Basketball: Penney signs for NBA team

10.45am

New Zealand basketballer Kirk Penney has signed for United States National Basketball Association (NBA) side the Minnesota Timberwolves.

The Minnesota side announced their signing of the free agent guard today. Terms of the contract were not disclosed.

However Penney, 22, would earn at least a minimum annual salary of US$300,000 ($518,762). A regular starter gets more than US$2 million.

Penney missed out on making it into an NBA team during the annual draft, but played Summer League basketball for the Timberwolves in July. He played five games and averaged 11.4 points, 2.0 rebounds, 1.4 assists and 18.6 minutes.

Penney, from Auckland, averaged 11.4 points, 3.8 rebounds and 1.7 assists per game while playing college basketball at Wisconsin.

He finished sixth on Wisconsin's career scoring list with 1454 points, in addition to ranking second on the school's all-time list in three-pointers (217) and three-point attempts (561), third in games played (127) and sixth in minutes played (3416).

Penney has represented New Zealand in the 2000 Olympic Games, 2001 Goodwill Games and 2002 World Championship.

One other New Zealander, Sean Marks, plays in the NBA. He is a free agent and in talks with the Miami Heat side he played for last season.

- NZPA