NBA Brand Caravan Travels to Abu Dhabi With T’wolves
The Minnesota Timberwolves eagerly raised their hands to be part of the 2023 NBA Abu Dhabi Games when the league came calling. Yes, it disrupted the traditional flow of training camp, and the logistics of taking 200 coaches, players, family members, executives, corporate partners and others to the United Arab Emirates capital required months of planning.
But the players came home this month from the two-game preseason trip against the Dallas Mavericks at Etihad Arena with unforgettable experiences. Rudy Gobert, their 7-1 center, rode a camel, and Karl-Anthony Towns and Gobert dined at the royal palace with Sheikh Mansour with pet orangutans part of the festivities.
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The team also benefited by laying the groundwork for future business opportunities with companies in the region.
“This is a growing emerging market for the league on a global scale, and we want to be involved in it,” Ethan Casson, Timberwolves CEO, said in a phone interview. “I think that there’s some opportunities for us to participate in.”
Ahead of the trip, the team announced a partnership with Caribou Coffee, which is based in Minneapolis but has more than 750 franchises worldwide, including nearly 70 in the UAE. It has agreements to franchise an additional 300 locations in the U.S. and expects to sign similar development agreements internationally—Towns might be the world’s tallest barista.
“We started talking about this trip, and their eyes light up,” Casson said. “We started just brainstorming about bringing two Minnesota brands to Abu Dhabi.”
Caribou is the Timberwolves hometown coffee brand, but its sponsorship falls under the league’s International Team Marketing Plan (ITMP). The NBA controlled marketing outside of North America until 2019, when it granted teams the right to sign up to two international partners and leverage the team’s image and license outside North America. The league bumped the limit to three in 2021, and then last year raised it…
