Marc Lore, Alex Rodriguez to take full control of Timberwolves, Lynx

Just three days short of a critical deadline, the Minnesota Timberwolves and Lynx will officially have new management.

Marc Lore and Alex Rodriguez intend to exercise their option to buy controlling ownership interest in the two basketball teams, according to ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski. The deadline for them to make the decision was set for Dec. 31. 

The senior NBA writer was told that Lore and Rodriguez will buy 40% more of the stake from incumbent majority owner/governor Glen Taylor, bringing their majority shares in both teams to 80%. Taylor will retain the remaining 20% share in the franchises.

Back in late October, Taylor told "The Scoop," a Minnesota-based sports podcast, that Lore and Rodriguez needed more time before exercising the option in order to acquire more funds to buy the necessary 40%. Lore, the founder of Jet.com who sold the retail site to Walmart, and Rodriguez, the baseball star turned analyst and entrepreneur, entered a purchasing agreement with Taylor in 2021. At the time, they bought a 20% stake in the Timberwolves and Lynx and arranged to buy controlling interest over the next two seasons.

The extra funds appear to have come from two sources, the private equity firm Carlyle Group and former Google CEO Eric Schmidt. Sportico's Scott Soshnick and Eben Novy-Williams reported that the two raised the money on a higher valuation than the one Lore and Rodriguez used to help buy their initial shares.

The Timberwolves are enjoying a surprising rise to the top of the NBA this season, sporting the best record in the Western Conference at 22-7 and a 12-1 tally at home in the Target Center. The pairing of Karl-Anthony Towns and Rudy Gobert has been much more fruitful than a year ago with the league's best defense by points allowed. 

The Lynx, once the standard franchise in the WNBA with four titles in the 2010s, are in the midst of an uneven transition in recent seasons but still have talented players leading the way, such as Napheesa Collier and Kayla McBride.