s billion, not million) over 11 years.
The reason the value of NBA teams has exploded is because basketball has become a popular international sport. More than a fifth of the league’s recent first-round draft picks were international players; the same for the second round.
Charley Walters – Pioneer Press
Of course, there are a lot of Minnesota Timberwolves fans who would not see this as a win/win/win. That would especially hold true if esteemed president of basketball operations, Tim Connelly, followed Marc Lore out of town.
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But if this is the first note in Walters’ “Don’t Print That” section, you can damn well guarantee that he has a very good source. It may be Glen Taylor, it may not be. But at the very least, he has run it by the Wolves owner, in order to ensure legitimacy. Again, there is no exact date set yet, for these hearings. This report dropping now is not coincidence.
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