Targuy Ngombo Lied About Age: Timberwolves Draft Pick Also Lied About Spelling Of Name

This doesn't look good for the Minnesota Timberwolves.

According to several reports, Targuy Ngombo, Minnesota's second-round draft pick, lied about his age and spelling of his name.

Jonathan Givony of Draft Express pointed out that Ngombo, who was believed to be 21-years-old, is actually a soon-to-be 27-year-old named Tanguy Alban Harrys Ngombo.

Qatar's roster on the FIBA website also confirms that Ngombo was born in 1984.

More from Scott Schroeder of SB Nation:

Ngombo was first brought to the mainstream's attention by Jonathan Givony of Draft Express earlier in the week when he mentioned there was a good chance that the Congolese native could get drafted out of Qatar (stay with me now).Timberwolves scout Pete Philo apparently discovered Ngombo and convinced Kahn he was worthy of a draft pick while assuming the small forward was only 21 as it says on his NBA.com page.

Givony tweeted that this makes Ngombo ineligible to be drafted.

Ngombo was selected with the 57th overall pick.

Story developing..

Comments

[Rylan Kinnell]

12:55 AM on 06/27/2011

To be fair to the T-Wolves they only drafted him so they could dump him on Portland for some cash. Yeah they should of had better scouting for him but whats that say about Portland's scouting. Portland actually had intended to keep him and their scouting failed...Hope NBA forces them to keep him out of stupidity...Minnesota should get the free pass on this one.

[Ken Washam]

11:06 PM on 06/26/2011

Wonder if this guy will be a late round steal?? Ha

http://thesportslowdown.com/2011/06/23/talent-can-be-found-late-in-first-round.aspx

[ironron]

11:01 PM on 06/26/2011

According to NBA.com Targuy was traded from Dallas to Portland in a three way trade with Denver.
Targuy is also listed as a player on the roster of Portland on nba.com and yahoo.com. Why nobody ridicules Portland?

And about Height, most of college players lying about their height. The NBA Combine measurements prove it every year. Some of them exaggerating their height by 3". S. Howes is listed 7'1", in the combine he was measured 6'10.5", Kenneth Faried on his college website was listed 6'9" in the NBA combine 6'6"

Nobody really has high hopes when drafting the 57th pick, so nobody really do a lot of research. In the last 10 years only once a 57th pick was signed to play in the NBA.

[Wide Stance]

11:59 PM on 06/26/2011

We've been over this. The "three-way" deal sent Dallas' pick to Portland. Minnesota traded cash or other considerations to Portland for the rights to Ngombo. Portland, in possession of the pick, simple made the selection of Ngombo FOR MINNESOTA. The Timberwolves would compensate Portland for that selection at a later date.

(I would imagine that entire trade is in NBA jail right now. It won't go through until the league rules and straightens it out. Ngombo was DRAFT INELIGIBLE. Players who participate in the draft can't be over 22 years of age. More than likely MN will owe Portland compensation, but will get nothing in return.)

Anyone, here's a Timberwolves fan site talking about the trade BEFORE it happened. http://minnesota.sbnation.com/minnesota-timberwolves/2011/6/23/2240403/targuy-ngombo-nba-draft-2011-timberwolves

[Wide Stance]

12:34 AM on 06/27/2011

MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA (USA)
OfficialWire News Bureau

The Minnesota Timberwolves were awfully busy on draft night. So busy, in fact, that it took the NBA until Friday afternoon to approve all the wheeling and dealing that was done by president of basketball operations David Kahn.

The deals that were officially announced:

—The Wolves traded point guard Jonny Flynn, a future second-round pick and the 20th pick — Donatas Motiejunas — to Houston for center Brad Miller, the draft rights to No. 23 pick Nikola Mirotic and No. 38 Chandler Parsons and a future first-round pick.

—Traded Mirotic to the Chicago Bulls for the draft rights to No. 28 Norris Cole and No. 43 Malcolm Lee and cash.

