Alex Rodriguez and Marc Lore are reportedly finalizing a deal to purchase the Minnesota Timberwolves for roughly $1.5 billion. It still needs approval from NBA owners (and Rodriguez and Lore would be limited partners for two and a half years, before Glen Taylor officially steps down as owner in 2023), but it seems likely to happen at this point.
Well, the Timberwolves lost 127-97 to the Brooklyn Nets on Tuesday, falling to a league-worst record of 14-41. After the game, Timberwolves rookie swingman Anthony Edwards — who scored a team-high 27 points — was asked about his thoughts on Rodriguez likely becoming the organization’s owner.
Edwards said, “I don’t know who that is. I know he’s going to be the owner. But I don’t know anything about baseball.”
This is a hilarious answer about one of the highest-profile athletes of the last 25 years.
Rodriguez won three AL MVP awards, was a superstar for the New York Yankees (and Seattle Mariners and Texas Rangers), hit 696 career home runs over 22 MLB seasons, signed a 10-year, $252 million contract with the Rangers that was the richest in baseball history at the time, and was suspended for the entire 2014 season due to performance-enhancing drugs. A-Rod has also been a color commentator for ESPN on Sunday Night Baseball since 2018, and he does postseason studio analyst work for Fox. He’s also been in a (seemingly on and off) relationship with Jennifer Lopez going back to 2017.
It seems hard to think that an American professional athlete has no idea who A-Rod is.
However, Edwards did say that he doesn’t know anything about baseball. Additionally, Edwards is just 19 years old. He was born in Aug. 2001 — after A-Rod’s Seattle years — and was nine years old in A-Rod’s final All-Star Game appearance.
And Edwards surely has spent *a lot* of his 19 years in the gym working to become a great basketball player. After all, that hard work led to him becoming the No. 1 overall pick in the 2020 NBA Draft.
So, it’s hardly crazy that he wouldn’t know anything about A-Rod. But definitely funny.
Edwards and A-Rod will get to know a lot about each other in the coming years as massively important parts of the Timberwolves’ rebuild.
About Matt Clapp
Matt is an editor/writer at The Comeback and Awful Announcing.
He can be reached by email at mclapp@thecomeback.com.