Timberwolves Expand Presence in China, Announce Partnership with O-RANGE SPORTS

Minneapolis-St. Paul – The Minnesota Timberwolves announced a partnership with the China-based youth basketball organization O-RANGE SPORTS.   As part of the agreement, O-RANGE SPORTS will bring a group of youth players and coaches from China to Minnesota this season for a Timberwolves experience that includes attending a game and participating in Timberwolves & Lynx Basketball Academy camps. The organization’s goal is to learn better, safer and more efficient methods for teaching the game of basketball in China.   “Partnering with O-RANGE SPORTS is not only continuing to grow our team’s presence in China, but it also activates on one of our core focuses as an organization – to help grow the game of basketball,” said Timberwolves & Lynx CEO Ethan Casson. “We look forward to welcoming their group to our facility later this season and hopefully we can help inspire their young players to imagine themselves one day playing in the NBA.”   The partnership will also include signage, hospitality, team gear and social media integration.   O-RANGE SPORTS is a youth basketball organization based in Shanghai that provides high quality training to coaches and young players throughout China with a focus on growing the country’s basketball presence worldwide.   The partnership is the latest example of the growing popularity of the Timberwolves in China. Last year, the team brought on the first Chinese minority owner in professional sports in John Jiang. The team recently returned from playing in the NBA Global Games in China and has seen significant growth over the past year to their Weibo account, with a current following of almost 2 million, up from 700,000 just six months ago. The Timberwolves also welcomed Chinese-based TCL as a corporate partner last season.