Ricky Rubio leaves the concentration of the national team and stops his career to "treat his mental health"

The Spanish Basketball Federation has announced in a statement that Ricky Rubio leaves basketball to take care of his psychological state. In the brief note from the federation it is explained that the Masnou player wanted to “stop his professional activity to take care of his mental health”.

Along the same lines, Rubio “has wanted to thank all the support he has received from the FEB to understand his decision”. And he also maintains that the good harmony that exists in the team, #LaFamilia, “makes more sense than ever”

The still Cleveland Cavaliers player has asked for “respect for his privacy to be able to face these moments and to be able to give more information when the time is right.”

At 32 years old, Ricky Rubio had just recovered from his second serious knee injury, the third major in his career, and was beginning to show the great level he had when the injury occurred, in a fortuitous play with the Cavaliers.

The MVP of the last Basketball World Cup in China 2019, also crowned with the gold medal, started as the most outstanding player in Sergio Scariolo's squad for this new World Cup event in Japan, the Philippines and Indonesia.

Scariolo placed his hopes on him not only to lead the national team but also to direct the game, especially after the resignation of Lorenzo Brown, the last MVP of the 2022 European Championship, in which Spain also won.

injuries

Rubio has dealt with major setbacks in his career. Injuries such as a torn cruciate ligament in his left knee, which occurred just a year after making his NBA debut with the Minnesota Timberwolves and caused him to miss the 2012 Olympics.

Also an ankle ailment in 2014, with the same franchise. And that, after an unsuccessful return and several subsequent problems, forced him to undergo surgery in 2015.

A year later, Rubio suffered the biggest setback of his life, the loss of his mother to lung cancer.. In 2018, the basketball player created The Ricky Rubio Foundation, an institution aimed at improving the lives of cancer patients.

The Catalan point guard's last injury occurred in December 2021 as a player for the Cleveland Cavaliers. It was on the same knee in 2012 and it happened when Ricky was showing his best basketball in the Ohio franchise.

After all these traumas, the Masnou player has always shown a great attitude, carrying out various public demonstrations about “staying positive” and thus facing the stoppages of the sport in which he was born at just 17 years of age.

Precocity

Three years earlier, Aíto García Reneses had made him debut at Juventut de Badalona at the age of 14 years, 11 months and 24 days in the ACB league, the youngest player to do so. Barely a year later, Rubio would win the revelation player award in the Spanish league.

Despite the fact that in 2009, the Minnesota Timberwolves took over his rights after choosing him fifth in the NBA Draft, Ricky still played two more years in Spain. He did it at Barcelona, a team he joined after becoming the most expensive transfer in the history of the ACB and after some financial problems with his home club, Juventut.

nba

In 2011, he would land in the NBA, a league that has completed 10 seasons. Ricky astonished in Minnesota with Kevin Love, consolidated himself in the Utah Jazz with Rudy Gobert and Donovan Mitchell and went through the Phoenix Suns until he reached the Cleveland Cavaliers, after a fleeting one-year return by the Wolves.

In the Ohio franchise, Rubio reached his sporting maturity and, although he came off the bench due to the emergence of youngsters like Darius Garland, he became one of the locker room leaders and an example to follow for the team's rookies.

Selection

Rubio's precocity was not only shown in his facet as a club player, in the national team he was always ahead of his time. In 2006, he played one of the best games in the history of youth basketball precisely in the European final against Russia. The young man from Masnou scored 51 points, grabbed 24 rebounds and gave 12 assists and was named the best player of the tournament.

Two years later, at just 17 years old, Ricky Rubio made his debut with the senior team at the Olympic Games. The Catalan was one of the revelations of the tournament in which Spain won silver in an exciting final against the all-powerful United States.

Since then, three gold medals (2009 and 2011 European and 2019 World Cup) and three bronze (2016 Rio Olympics and 2013 and 2017 European Games)