Minnesota Timberwolves star Kevin Love bracing for a tour to China – NBA Update
The NBA lockout has prompted a lot of the players to go out and play some exhibition games. Most of those have been in the amateur circuit at home, however there have also been little forays abroad. Now Kevin Love has revealed
that a barnstorming tour of China is set to come up soon and that big names from the NBA will take part in it.
Love is one of the names in questions. The Minnesota Timberwolves power forward has blossomed into a genuine NBA star over the last couple of seasons. He led the league in rebounding last season and is considered to be one of the
best in his position already. Love has been keeping busy playing beach volley ball so far this summer but revealed he could take part in some high profile basketball action soon enough.
When asked about the rumoured China tour, Love had this to say,
“Oh, it’s very real. I can’t put the specifics out there. But it’s a fair amount of games in China for a very substantial amount of money. That’s all I can tell you right now.”
It had been earlier revealed that some sponsors and agents of NBA players are planning a star studded tour of China to raise the profile of the game, the brand and also some hard cash. Basketball is huge in China since the arrival
of Yao Ming in the NBA back in 2002. Nowadays players like Kobe Bryant and LeBron James are household names in the country of over one billion people.
The NBA players are looking to exploit that popularity in China with an extravagant tour. Some players already played in a similar event in the Philippines. The two game tour had huge names such as Los Angeles Lakers legend Kobe
Bryant, reigning NBA MVP Derrick Rose of the Chicago Bulls and Oklahoma City Thunder’s reigning two time NBA scoring champion Kevin Durant.
The success of that even has emboldened sponsors and agents this time around and they have planned things on a much bigger scale for China. The proposed tour is reported to consist of around 6 to 7 games and would feature a plethora
of NBA stars.
The tour would also serve a good purpose for the National Basketball Players Association. The NBPA can point to the money generated and the overall success of such an event in order to put pressure on the NBA over the current labour
dispute. Since the league has locked players out, it would help the NBPA to show them that the players can still get by and would not he high handed over the negotiations for a new CBA.
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