Only scant months ago, Timberwolves owner Glen Taylor negotiated to sell nearly a third of his team to a Los Angeles businessman as part of a succession plan intended to prepare both himself and Minnesota sports fans for the day he'll no longer own it.
Six days after he celebrated his 75th birthday, Taylor on Tuesday officially introduced new coach/president of basketball operations Tom Thibodeau and General Manager Scott Layden at a Target Center news conference and did so with both feet fully in.
His plan to sell a chunk of the team now and controlling interest in it later to private-equity investor Steve Kaplan has been scrapped and instead he has held negotiations with other investors to sell two smaller pieces of 5 and 10 percent.
In introducing Thibodeau and Layden, Taylor made it clear he doesn't intend on going anywhere, not for the next five years for which the two men are signed, and perhaps well beyond.
After guaranteeing them $50 million for these next five years, Taylor envisions a third window opening in franchise history, even if the first two times didn't turn out just quite right.
"You only get this unique opportunity to go for the top every once in a while in your lifetime," he said.
He said the first time came not long after he bought the team in 1994 and soon thereafter drafted Kevin Garnett, Stephon Marbury and traded for Tom Gugliotta, a plan shipwrecked when Marbury forced a trade three seasons later.
The second time came five years after that, when the Wolves acquired Sam Cassell and Latrell Sprewell to play alongside Garnett in a two-year experiment. It peaked the first year when the three stars led the team to the Western Conference finals, and might have reached the NBA Finals if Cassell hadn't been injured.