Timberwolves president David Kahn said he wanted to add veterans to the team, he just didn’t know it would be through the 2011 NBA Draft.
When Minnesota surprisingly selected Qatar forward Targuy Ngombo with the No, 57 pick, they thought they were drafting a 21-year-old hidden prodigy. NBA.com draft profile lists his year of birth as 1989.
Jonathan Givony of DraftExpress.com believes Ngombo is 26 years old, citing FIBA.com and Qatar League online records. According to the websites, Ngombo will actually turn 27 on July 18.
Also, turns out his name is Tanguy, not Targuy.
So what does that mean? Eric Freeman of Yahoo! Sports has a breakdown of the draft rules:
“NBA rules dictate that European players become automatically eligible for the league at 22 years old, at which point they become free agents unless a team already holds their rights through the draft. Since Ngombo had never been selected and his real age of 26 appears to have been a matter of public record, the selection should have never been allowed to happen and may be voided after the fact.”
The league could invalidate the Timberwolves’ draft choice, essentially voiding it and wiping away their pick all together. If the league deems that it is not Minnesota’s fault, they may compensate them with a pick in next years draft. This is only speculation.
Either way, this will be embarrassing for Kahn and the Timberwolves, since they apparently did not look deep enough into Ngombo’s history.
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