2000 NBA Draft at Target Center

[S. Smith]

NEW YORK -- The Timberwolves will be host of the 2000 NBA draft
next June at Target Center, NBA officials confirmed Monday. An
announcement by NBA commissioner David Stern and the Wolves is
expected later this week.

The event, tentatively scheduled for June 28, 2000, has rotated
through NBA cities since 1992 and was opened to the public in
1979. Last spring, a capacity crowd of 10,024 attended the draft
at Vancouver's GM Place. Before that, it was held in Charlotte
(1997), New Jersey (1996), Toronto (1995), Indianapolis (1994),
Detroit (1993) and Portland (1992). Before that, the draft was
held at various locations in New York.

This year's draft will be held June 30 at the MCI Center in
Washington, D.C. Tickets, priced at $8, reportedly have been
selling briskly, and all seven previous drafts have sold out. The
top attendance came in 1995, when 21,268 fans watched in
Toronto's SkyDome.

Typically, the top 15 draft prospects are in attendance, as are
Stern and NBA senior vice president Rod Thorn. The draft is
broadcast by Turner Network Television (TNT) and ESPN Radio.

The Wolves do not have a first-round pick in the 2000 draft. The
Toronto Raptors hold the rights to that pick as payment in the
three-team trade that brought Bobby Jackson and Dean Garrett to
the Wolves in January.