Glen Taylor’s long run with the Timberwolves is ending the way a lot of his ownership saga has gone: with a number that makes the original decision look painfully small.
Taylor bought the franchise for $94 million in 1994 and kept the club in Minnesota when it was at risk of moving to New Orleans. But after 31 years as controlling owner, the latest twist only underscores how badly he misread the market when he agreed in 2021 to sell the team for $1.5 billion.
On Friday morning, that mistake looked even bigger. Marc Lore agreed to sell his majority stake in the Timberwolves to businessman Marc Stad for $4.5 billion, meaning Lore flipped his share for more than twice what Taylor got just a few years ago.
For Timberwolves fans, it lands like one last bitter punchline to an ownership era defined by missteps.
Taylor’s Wolves tenure has been loaded with them. The Joe Smith under-the-table agreement remains one of the franchise’s darkest chapters: Taylor tried to work around the rules with a series of one-year deals before planning a huge payday once Minnesota had Smith’s Bird Rights, only for the NBA to uncover the arrangement. The league hit the Timberwolves with a $3.5 million fine, suspended Taylor for a year and took away five first-round draft picks, one of which was later returned, crippling the team’s chance to build around Kevin Garnett.
Then came David Kahn in 2009, a hire that turned into another mess. Kahn passed on Stephen Curry twice in the 2009 draft and later alienated Kevin Love when Love pushed for a max contract in 2012. Taylor didn’t help matters, either, with comments that questioned whether Love was really a superstar when the forward was dealt to the Cleveland Cavaliers in 2014.
That trade brought Andrew Wiggins to Minnesota, and Taylor quickly made another costly call. After Wiggins promised to work hard and improve his game after Taylor said he “looked him in the eyes,” the owner gave him a five-year, $148 million maximum contract extension. Wiggins never lived up to that deal, eventually being traded and later becoming an All-Star with the Golden State Warriors.
Taylor’s relationship with Garnett soured in a particularly ugly way, too. After once suggesting Garnett “tanked” before the forward was traded to the Boston Celtics in the summer of 2007, Taylor later brought him back with a handshake agreement that Garnett would move into a minority ownership or front-office role when he retired.
Taylor backed out, Garnett called him “a snake,” and the franchise kept its No. 21 jersey out of the rafters. That will finally change next season under the new ownership.
The sale drama gave fans a rare chance to laugh at Taylor’s expense. He put the Wolves on the market in July 2020 and agreed to sell to Lore and Rodriguez in April 2021, but the deal came with an installment process and a three-year transition period. While that played out, NBA franchise values exploded, especially after the Phoenix Suns and the WNBA’s Phoenix Mercury sold to Mat Ishbia for $4 billion in 2022.
Taylor then tried to reverse course, saying the team was no longer for sale and even floating the idea that Rodriguez and Lore would slash payroll while keeping a “Burn Book” in the fight. But fans stayed with the incoming owners, and Lore and Rodriguez eventually won their arbitration case and received approval from the NBA Board of Governors in June 2025.
The market only kept moving. The Boston Celtics sold to billionaire Bill Chisholm for $6.1 billion last year.
Earlier this month, Mark Walter agreed to sell the Los Angeles Lakers to venture capitalist Josh Kushner and Disney CEO Bob Iger for $12.5 billion. Even the Portland Trail Blazers changed hands, going to businessman Tom Dundon, who also owns the NHL’s Carolina Hurricanes, for $4.25 billion.
Against that backdrop, Taylor’s $1.5 billion figure looks worse by the day. Lore’s sale to Stad only sharpens that reality, and it leaves Taylor with a final ownership chapter that feels right in line with the rest of the ride.
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