Kevin Garnett says his bid to buy the Timberwolves is over; Glen Taylor says it never started

It appears Kevin Garnett won't be involved in any potential sale of the Timberwolves, though owner Glen Taylor said Garnett was never involved in the first place.

Garnett posted to his Instagram story that he "got the news that this process in trying to acquire the TWolves is over for me" and his group.

Garnett did not provide details on why his group is now no longer part of the process.

Taylor, however, said in a phone interview he never heard from Garnett or a group representing Garnett. Taylor said he received bids from 10 groups, none of which were linked to Garnett. Taylor also said Garnett never reached out to him regarding the potential sale.

"He never called me about that at all ever," Taylor said. "I was kind of surprised that he didn't. Then we had about 10 groups or 10 families that made inquiries and stuff like that, and they list who's going to buy it if they did the purchase and his name was never on anything."

Garnett has had a notoriously contentious relationship with Taylor but said he was willing to put that aside and work with Taylor on potentially taking over the team. Garnett took a swipe at Taylor for "being yourself" in his post.

Taylor also said he spoke to four former NBA players who were interested in the team and asked them if they were affiliated with Garnett. They said no.

"If he would've called or had been a person who wanted some help, I would've tried to help him like anybody else," Taylor said.

Garnett wrote, good luck and all the best "with what we built" and added that it's time to focus on other places, before posting hashtags with Seattle and Vegas.

Taylor, who also owns the Star Tribune, said in July he was exploring the potential sale of the team. Others who have had interest include former NBA player Arron Afflalo and Daniel E. Straus, former minority owner of the Grizzlies. Straus and Taylor had an exclusivity agreement on negotiations back in August, but that agreement expired. Taylor said there were multiple parties interested in buying the team.

Taylor, who has said he will only sell to an owner willing to commit to keeping the Wolves in Minnesota long term, said the pandemic was slowing down the process of a potential sale because attendance projections have made it hard to determine the value of the team.

"The process has taken longer than anticipated just because we're not sure when we're going to have attendance at the games," he said. "And so that's a hard thing to kind of figure in there, the value or lack of value. Probably the only thing that's holding it up. I still have interest."

Taylor, who became the majority owner of the franchise in 1994, has come close to selling the team before but has decided against it previously.

He could still retain a minority stake in the team upon a potential sale as well. The New York Post recently reported Taylor attempted to sell small stakes in the team to private equity firm Arctos, but the league had not approved of Arctos as a potential buyer.

Taylor declined to comment Thursday on the recent coaching change the Wolves had in firing Ryan Saunders and replacing him with Chris Finch. He instead referred those questions to President Gersson Rosas.

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