NBA Player Profile: Ricky Rubio

Tuesday, December 27, 2011

Name: Ricky Rubio

Team: Minnesota Timberwolves

Position: Point Guard

NBA Statistics: N/A

Background: Born October 21, 1990, Ricky Rubio is one of the players from the 2011-2012 rookie class set to take the NBA ablaze this season. Though just 21 years old, Spanish basketball international Ricky Rubio has a distinct advantage ahead of his first-year compatriots after playing professionally for over five years.

In fact, Ricky Rubio still has the record for being the youngest-ever player to play in the Spanish ACB League, the premier basketball league in Spain.

Rubio was actually the fifth overall pick of the 2009-2010 NBA Draft, but chose to remain in Spain so as to "take this next step to have a period of preparation to better take the challenge of the NBA in better condition as a player".

In Spain, Ricky Rubio began playing for DKV Joventut where over a four-year span he won multiple praises and awards including the ABC's Rising Star Award and FIBA's Europe Player of the Year on three consecutive occasions. His performances in Spain also earned him the award of the ACB's best point guard in 2008 and 2010.

Internationally, Ricky Rubio announced himself to the world at the FIBA Europe U-16 Championship where he had 51 points, 24 rebounds, 12 assists, and seven steals, a performance still to be matched. Understandably, he won the Most Valuable Player Award. He also has gold medals from the 2009 and 2011 FIBA European Championships.

His pre-season performances have been pretty exciting and the Timberwolves franchise will certainly be hoping that he continues on the standard he has set for himself and bring them some sense of achievement.