Minneapois ? Harvey Ratner, one of the two businessmen who brought the NBA back to Minnesota, died early Friday after a yearlong bout with cancer. He was 79.

Ratner owned the Minnesota Timberwolves with partner Marv Wolfenson until selling the team in 1994. He died at his St. Louis Park home, son Mark said.

Ratner and Wolfenson were both born and raised on the north side of Minneapolis. They became known as “Harv and Marv,” working together for nearly five decades while managing their collection of apartment complexes and health and fitness facilities.

The philanthropic Ratner’s proudest accomplishment, as he recently told one of his sons, was the Timberwolves, who marked the NBA’s return after an absence that began when the Minneapolis Lakers moved to Los Angeles in 1960.