Reusse: Glen Taylor is ‘OK with it’ as he cedes ownership of Timberwolves and Lynx

Glen and Becky Taylor were spending a couple of weeks at their home in Naples, Fla., in February 2024. This was timed to miss as few home games for the Timberwolves as possible, since it had been 20 years since Taylor’s NBA team had created as much optimism as was this collection led by young star Anthony Edwards.

The Twins were about to start spring training formally in Fort Myers, and the Star Tribune wanted a piece on Taylor — not based on Glen’s ownership of the newspaper, but rather the idea he was nearing a sale of the Timberwolves and the Lynx that would end his prominence as a Minnesota sports owner after three decades.

My wife, Katy, came along for an unhurried afternoon that would include a couple of hours of informal conversation and then an hourlong taped interview.

Glen was occupied for a time on our arrival. We sat around, chatted and looked at the river leading to the Gulf of Mexico (sorry, Mr. President). Then, Taylor finished his meeting in a Zoom room where he conducted business when away from the main Taylor Corp. office in North Mankato.

“I was on a phone call with Marc Lore,” he said.

Timberwolves’ sale business?

“No, he was trying to interest me in making a sizable investment in another business that he’s getting started,” Taylor said. “Intriguing, but I don’t think I’m going to be involved.”

This interview had been arranged with the agreement we would not get into the details of where the Timberwolves/Lynx sale to Lore and partner Alex Rodriguez stood at that moment.

Taylor did mention some extensions that had been executed and/or granted to Lore and A-Rod as they worked on fulfilling the $1.5 billion purchase.

We now know this led to a dispute between Taylor and Lore/A-Rod as to whether those terms were met, and that Lore/A-Rod were able to win a 2-1 arbitration verdict, and that they are officially becoming the third ownership entity in Timberwolves history.

Marv Wolfenson and Harvey Ratner were the original ownership duo and paid $32.5 million for an expansion franchise that was granted officially in April 1987.

Later, after Marv-and-Harv’s financial investment in the Wolves hit the skids, and Taylor bought the team in 1994 for what became $94 million, the humorous Mr. Ratner would say:

“Marv getting me into the NBA made me a millionaire. I used to be a multi-millionaire.”

And now all these years later, Taylor and his limited partners have received a nice return on their investments, but Lore and A-Rod are embarking on what must rank among the greatest ownership investments in North American team sports history.

A few days after the Buss family reached a deal to sell the Los Angeles Lakers for a valuation of $10 billion, Lore and A-Rod are paying 15% of that to become NBA owners.

Obviously, the Lakers are worth much more than an NBA team here in Minnesota. So let’s say it’s twice as much, which would mean the new Timberwolves owners are paying 30% of the team’s real value, which would mean they have enriched themselves by $3.5 billion, which means that when they talk about a replacement for Target Center … well, the answer will be simple for Minnesota politicians:

Build it yourselves, fellas.

We’ll find you a hunk of land, improve a street or two, put in a few lights — but the arena tab, that’s yours, crafty gents that you were making that original deal.

***

Once Taylor finished the Zoom call with Lore on that splendid February afternoon, he was encouraged to go back to his sports roots — as a smallish, feisty athlete for the Comfrey Rockets, a dot on the map among many such hamlets in southwestern Minnesota.

“Storden, Jeffers, Westbrook, Butterfield … those were our rivals," he said. “I was the quarterback, I was a guard in basketball, ran sprints in track, and played town team baseball.

“I called all the plays in football, which wasn’t too tough, since we only ran two — option left and option right. You could do five different things off the option; make up your mind by what you saw from the defense."

Also this Comfrey anecdote: “There were two Lutheran churches and one Catholic church in town, and then our Congregation Church. Back then, Lutherans couldn’t date Catholics, and vice versa … but we were pretty liberal at the Congregation Church. We could date anyone."

The quick mind of an option quarterback, and the wide arms of a Congregationalist, helped to make the small-town farm kid an amazing, self-made superstar in the business world. Before he gained the spotlight as a sports owner, Taylor was in public view from 1981 to 1990 as a member of the Minnesota Senate. He was the GOP leader for a time.

Earlier this month, Taylor was at a Lynx game after the murders of DFL House leader Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark. He was shocked, of course, and talked of the vitriol that is now featured in American politics.

“Roger Moe was the DFL leader at the time I was the GOP leader, and if it was a good bill that needed passing, we would count votes together,” Taylor said. ”Times have changed for the worse, politically."

As for those three hours in Naples, many topics — mistakes and admiration.

The Joe Smith, under-the-table contract that cost the Timberwolves multiple draft choices and a huge fine.

Taylor: “I can’t really get into that. I was called to New York to meet with the commissioner, David Stern. He showed me the contract, which I hadn’t seen.

“I said, ‘I’m the boss; it’s on me.’ He said, ‘We know you were in the hospital for heart surgery when this happened.’ I said, ‘It’s on me; I’m the boss.’ ”

Firing Flip Saunders on the recommendation of basketball boss Kevin McHale in 2005: “Biggest mistake I ever made in basketball. I was closer to Flip than I’ve ever been to anyone in basketball.

“Best thing I did was bringing back Flip to run our team, and then we lost him. That was terrible.”

Bringing in Tom Thibodeau in 2016: “Everyone recommended Thibs. I liked him. We had great conversations. What I didn’t know was he could only get along with a few people.”

David Kahn as the basketball boss: “I let someone else do the hiring that time. Again, I liked David. He still calls me. But he’s a really different guy that wasn’t going to work here.”

Owning the Lynx, with Cheryl Reeve coaching four champions: “She’s tremendous. And the players … they are such great people. Maya Moore was the best player in the world.

“And I’ll never forget this: We have the team come to the house in Mankato before every season. Becky makes her lasagna … you’ve heard all those jokes about that, but it’s great.

“Dinner’s over, the players are in the room singing, laughing, but I don’t see Maya.

“I go into the kitchen, and she’s in there doing dishes with Becky. Best player ever, and better person.”

***

When Taylor, 84, bought the Timberwolves from Wolfenson and Ratner, one add-on he gave in the negotiations was that Marv and Harv would continue to receive their tickets.

He smiled on that afternoon in Naples and said, “Never underestimate the importance of tickets in a negotiation.”

On that Saturday earlier this month for a Lynx game, Taylor was asked when the NBA officially would approve the sale to Lore and A-Rod. He was sitting next to Becky in those front-row chairs near the Lynx players and said: “In a couple of weeks. I’m OK with it. I’m ready.”

And then Glen Taylor, soon to be a former owner, smiled and said: “We’ll still have our tickets, for the Timberwolves — and the Lynx.”