Timberwolves business executive Chris Wright told Sports Headliners that the franchise’s signing of Ricky Rubio to a contract last week jump-started season ticket sales. Wright reported yesterday morning that since noon last Friday the club has sold 500 new full season tickets.
Those sales have pushed the team’s full season ticket sales to about 7,000, the franchise’s best total since 2005-06. (The Wolves also sell partial season ticket packages where fans can buy a portion of the home schedule.)
Rubio’s international name and flashy passing have caused excitement in this marketplace as fans anticipate his rookie season in 2011-12. But Wright said the two year wait to get Rubio here after drafting him in 2009 accounts for the boom in ticket sales, too. “There’s been a buzz building, and now he’s here,” Wright said.
With the addition of Rubio this fall, the Timberwolves are likely to have three European players on their roster: Spain’s Rubio, and centers Darko Milicic from Serbia and Nikola Peckovic of Montenegro.
Wolves assistant general manager Tony Ronzone is known for his international scouting expertise. It’s not that speculative to believe the Wolves’ roster of foreign born players will continue to grow.
German-born Dirk Nowitzki of the Dallas Mavericks was the 2011 NBA Finals MVP, and his selection symbolizes the presence and sometimes high performance of European players. The Dallas forward earned the MVP award while leading the Mavericks to a six game series win over Miami. No doubt European audiences watched with pride and will do the same tomorrow night when the NBA draft is televised from New York.
Reversing a trend of recent years when numbers were low, almost 25 percent of players drafted tomorrow evening are likely to be foreigners, most of them from Europe. In their NBA draft previews last week Sports Illustrated and Sporting News Magazine predicted seven of the 30 first round draft choices will be from countries other than the United States. (The number becomes eight if USC’s Nikola Vucevic, a player whose home is in Montenegro, is counted.)
Among the countries represented are Lithuania, a nation that both Sports Illustrated and Sporting News predicted would have two players chosen in the first round, forwards Jonas Valanciunas and Donatas Motiejunas. S.I. predicted the Timberwolves will choose Motiejunas with their No. 20 pick in the first round.
Top American college players like Ohio State’s Jared Sullinger chose not to declare themselves eligible for this year’s draft. The result is a less deep and talented draft that created opportunities for more foreign players to be chosen in the first round.