By STEVE ASCHBURNER




Glen Taylor, owner of the Minnesota Timberwolves, is a self-made billionaire -- tied at No. 92 on the Forbes 400 list of richest Americans, for those of you scoring at home -- with interests that range far beyond the basketball arena.

Taylor made his fortune in sleepy Mankato, Minn., in the stationery business, essentially printing a whole lot of wedding invitations. But he has diversified these days to the point that he currently owns a multinational corporation, along with a multimillion-dollar egg operation in northwestern Iowa, where a reported 700,000 chickens plop out an egg a day.

Clearly a man who can't put all of them in one basket, Taylor seemed an obvious choice to answer the age-old question: Which comes first? The chicken or the egg?

"Well, I suppose first comes the money that you use to buy the chicken,'' Taylor said with a chuckle one day last week, presumably settling the issue once and for all.

But of course. First comes the money. Then comes the ability to hire the shooting guard, the center and the point guard, along with the willingness to pay the power forward, the small forward, the sixth man and the rest. Oh, and let's not forget the tax man, one of the many bean counters on NBA commissioner David Stern's staff who will extract his price next summer for Taylor's financial excesses now.

As creative and as nimble as Minnesota vice president of basketball operations Kevin McHale appeared over the past month, maneuvering for talent and overhauling his roster right under some rivals' noses, it was Taylor who had the former Celtics' back with a fat checkbook and poised ballpoint.

As challenging as it will be for coach Flip Saunders to lead the T'wolves' entertaining new crew from out front and for All-Star Kevin Garnett to help them coalesce from within, it was Taylor who swallowed hard and knew that, this summer, money had to talk and that other stuff had to walk.

It's a heckuva thing when we have to applaud a really, really, really rich guy for spending some of his money. But in Taylor's case, this was the only way out for the T'wolves. The only way out, they believe, of the 2004 playoffs' first round.

Evaulate the Minnesota club's seven-year stagnation thoroughly enough and, after all the bad luck (Malik Sealy dying), disappointments (Stephon Marbury and Tom Gugliotta bolting) and shaky decisions (snubbing Bobby Jackson, Terry Porter and Chauncey Billups), a couple of serious problems link directly back to Taylor.

There was Garnett's six-year, $126 million contract, negotiated in October 1997. The sticker shock of that sent the league into a money-gushing lockout in the fall of 1998. And since it was built on 20 percent raises, just as NBA revenues were slowing, Garnett's piece of the payroll pie got bigger, faster, than the payroll itself ($28 million this season). The T'wolves' salary-cap flexibility vanished.

Then there was the Joe Smith escapade, in which Taylor succumbed to urgings of an agent to put into writing what other NBA clubs limit to winks and under-the-table handshakes. The T'wolves officially were cheaters, incurring Stern's wrath and a death-penalty punishment (three forfeited first-round draft picks, $3.5 million fine, loss of Smith's services, suspensions for Taylor and McHale). It only got worse when Smith never became more than an ordinary role player, hardly worth cheating for.

That choked off Minnesota's talent from the other end with no quality rookies coming aboard, no Morris Peterson, Michael Redd, Tony Parker, Gilbert Arenas or Carlos Boozer. All were on the board when Minnesota would have picked from 2000 to 2002.

Something had to give. Enough with the nice, overachieving regular seasons, followed by immediate eliminations. Two years ago, Taylor stomped out of Target Center as Dallas completed its sweep of his club, a sour expression on his face. Last spring, he saw his team blow a 2-1 lead against the Lakers, with Garnett growing more frustrated with every ouster -- seven in a row now -- and each edition of wannabes and junk offered up as his supporting cast.

So what did Taylor do? He spent, he spent, he steadied himself and then he spent some more.

In trading Smith and Anthony Peeler to Milwaukee for Sam Cassell and Ervin Johnson, Taylor passed up the savings from Peeler's $3.7 million non-guaranteed salary for 2003-04. He fueled up the private jet to court Michael Olowokandi and, while the T'wolves got a bargain when the former Clippers center signed a three-year, mid-level exception deal, Taylor surely encouraged Olowokandi to think big (max) if he proves himself in Minnesota.

Then Taylor took on another $28.1 million by acquiring Latrell Sprewell in the four-cornered trade with New York, Philadelphia and Atlanta. He passed up the insurance payments, cap room and luxury-tax relief that would have come from injured guard Terrell Brandon's $11.1 million contract, paying Sprewell real money instead. And with a payroll that will top $70 million this season, the T'wolves are facing a tax of at least $17 million in 2004, with millions more lost from the rebate pool.

All to get out of the first round.

Taylor did have a choice. He could have minded his budget, failed to stay competitive, lost more season-ticket sales and discouraged Garnett from re-signing next summer. Losing Garnett, one of the top five players in the game, would have gouged into the franchise's estimated $213 million value, of course, but... hmmm, maybe Taylor didn't have a choice at all.

"We were in the middle in the West,'' Taylor said. "We had a good team, but we couldn't get out of the first round. The middle of the playoff teams is probably the worst place to be. You have to move up, or you have to start over and become a lottery team.

"We can't make money next season. No chance. We'll lose a lot. But I decided, 'This one season, with all these circumstances, our best approach is to go for it.'''

Pay for it, to be precise.

Great thread, Prod.

Gather round Sprewell fans... Prod, Necrom... Iceman (R.I.P. ARES), Now I know it's Sunday morning but a toast... to Latrell Sprewell and Kevin Garnett getting busy. I can't wait for them to come into the Garden and put a beating on YOUR N.Y. Knicks.

... get the business from the Knicks?? Who's going to give him the business?? Every once in awhile, you ought to consider actually thinking about what you're saying.

What does Houston scoring 30 against Wolves have anything to do with this season? In case you haven't noticed, Wolves have a different team this year, Playa. (rolling eyes, shaking head).

As things now stand, Latrell and the Wolves would beat Allan and the Knicks nine out of ten times. Pullease...

Whatever, Playa. You got what you wanted... enjoy the product.