Timberwolves PG Ricky Rubio off to visit Manila

MANILA, Philippines -- The Minnesota Timberwolves' Ricky Rubio is scheduled to visit the Philippines late this month as part of his two-country tour.

"Happy to announce that I will be on an International Tour this August visiting the Philippines and Dubai," said Rubio on his Twitter account @rickyrubio9 Friday night.

Rubio, a Spaniard drafted 5th overall by the Wolves in the 2009 NBA draft, is set to fly to the country from Aug. 20 to 23 being an adidas model before going to Dubai from Aug. 24-28as a special guest of the Basicball Academy Summer Camp there.

This early, the 24-year-old Rubio is teeming with excitement.

"Bucket list: visit Philippines," Rubio tweeted in his account where he has 1.76 million followers.

Although drafted in 2009, Rubio was only able to play in the NBA in 2011 and during that four-year span, he averaged an impressive 10.2 points, 8.2 assists, 4.3 rebounds and 2.3 steals in 202 games.

Rubio's legend started when, as a 15-year-old, he dropped a whopping 51 points, 24 rebounds, 12 assists and seven steals to power Spain to a 110-106 overtime victory over Russia in the finals of the FIBA Europe Under-16 Championship nine years back that led to him being compared to the great NBA legend Pete Maravich.

Rubio will be one of the many NBA personalities who visited the country in past months with others being former Denver Nuggets coach Brian Shaw, the Milwaukee Bucks' Khris Middleton and the Utah Jazz Alec Burks.

The Nuggets' Kenneth "The Manimal" Faried and the San Antonio Spurs' Danny Green are also expected to visit the country also this August as the main attraction of the NBA 3X Philippines 2015 at the SM Mall of Asia.