A large table sat in the middle of a conference room at the law offices of Gray, Plant, Mooty and Mooty and Bennett. On one side, a financially stressed owner of the Minnesota Timberwolves with roots in Minneapolis’s hardscrabble North side sat with a cadre of lawyers and accountants, holding a No. 10 envelope in his hand with a number written on it.
On the other side of the table, a former state senator from rural Minnesota who had built an empire thanks to business success in printing and agriculture stared right back at him after handing over an 8 1/2 x 11 sheet of paper with his offer to buy the team. After listening to his accountants and attorneys tell him there was no way they could consider an offer presented in such simplistic form, the beleaguered Marv Wolfenson stood up, walked around the table and approached an opportunistic Glen Taylor. Wolfenson extended his hand to accept the offer. Taylor stood up and accepted. Having just spent $88 million to rescue the…