—Traded Cole to the Miami Heat for No. 31 Bojan Bogdanovic, a future second-round pick and cash.

—Traded Bogdanovic to New Jersey for a future second-round pick and cash.

—Traded Parsons back to Houston for cash.

The Timberwolves also traded with Portland for the 57th pick, Tanguy Ngombo of Qatar, but said the deal was still pending and contingent upon a trade the Trail Blazers made earlier in the draft. [....]

http://news.officialwire.com/main.php?action=posted_news&rid=2406

(So, until all the deals go through, the three-way Dallas/Denver/Portland deal, etc., this Ngombo deal isn't official either--and for other reasons, it may never be.)

[ironron]

01:40 AM on 06/29/2011

An article on asiabasketballupdate.com blames FIBA for the confusion. On FIBA-Asia website Targuy date of birth is1989 on three different pages as well as on the Qatar NT website. On FIBA-Africa the date of birth is 1984.
As I understand you are a Wolves fan, so good luck and hopefully for you G. Orwell has nothing to do with this1984.

[billso]

07:19 PM on 06/26/2011

So predictable... the T-Wolves would probably draft a Nigerian prince based upon his emails.

[southrange]

05:20 PM on 06/26/2011

The Timberwolves are the most disfunctional team in the NBA. From top to bottom the have not a clue! It has been that way since day one and has continued through their short history. Its one thing to make good decisions and still lose. Its another to be totally stupid time and again and be the joke of the NBA. The T wolves are an embarrasment.

[Vic22]

05:15 PM on 06/26/2011

I've had more thorough background checks done on me for 30k jobs

[GabrielGrey]

04:49 PM on 06/26/2011

27? D@aammn...

[pokypaul86]

12:33 PM on 06/26/2011

Where was Trump on that one, screaming for a long form birth certificate.

[Gigity]

11:16 AM on 06/26/2011

It's like the MLB, where a humorous amount of latin players have somehow become 10 years younger when they moved to the US.

[pleasantlyny]

01:12 PM on 06/26/2011

only difference is the MLB support that cesspool of recruiting these guys in south america paying off their coaches giving them seroids etc...

[houskin]

05:24 PM on 06/26/2011

Get over it...the latin players can play better and they have earned their way into your league. Fade away fade away...thats whats going to happen in all your sports. Your U-17 world cup team stars are not White Males either. Thats the new trend. I wish you would see them as humans not Latin or African. Good luck and God bless

[plzchuteme]

10:57 AM on 06/26/2011

Here is the most compelling reason yet not to remove timber wolves from the endangered species list. Timberwolves are clearly still in need of protection...from themselves.

[Wide Stance]

10:49 AM on 06/26/2011

In other NBA news, the T-wolves sent their 2012 first round pick to the Mavericks in exchange for the rights to Hakuna Matata.

(When asked about the deal, one GM laughed and replied, he has a "good attitude.")

[Darryl Clayton]

08:17 AM on 06/26/2011

So are you saying that the T-Wolves were duped into drafted someone with basketball age equivalence of Grandpa Simpson? Wow...

[clearpepsi]

03:16 AM on 06/26/2011

this is super funny, I guess like most teams they are looking at 2013 season to rebuild as opposed to 2012

[Wide Stance]

01:39 AM on 06/26/2011

As Fails go, this one is pretty hilarious. Usually you have to wait longer than a week to know for sure if a pick is a bust. Ngombo is 27 years old and draft ineligible (he's also 6'-4, too small to play forward in the NBA). They drafted a free agent--and traded for him. The NBA's ruling should be interesting.

[Rylan Kinnell]

01:46 PM on 06/26/2011

Yeah no doubt...wonder how this gets solved.

[Lohikaarme]

06:53 PM on 06/25/2011

PETA is going to sue the this NBA organization on behalf of the real timber wolves. The charge" "defamation of character."