FEBRUARY 6: Rubio has officially signed a rest-of-season contract with Barcelona, the team announced today in a press release.
The veteran point guard isn’t prepared to return to the court at this point. However, the EuroLeague has a February 7 registration date for players changing teams or being imported from other leagues, so if Rubio had signed sometime after Wednesday, he wouldn’t been eligible to play in the EuroLeague this season. Now he’ll have the opportunity to do so if he decides to move forward with his comeback.
JANUARY 29: After retiring from the NBA earlier this month, Ricky Rubio will begin training with Barcelona as he begins his basketball comeback, according to Reuters. The Spanish club announced that he will join them for a workout on Tuesday, and Rubio confirmed on Twitter that he is ready to return to basketball after dealing with mental health issues.
“After several weeks of thinking and dedicated work on both my mind and body, I see myself with the desire and strength to see how I react with a ball in my hands,” Rubio wrote. “My next step has been to ask FC Barcelona if I could, with no obligations and without interrupting their plans for the season, train with them.”
The 33-year-old point guard spent 11 years in the NBA, but he missed significant parts of the 2021/22 and ’22/23 seasons while recovering from a torn ACL. He announced in August that he was taking a break from basketball to concentrate on his mental health, which meant he wouldn’t represent Spain in the FIBA World Cup and he wouldn’t join the Cavaliers for training camp or the start of the NBA season.
Rubio agreed to a buyout with Cleveland in early January that effectively ended his NBA career. He was owed about $3.5MM for the rest of this season and had a $4.25MM partial guarantee for 2024/25, and he reportedly gave up $5.4MM in the agreement.
Rubio was a teenage star with Barcelona before coming to the NBA, leading the team to two Spanish Cups, one league title and one European championship. He was selected by the Timberwolves with the fifth pick in the 2009 draft, but didn’t begin his NBA career until two years later.
Rubio earned first-team All-Rookie honors in 2012 and spent six years in Minnesota before being traded to Utah in 2017. He also spent a year with Phoenix and returned to the Wolves for a season before finishing his career in Cleveland. He appeared in 698 total games, making 603 starts, and posted career averages of 10.8 points, 4.1 rebounds and 7.4 assists per night.
In an interview with Jon Krawczynski of The Athletic, Rubio talked about the difficulties he faced in returning to Spain after the Cavaliers were eliminated from last season’s playoffs. Rubio couldn’t identify the cause of his depression, saying it went beyond the difficulties of his lingering knee injury, but he called July 30 “one of the toughest nights of my life. My mind went to a dark place.”
“I was lost. I didn’t know who I was. I had to rebuild myself,” he said. “I think eventually a lot of people have that point in their life that has to rebuild them because they have lost the focus on the purpose of their life. Luckily, I stopped it in time.”
I’m honestly okay with this as a Cavs fan, tbh. Rubio did whatever he could to be okay with coming back to the NBA and wasn’t able to. That he still feels comfortable with playing basketball at all is honestly a good thing. Best of luck in your next adventure, Ricky. We’ll miss you.
Thank God you’re ok with it.
Why do you have to be a jerk to someone showing support to another person who’s going through some difficult times? I hope the people who support you aren’t mocked in such a manner for doing so.
Because I’m not being a jerk. Rubio doesn’t need anyone to “be ok” with whatever he needs to do to feel well.
I meant more in the sense that “some people would be pissed that a guy ditched their team only to sign elsewhere almost immediately after”, but that I don’t feel that way and want him to be okay. Which is why you *are* being a jerk, because I said exactly that.
Dude,
1. Rubio doesn’t need you to be ok with anything.
2. If pointing that out to you “makes me a jerk” I also don’t need you to be ok with anything.
In fact, you and Ricky Rubio can both do whatever you’d like without my permission.
Eon’s point wasn’t that Rubio had to get his ok to make his life choices. It was to support another person who has had his struggles recently. Not recognizing that and then, in addition, making a snide remark about his comment makes you a jerk; adults who’ve been raised properly understand this without hesitation. Jerks usually can always rationalize their insensitivity and rudeness. Well done.
Ricky Rubio ain’t reading these comments, and 8f he did he’d think you were both morons for arguing, just like everyone else.
Calling someone out for their rude behavior isn’t moronic. It’s the right thing to do. You’re evidently ok with people practicing boorish behavior, aa you’re a practitioner yourself.
Not sure God is ok with you.
Is God the moderator here?
I wondered who banned Kurtisblow.
Didn’t Minnesota have the #5 and # 6 picks in the 2009 draft. Selected a pair of point guards in Rubio and Jonny Flynn ….. while passing on Steph Curry who went #6.
Blake Griffin went #1. Thabeet went #2. James Harden #3. DeRozan #9.
You might want to be directing this post to the people who picked Thabeet at number 2 and Tyreke Evans at number 4.
Rubio didn’t live up to the hype but he had a decent career.
It was far more directed at selecting Jonny Flynn at #5. Rubio and Steph could have played together.
As a man that’s been in that dark space, I commend Rubio for doing what’s right for him and being mature enough to speak out it about it. The world is always a better place with you here.
I feel that. I hope you’re doing well these days!
Good luck Ricky Rubio! Lots of good times ahead for you at 33 years old. Yes, the world is indeed a better place because of you! One of the good guys.
Wish him the best in whatever he does next. Spanish legend.
Shorter retirement than Brady
He was significantly younger than Brady. Also he is training with Barcelona he hasn’t signed with them, yet.
Cost Brady his marriage.
Can I also train with Barcelona?
Rubio got tired of the U.S
It only took him 12 years to get tired. Most of us get tired of something after a week or two.
Glad to see Ricky happy about life…
He’s been through a lot and being home in Spain where he can escape the pressures and crazy aspects of life in the US seems to have helped him a lot…
Quality of life in sunny Barcelona versus Cleveland should help curing his depressions.
Another crack about Cleveland…VERY original. I’m SURE that whatever city you live in compares favorably with Barcelona.
Environment matters to people with depression. Getting more sun, especially near the beach, improves your mood, this is based on scientific studies. Seattle has more cloudy/rainy days than any other major city in the USA. They also have the highest rate of suicide related to depression.
Environment matters to everyone, actually.
He went back to a place he was happy when he was young. The return to Cleveland wasn’t working out for him. He saw the writing on the wall with the signing of Craig Porter Jr. That kind of thing can send a guy to a dark place. Lot’s of people in midlife crisis go back to a place and time they were happy.
Signing Porter had NOTHING to do with the issue Ricky was going through.
That settlement/buyout sure did clear his mind and get him feeling like playing basketball again.
Glad he’s better!
;)