Ann Heisenfelt / Associated Press
Former Memphis Grizzlies minority owner Daniel E. Straus would again be headed to NBA team ownership.
Second Shams Charania of The Athletic and Stadium and Jon Krawczynski of The Athletic, a group led by Straus is “in advanced talks” to buy the Minnesota Timberwolves and Minnesota Lynx from owner Glen Taylor.
Charania and Krawczynski explained that the Straus group enjoyed an exclusive negotiation period with Taylor after the Timberwolves were made publicly available. While that deal expired last week, the Straus Group has already visited Minnesota for meetings, to visit the team’s facilities, and to review financials.
Taylor has instructed the Timberwolves to stay in Minneapolis, which is reportedly the plan of the Straus group.
The report found that Hall of Famer Kevin Garnett was interested in putting together a group that could buy the Timberwolves but did not discuss such a notion with Taylor. Furthermore, limited partner Meyer Orbach is not among the few groups to “officially enter the fray”.
On July 21, ESPN’s Adam Schefter reported that the Wilf family who own the Minnesota Vikings were a “serious candidate” for buying the Timberwolves.
On the same day, Garnett took to Twitter and expressed his interest:
Taylor bought the Timberwolves in 1994. They had great success early in his tenure, making the playoffs eight consecutive years from 1997 to 2004, but have not been as formidable since.
In fact, Minnesota has only been in the postseason once since that stretch.
There is reason for optimism, however, as the Timberwolves have won the 2020 NBA draft lottery and already have an All-Star combination of Karl-Anthony Towns and D’Angelo Russell.
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