NBA won’t get involved in Timberwolves’ ownership dispute anytime soon
NBA commissioner Adam Silver said Wednesday it’s “not clear” there will be a role for the league to play in the Timberwolves’ current ownership dispute.
Currently, Glen Taylor and the tandem of Marc Lore and Alex Rodriguez are at odds over whether Lore and Rodriguez breached the purchase agreement by not getting the money together for their final payment ahead of the deadline.
At that point, Taylor said the deal was off, while Lore and Rodriguez said they had the funding and have honored the terms and plan to move forward with the purchase. That, Silver said at his press conference on Wednesday after the conclusion of the NBA Board of Governors’ meeting, is at “the heart of the dispute.”
“The dispute is precisely that, as to whether they had acted within the window of the option that Glen Taylor had sold them. That’s the very basis of the dispute. So that dispute will be resolved independent of the league office,” Silver said. “In their purchase agreement they, in essence, pre-agreed to a dispute-resolution mechanism that includes mediation and arbitration, and that’s where it stands. There is no role for the league in that process.”
The mediation will occur in the coming weeks prior to arbitration. Should Lore and Rodriguez emerge victorious from that process, then the NBA could seemingly approve the sale.
But that process could take months. Until it plays out, the NBA doesn’t seem to feel compelled to act, or really even provide any comment of substance.
Silver was also asked about the step-like structure of the Timberwolves’ purchase agreement — agreed to in the spring of 2021 — and the concept of such a transition period with annual payments. Are those practical for future NBA franchise purchases?
“It’s an important question. I think this deal happened in the early days of the pandemic, when it was extraordinary circumstances, I think, for everyone in our community. Lessons learned, too, that, as new situations evolve in the league as to what kind of transactions make sense, I think let’s wait to see how this one works out,” Silver said. “But it’s certainly not ideal to have a stepped transaction like this. It’s within our rules, from that standpoint, and it’s what Glen Taylor wanted and it’s what they were willing to agree to at the time, but I think once the dust clears on this deal, it may cause us to reassess what sort of transactions we should allow.”
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