Arum recalls Top Rank’s failed bid to buy NBA team in 1994

Imagine the New Orleans Rhythm losing a game on a bad call, and following the loss, their owner proceeds to rip the referees, rip the NBA and call commissioner David Stern every unflattering thing you can think of.

Imagine that owner being Bob Arum.

Bob Arum?

It nearly happened.

In 1994, Arum’s boxing promotional company Top Rank joined forces with Fred Hofheinz and, along with the support of Louisiana Gov. Edwin Edwards and Mayor Marc Morial, sought to bring professional basketball back to New Orleans after Sam Battistone moved the Jazz to Salt Lake City in 1979. Top Rank had agreed to purchase the Minnesota Timberwolves for $152.5 million and move them to New Orleans, where they were going to be rebranded the Rhythm or the Angels and play in the Louisiana Superdome while a new arena was constructed.

The deal was contingent on approval from the NBA’s Board of Governors. But the league determined Arum and Hofheinz did not have the financing secured to buy the team and rejected Top Rank’s bid. Lawsuits followed, and the Timberwolves were eventually sold to Minnesota businessman Glen Taylor, who kept the team in Minneapolis.

It was the last time the league blocked the sale and transfer of a team. Currently, the Maloof family has an agreement to sell the Sacramento Kings to Seattle hedge fund billionaire Chris Hansen. But the city of Sacramento and its mayor, former NBA player Kevin Johnson, are trying to come up with an ownership group to match Hansen’s $525 million offer and keep the team in California’s capital.

The proposed sale and future of the Kings has been a hot topic in NBA circles lately. Will the league reject Hansen and allow the much-traveled franchise to remain in Sacramento? Or will Hansen get the green light to bring the NBA back to Seattle following the SuperSonics’ move to Oklahoma City in 2008, leaving Arum and Top Rank as the last ownership group to have their purchase and move blocked by the league?

“The Maloofs are good guys, but they had no choice but to sell,” Arum said. “They have to get out of Sacramento. They’ve lost major dollars with the Palms and they’re losing money with the Kings. Their only alternative is to sell the team.”

Arum said he never had any intention of owning a sports team. But he and Hofheinz, the former mayor of Houston, had a friendship that dated back to the 1970s, when Hofheinz had a financial stake in Top Rank. When Hofheinz had interest in the Timberwolves, he called Arum, who by then had become a huge name in sports thanks to his company’s success in promoting dozens of great fighters, from Muhammad Ali and George Foreman to Sugar Ray Leonard, Thomas Hearns, Marvin Hagler and Roberto Duran to Oscar De La Hoya and Julio Cesar Chavez.

“Basically, they wanted to use my name because everyone knew me from boxing; I was a recognizable figure,” said Arum, who along with Houston lawyer John O’Quinn and stockbroker Robert Higley were joining Hofheinz in bankrolling the efforts to buy the team.

Marv Wolfenson and Harvey Ratner, the original owners of the Timberwolves, were struggling financially, much like the Maloofs are. They couldn’t afford to keep sustaining millions of dollars in losses, so they put the team up for sale.

They met with Arum and Hofheinz. The plan was to sell the team to Top Rank and move it to New Orleans, where a new arena would be built thanks to the political machinations of Edwards and Morial.

Arum said the idea of moving the team to Las Vegas was not feasible, primarily because of Stern’s anti-gambling stance, as well as the market being too small in 1994 to support the NBA.

“It never came up,” Arum said of Las Vegas as a possible landing spot for the T-Wolves. “It was always about New Orleans. The governor and the mayor were pushing hard to get a team.”

On May 23, 1994, it was announced the Timberwolves were sold to Top Rank and would be moving to New Orleans. But as the NBA vetted the sale, it found the bid to be undercapitalized with myriad questions regarding the financing. Arum, Hofheinz and the other partners went to New York and met with Stern and deputy commissioner Adam Silver.

“Stern was very skeptical, and he had a right to be,” Arum said, recalling the early June meeting. “This group was woefully underfunded. I was only going to put up a little money. Basically, I was coming along for a free ride.”

In an email response, Stern said he recalled Edwards promising to deliver an arena to the Top Rank group. He also said the attempt to circumvent the process was the problem.

“The bid was not untenable,” Stern said. “The attempt to avoid our approval process was untenable.”

Stern anticipated a lawsuit from Top Rank. Sure enough, a week after the league blocked the relocation on June 21, a suit was filed by Top Rank in Louisiana District Court seeking control of the franchise. The NBA countersued, and a Federal District Court ruled that the Timberwolves were to stay put.

“Bob would have undoubtedly been a good owner and operator,” Stern said. “But the sale attempted to evade our approval process, so we sued.”

That October, the league approved the sale of the Timberwolves to Taylor. It would be another eight years before New Orleans would return to the NBA, when George Shinn moved the Hornets from Charlotte, N.C.

Arum, now 81, has no desire at this point to own a pro sports team. He has plenty to do trying to get Manny Pacquiao, Nonito Donaire and his other boxers big-money fights.

“There’s nothing more satisfying than owning your own team,” said Arum, who counts New York Giants owners John Mara and Steve Tisch, and Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones among his closest friends. “There’s a proprietary interest when you own a team, and it enhances the image about yourself. But running Top Rank is like owning your own team. We have our brand. We have our stars. It’s very similar.”

But what if Arum had been successful in getting the Timberwolves? What kind of owner would he have been? Remember, this is someone who has had no problem calling out boxing referees, judges, athletic commissions and sanctioning bodies.

“I think David and I would have gotten along,” Arum said. “But he probably would have fined me a few times.”

Contact reporter Steve Carp at scarp@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2913. Follow him on Twitter: @stevecarprj.