Ricky Rubio

Infobox Euroleague Player

---

name = Ricky Rubio
nickname =
caption = Rubio at the 2008 Olympics.
position = Point Guard
height_ft = 6
height_in = 3.75
weight_lb = 180
league = Spanish League
Euroleague
team = DKV Joventut
nationality = flag|Spain
birth_date = birth date and age|1990|10|21
birth_place = El Masnou, Catalonia, Spain
draft = Ineligible until the 2009 NBA Draft
draft_year =
draft_team =
career_start = 2005
former_teams =
awards = 2006 FIBA Europe Under-16 Championship MVP

Ricard "Ricky" Rubio Vives (born October 21, 1990 in El Masnou, Barcelona) is a Spanish professional basketball player. Rubio became the youngest player ever to play in the Spanish ACB League [cite news |first=Marty |last=Burns |authorlink= |coauthors= |title=NBA types will have their eyes on Spanish phenom Rubio at Olympics |url=http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2008/writers/marty_burns/08/07/rubio.olympics/ |work=Sports Illustrated |publisher= |date=2008-08-08 |accessdate= ] on October 15, 2005. [Cite web|url=http://www.libertaddigital.com/php3/noticia.php3?cpn=1276263122 |title=Ricky Rubio establece un nuevo récord al debutar en la ACB con catorce años |work=Libertad Digital |language=Spanish |format=HTML |accessdate=2006-08-14] The 1.92 m (6 ft 3 ¾ in) 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 annual basketball competition outside of the NBA.

Player profile

Displaying amazing talent and maturity despite his young age, Rubio is commonly regarded as the best European guard prospect since Dražen Petrović. [cite news |first=Alexander |last=Wolff |authorlink= |coauthors= |title=Hard to compare this 17-year-old |url=http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2008/olympics/2008/writers/alexander_wolff/08/16/usa.spain/ |work=Sports Illustrated |publisher= |date=2008-08-16 |accessdate=] Due to his scoring dominance and creativity, Rubio has been compared to Pete Maravich. [Cite web|url=http://www.nbadraft.net/2006u16championships001.asp |title=The Next Pistol Pete |work=NBADraft.net |language=English |format=HTML |accessdate=2006-08-14] Former NBA guard Pepe Sánchez, who at the time played at the point guard position for ACB rivals Unicaja Málaga, made this comment in a February 2007 interview for a Euroleague profile on Rubio:

Despite his notability, he is being carefully shielded from excessive media attention. Joventut and the Rubio family have agreed that he will not be available for interviews until he turns 18.

Rubio was featured in SLAM Magazine in April 2007. [http://slamonline.com/online/2007/04/the-best-basketball-player-youve-never-heard-of./] In the piece, the author noted that he considered him to be the best non-NBA player in the world and compared him to Magic Johnson.

Professional career

Rubio debuted in the Spanish ACB League in the 2005-06 season with DKV Joventut. He won the FIBA EuroCup championship with Joventut that year. He led the Spanish ACB League in steals during the 2006-07 season.

He made his Euroleague debut on October 24, 2006, versus Panathinaikos of Athens as Joventut's backup point guard for Elmer Bennett. Rubio averaged 2.8 assists per game in his first season of Euroleague play. He won the ULEB Cup championship with Joventut in 2008.

panish national team

Under-16 national team

In August 2006, Rubio led the junior Spanish national team to the FIBA Europe Under-16 Championship. During the tournament (excluding the final game), Rubio achieved two triple-doubles and one quadruple-double. In the 110-106 double overtime finale victory over Russia, Rubio scored 51 points (including a three-point, buzzer-beating shot from mid-court, to force the first overtime), grabbed 24 rebounds, made 12 assists, and stole the ball seven times, a performance unprecedented in the tournament's history. Rubio also was named the Most Valuable Player of the tournament after leading it in points, rebounds, assists and steals.

Under-18 national team

In 2007, Rubio played for Spain's U-18 national team at the FIBA Europe Under-18 Championship. In 28 minutes per game, he averaged 19.1 points, 5 rebounds, 4.8 assists and 4 steals per game. Despite his leadership, Spain finished the tournament in 5th place.

Rubio did not participate at the 2008 FIBA Europe Under-18 Championship, due to his commitment to the Spanish senior national team.

enior national team

The young Spaniard was selected to take part in the Spanish National Team which participated at the 2008 Olympic Basketball Tournament in Beijing, China. The team was composed of such players as Pau Gasol, José Calderón, Rudy Fernández, Marc Gasol, Raul Lopez, Jorge Garbajosa, and Juan Carlos Navarro, among others.

He played in the 2008 Olympic Basketball Tournament's Gold Medal Match Finale against Team USA, and thus became the youngest basketball player to ever play in the Olympic Basketball Final. Rubio shared the Spanish national team's silver medal after his team suffered a 118-107 loss to the US in the final.

Awards and accomplishments

Pro career

*Won 3 Catalan Championships (2005, 2007, 2008)
*Won the FIBA EuroCup Championship (2006)
*Led the Spanish ACB League in steals (2007)
*Won the Spanish King's Cup (2008)
*Won the ULEB Cup Championship (2008)

panish national team

*Won the gold medal at the FIBA Europe Under-16 Championship (2006)
*FIBA Europe Under-16 Championship MVP (2006)
*Won the silver medal at the 2008 Olympic Basketball Tournament

Notes

External links

* [http://rickyrubio.foroactivo.es Forum Ricky Rubio] Forum
* [http://www.acb.com/jugador.php?id=BA5 Ricky Rubio] on ACB.com es icon
* [http://elmundodeporte.elmundo.es/elmundodeporte/2007/12/14/baloncesto/1197669290.html Reportaje El Mundo]
* [http://www.euroleague.net/competition/players/showplayer?clubcode=jov&pcode=LFW Ricky Rubio] on Euroleague.net
* [http://www.elquintocuarto.com/2006/10/new-petrovic.html "The new Petrovic" (article)]
* [http://sports.espn.go.com/espnmag/story?id=3469578 "La Pistola" (ESPN article)]
* [http://insider.espn.go.com/nbadraft/draft/tracker/player?draftyear=2009&playerId=19272&action=upsell&appRedirect=http%3a%2f%2finsider.espn.go.com%2fnbadraft%2fdraft%2ftracker%2fplayer%3fdraftyear%3d2009%26playerId%3d19272 Draft Bio (ESPN)]
* [http://slamonline.com/online/2007/04/the-best-basketball-player-youve-never-heard-of The Best Basketball Player You’ve Never Heard Of (Slamonline.com article)]