Barcelona playmaker Ricky Rubio in action during the game against AS Monaco on March 1, 2024 at the Palau Blaugrana, which was sold out with 7,000 spectators.
Photo: AFP/Josep Lago
The return to the plate came faster than expected: at the beginning of January, Catalan basketball star Ricky Rubio from the Cleveland Cavaliers decided to end his NBA career and return to Catalonia due to problems with his mental health. Rubio announced there was light at the end of the tunnel in January: “I’m proud to say that I’m doing significantly better and it’s getting better every day,” without promising a comeback. A month later, after not playing basketball for seven months because of his depression, the 33-year-old Rubio signed with his heart’s club, FC Barcelona. In August 2023, shortly before the World Cup, which Germany sensationally won in the end, the former super talent announced on Platform X that he was taking a break to work on his mental health due to psychological problems. The new contract with Barcelona gave him the freedom to decide when he felt ready to return. He now expressed his willingness earlier than was generally expected and so before the Euroleague top game of the 27th matchday on March 1st between second-placed FC Barcelona and fourth-placed AS Monaco, the question arose: Will he play or won’t he play? He played eleven minutes, scored five points, but that was irrelevant: he was celebrated enthusiastically and the defeat against Monaco 67-77 was irrelevant.
Rubio’s coach is a former teammate
Barcelona coach Roger Grimau was captain of the team that won the Euroleague title with Rubio in 2010. As a youngster, Rubio won a whopping eight titles with Barça in two seasons from 2009 to 2011, including the last triumph to date in the Euroleague in 2010. The fact that Grimau took a long time to decide to let Rubio play was not due to his fitness level and slight knee problems, but also the consideration of whether Rubio’s emotional return to the Palau Blaugrana (blue-garnet red palace), which was sold out with 7,000 spectators, might also emotionally overwhelm the team. Whether this was the case or not cannot be conclusively judged: In any case, Rubio’s passes usually resulted in some blatantly missed throws despite good throwing positions. At the end of the 40 minutes there were a whopping 20 missed throws on two-point attempts, even simple lay-ups didn’t work and on three-point attempts the statisticians only counted four hits out of 27 throws. It’s not possible to win a game at this level, especially since Monaco arrived as the strongest team in the Euroleague – with five consecutive wins. After a weak first quarter, which went to Barca 21:12, they demonstrated this strength of form in the following three quarters, all of which they won.
After 27 of 34 matchdays, Monaco is only one win behind second-placed Barcelona, Real Madrid is in the lead with a four-win lead, Alba Berlin is last despite a home win against Barcelona, Bayern Munich, in twelfth place, still has a remaining chance of reaching the quarter-finals the four representatives of the final tournament Final Four will be played. The record of the top scorer in the Euroleague will fall long before that. After his 17 points in Barcelona, the American development player Mike James is only twelve away from the all-time record of the Greek top star Vassilis Spanoulis, who retired in 2021 and who achieved 4,455 points in the Euroliga in his long career. The 33-year-old James is the most accurate shooter in the competition this season with an average of around 19 points per game.
Happy to be able to play again
Ricky Rubio still has a lot of room for improvement after his long break, but he was recognized as a leader by his colleagues from the first second. His successes ultimately speak for themselves, even if he was denied an NBA championship in 13 years: Instead, he became two-time European champion, world champion and won the silver medal at the Olympics with the Spanish national team. »He is a special player, a point guard who makes others better. He hasn’t played for a long time and has had to improve his feeling every day, but I see him doing very well at the moment. You can see that he is a genius in his game, he does things that are difficult for others,” enthused teammate Tomás Satoranský after the training sessions, who himself now has additional competition from Rubio as a development player. After the game, Rubio admitted that it was “a very difficult game, with a lot of feelings and sensations.” He also came to the conclusion that it was not possible to always control them throughout the game. “Unfortunately we lost and there’s nothing to celebrate, but I’m happy to be able to play again,” was his conclusion. His coach Grimau and Rubio agree that things should continue step by step. There is still a long time to go until the Final Four in Munich from May 24th to 26th and there is still a long way to go for Rubio and Barcelona. The quarter-finals are within sight despite the defeat against Monaco.
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