Eugenio MirandaOct 25, 2023, 12:02 ETLreading: 4 min.
What does it mean for Karl Towns to represent the Dominican Republic?
The Minnesota Timberwolves star talked about his roots, memories and meaning in his career
Al Horford reaches his 17th season in the best basketball in the world, leading the Quisqueyan representation
The Dominican Republic will have up to five players in the 2023-24 NBA season, joining the main countries with international representation within the league.
According to an NBA publication, there will be 125 international players representing 40 countries and territories on six continents, demonstrating the internationalization of the United States basketball league.
Al Horford of the Boston Celtics, Karl-Anthony Towns the Minnesota Timberwolves, Chris Duarte of the Sacramento Kings, Lester Quinones de Golden State Warriors y Justin Minaya The Portland Trail Blazers will be the Dominican representatives in the league, being the largest number of Dominicans to start a season in NBA history.
Horford, Duarte and Towns are part of the Dominican representation in NBA.ESPN.
Canada (26), France (14), Australia (9), Serbia (7) and Germany (6) are the only countries that surpass the Dominican Republic in representation in the list of countries with players in the NBA. Nigeria and Türkiye also have five.
However, Karl Towns, Justin Minaya and Lester Quiñones do not appear in the list published by the NBA of international players because they were born outside the Dominican Republic even though that is their sporting nationality.
Towns comes from playing with the Dominican National Team in the last FIBA World Cup where he became the figure of the team and was an important part in the Dominicans’ advancement to the second phase in the tournament. At 27 years old he is entering his ninth season in the NBA.
For almost two decades Al Horford has been the Dominican face in the NBA, and a couple of seasons ago he became the first Dominican to play in the league finals. In his 17th season he is still an important figure on the Boston Celtics.
Chris Duarte is coming off a difficult second season in the league but will now look for his place by joining an interesting Sacramento Kings team, where the Puerto Plata native will seek to establish himself and leave behind the injuries that have plagued him.
The cases of Lester Quiñones and Justin Minaya are similar as they both signed two-way contracts with the Golden State Warriors and Portland Trail Blazers respectively, leaving open the possibility that some of them could play in the G League this season.
These types of contracts give players with less than four years of experience in the league the possibility of making the official roster and getting a permanent contract, something that the Dominicans will seek with their performances in the campaign.
However, both appear on the official NBA rosters for the start of the 2023-24 regular season, with Quiñones wearing the number 25 on his jersey and Minaya wearing the number 24. Both said yes to playing with the Dominican Republic in the last FIBA World Cup but An injury prevented Justin from participating in the Philippines. Before the tournament, both became important figures in the Dominican national team, although Lester was not active for the Warriors’ opening day.
Enjoy the entire NBA season in Latin America through Star+.
2023-10-25 16:02:00
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