"I only knew of him,'' Taylor said in February. "So, when he had interest in coming here, we invited him to our house for dinner. He's very friendly, very common, very family-oriented. And a very good decisionmaker.''

Taylor's a fan of Connelly. He's a fan of coach Chris Finch. He's a fan of Cheryl Reeve with the Lynx, of course.

Nothing's changing here, including the guy who has been covering the bills and watching the assets grow.

One positive for the team followers complaining about Taylor staying as owner:

The demand for a new arena to house the Timberwolves could come much later with Taylor in charge, rather than if Lore and Rodriguez had taken over.

"I'm OK with Target Center,'' Taylor said. "You would always like to see a few improvements, but I don't see a major problem with the arena for now.''

Did the explosion in the NBA sale prices lead to Thursday's decision to enforce the latest deadline and cancel the sale?

"Not for me,'' Taylor said. "My money's going to the Taylor Foundation, not in my pocket. But my limiteds, they might be happy if the Timberwolves are sold later for a higher price.''

Litigation has been mentioned as a possibility for the Lore-ARod group, based on the claim they had lined up the financing. Response?

"It's business,'' Taylor said. "Everyone has the right to bring in the lawyers.''

Lots of calls today? "Yes, and we have three grandbabies here,'' he said. "I'm going to have to stop answering.''

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