A-Rod moves closer to Minnesota Timberwolves stake

Alex Rodriguez just moved a step closer to owning an NBA team.

A Minnesota Court on Thursday dismissed a motion from a minority Minnesota Timberwolves owner, Meyer Orbach, seeking to delay a sale of 20 percent of the team to A-Rod and his partner Marc Lore.

That opens the door to A-Rod and Lore closing the deal with controlling owner Glen Taylor at anytime once approved by the NBA.

A-Rod and Lore plan to buy 20 percent of the team — along with the WNBA’s Minnesota Lynx — in a deal that values the team at $1.5 billion.

A-Rod isn’t planning to stop there, however, and has been trying to raise money in recent weeks to buy the whole team, which he can do at any time between closing the 20 percent purchase and the start of the 2023-24 season, according to a source close to the deal.

Judge Eric Tostrud ruled on Thursday that Orbach, a New Jersey real estate mogul who owns 17 percent of the team, could not block the sale amid claims that the team’s owner Glen Taylor — an 80-year-old printing magnate who also owns the Minneapolis Star-Tribune newspaper — improperly refused to share proceeds from the sale’s down payment.

The judge said Orbach didn’t have a right to a pro-rata share of the 20 percent stake sale because there was no guarantee that A-Rod and Lore will exercise the option to buy a controlling stake in the teams.

“There will be no definitive agreement to transfer a controlling interest in the teams to Rodriguez and Lore,” the judge said. “This conclusion undermines the remaining arguments [Orbach] raises about the terms of the partnership agreement.”

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