Rudy Fernández on Ricky: "I feel a little annoyed for not having noticed"

As if it were a sign, José María Calderón appeared at the concentration of the team in Malaga where they had arrived as the second stage in the preparation for the World Cup in Japan, the Philippines and Indonesia. The point guard whose injury led to Ricky Rubio's first start in the national team. The man who took over against the United States and allowed the Masnou player to appear before the world. And Sergio Scariolo, of course, was very sorry.

“What has happened is a very personal matter for Ricky, privately and personally we have to be as close as we can to him,” Scariolo said of a player who is something more to him.. “He's not just a player for me, he's like a nephew, he's a very close person and that's what counts,” insisted the Italian and asked for privacy for the player's process.

The coach had already forgotten his bad mood on Wednesday, especially after Ricky confirmed to him out loud a day later what was happening to him and of course his support and that of the entire Spanish Basketball Federation was unconditional. “In #LaFamilia, people have always come before results. All my love and support for Ricky, and my admiration for his transparency and through it his ability, once again, to lead by example,” he wrote on his social networks.

Ricky's last 72 hours with the national team had been hard for everyone. That farewell to “take care of his mental health” was nothing but the end of a sensation that was settling in the federation since the point guard left for Barcelona on Monday, July 31.. And for which Scariolo himself was forced to call Juan Núñez, before Ricky confirmed what was happening to him.

Something that nobody in the selection noticed. Not even Rudy Fernández, the other R from that marvelous era of La Penya with which Aíto García Reneses made Spain fall in love and a friend of Ricky's who he has said is “very brave”.. “Personally, I feel annoyed for not having realized it in that situation because we have been with him and we have not been able to see him, to be with him when he needed it,” explained the captain of the team and friend of the point guard from El Masnou.

This Monday, Spain had arrived at the Higuerón Training Center in Fuengirola to prepare two matches of height. First, on the 11th against Luka Doncic's Slovenia and then, on the 13th, the great test before the World Cup in Japan, Indonesia and the Philippines, against the United States, one of the favorite teams for the championship along with Spain, current champion.

Selection, by the way, before which Ricky Rubio, MVP of the World Cup in China in 2019, lit his magic for the first time. “We have to give him time to find himself with energy and strength to play basketball again,” Scariolo said, “with a smile,” Rudy completed..