ricky rubio

Euroleague Team DKV Joventut Born October 21, 1990 (1990-10-21) (age 18)

El Masnou, Barcelona, Spain Nationality Spain College None Draft Ineligible until the 2009 NBA Draft Pro career 2005–present Awards FIBA Europe Under-16 Championship MVP 2006

Spanish ACB League Rising Star Award 2007

FIBA Europe Young Player of the Year 2007, 2008

Mr. Europa Award 2008

Ricard "Ricky" Rubio Vives (born October 21, 1990 in El Masnou, Barcelona, Spain) is a Spanish professional basketball player. Rubio became the youngest player ever to play in the Spanish ACB League on October 15, 2005.[1][2] The 1.92 m (6 ft 3 ¾ in)[3] Rubio is playing the point guard position for DKV Joventut in both the ACB and the Euroleague, which is regarded as the world's top professional club competition outside of the NBA. Contents [hide] 1 Player profile 2 Professional career 3 Spanish national team 3.1 Under-16 national team 3.2 Under-18 national team 3.3 Senior national team 4 Awards and accomplishments 4.1 Pro career 4.2 Spanish national team 5 Notes 6 External links //

Player profile

Displaying amazing talent and maturity despite his young age, Rubio is regarded as the best European guard prospect since Dražen Petrovic and Jose Calderon.[4] Due to his scoring dominance and creativity, Rubio has been compared to Pete Maravich.[5] Former NBA guard Pepe Sánchez, who at the time played at the point guard position for Spanish ACB League rivals Unicaja Málaga, made this comment in a February 2007 interview for a Euroleague profile on Rubio: “ I think he's a freak of nature—being so young and being so skilled and also so cool all the time. You can see that he knows what he's doing. He's not playing out there with pros based only on his talents. He knows the game and he can only improve. I think he'll be a great player. It all depends on him, but I personally think he's going to be great. ” —Pepe Sánchez[6]

Despite his notability, he has been carefully shielded from excessive media attention. DKV Joventut and the Rubio family agreed not to make him available for interviews until he reached his 18th birthday on October 21, 2008.[6] However, both decided to end the restrictions a few months early once he was selected for the Spanish national team that would play at the 2008 Olympics.[7]

Rubio held his first press conference in early June 2008. During the event, he criticized what he and many other observers saw as the NBA's emphasis on individual play and blamed poor team play for the recent struggles of the US national team, saying in his native Catalan, "Basketball isn't one-on-one. It's five-on-five, plus the bench."[7]

He then switched to English, commenting on subjects such as his competitive nature—"If I'm losing, I'm going to do everything possible to win. I do the same thing on the court"—and how he