Ricky Rubio InterviewBy: Eduardo Schell

UP AND CLOSE WITH THE
SPANISH PHENOMENON

Ricky Rubio: "If you believe all the compliments they say about you,
you’ll never reach anything"

By Eduardo Schell
Source: Newspaper Marca,
Spain www.marca.com

Ricky Rubio born in El Masnou (Spain) in1990 is barely 18 years
old but has the maturity of a 30 year old. As a professional journalist he is
one of those special players that you really enjoy talking to. Praised to the
heavens since the age of 15, this Spanish phenomenon could provide headlines
to the journalists for being aloof or a new "divo", but instead
he provides them for quite the opposite. He is humble, mature and down to earth.
He is a true MVP on and off the court.

QUESTION. Barely 18 you’ve been already Olympic silver medalist in
Beijing 2008, the starting PG for the Spanish National team, in the NBA scouts
agenda for many years and now everyone is asking: "When are you going to the NBA"?
Are you frightened by how quick everything is happening?

RICKY. It’s
fast and good, that’s my way of making things happen. While everything is going
good I can’t complain.

Q. Do you have time to digest what’s
happening?

R. Truth is sometimes I would prefer that things would happen a little
bit more slowly so I could enjoy it more, taste it more and have more time to
digest it. But things are like this and I can’t do anything about it. Things
happen quick and fast? True, but I’m not afraid, I have things under control
and I’ve always said that age doesn’t count. When you’re playing on court it
doesn’t mind if you’re 16, 18 or 25, no one is going to stop and look to your
I.D., they’re only going to judge you on how you perform.

Q. Here are some things NBA-USABasketball
players told me about you during the past Olympics in Beijing.
Jason Kidd: "The sky is the limit for him"; Carmelo Anthony: "Ricky is the most
fascinating story of the Olympics"; Kobe
Bryant: "He’s played awesome, he single hand changed the course of some games"
or Chris Paul: "Ricky is unbelievable". Not to mention what your partners in
the Spanish national team and NBA players like Gasol, Calderón, Rudy Fernández,
Marc Gasol or former like Navarro, Garbajosa and Raúl López told me. How does
it feel?

R. Good, great (smiles). It’s a great honour that these worldwide star
calibre players say things like this of me. I feel very proud and satisfied,
but I always say this to myself: "If you believe what everyone says good about
you, all the compliments, you’ll never reach anything". These types of
compliments they say about me only help me to keep on working harder everyday.

Q. Ever since I’ve known you ( at 15 years old), I’ve been shocked by
you’re maturity (not common of your age) and that’s been highlighted by your
Spanish NT team mates. What’s the best advice someone ever gave you in order to
be like this?

R. My dad always repeats the same to me: "When you feel
you know how to do one thing, that day you’ll stop learning". Every time
I’ll give all I have on court… Maximum effort, every time, everywhere.

	Ricky Rubio

Q. Will you declare yourself for the upcoming draft or will you
wait at least one more year?

R. That’s one decision I haven’t taken yet and that I’ll talk with my
parents. I want to focus now in my team (DKV Joventut) with whom I still have a
contract, and when time comes up we’ll take a decision. It’s not something now
that stops me from sleeping. It will depend on how I finish up the season, because
if I don’t perform well, maybe the interest of NBA teams in me decreases and
I’ll leave it for another year. You never know what’s going to happen.

Q. How does it feel to be studied and
observed by NBA scouts practically in every single game for many years?

R. I don’t think about it, seriously. I’m not going to play better
because they come to see me. I can only hope they have a good time and enjoy
like everybody else.

Q. Since you’re an underclassmen, NBA
scouts don’t talk publicly about you, but during the past Copa del Rey, some
told me, under the condition of not being named, that they know your strengths
so well and they’re plenty that now they’re concentrating in highlighting your
weak points. Overscouting, they say.

R. (Smiles). Then, they’re going to run out of ink because all of my
weak points. I’ve got plenty (smiles). They’re going to write a lot.

Q. Does the NBA appeal you?

R. The NBA is by far the best league in the world. But it’s not
something that stops me from sleeping right now.

Q. Do you follow the NBA?

R. Yes, and I went to see Pau (Gasol)
play the past finals with the Lakers against Boston.
It’s a huge show.

Q. In the past Olympics you were on the same
team with Pau Gasol and other big time spanish players like Calderón, Garbajosa,
Navarro… How did you feel the first day of camp?

R. It was a dream come true for me. Just imagine it, two years
before I was watching them on TV winning the World Championship in Japan 2006,
and just two years later I was there myself sharing the locker room, precamp, training
sessions, games… It was magical for me.

Q. It’s been a long, intense journey but
successful at the same time since the day you first bounced a
basketball. Do you remember your first basketball?

R. Yes! I started my relation with basketball when I went to see my
father play. After that, I started to play with my brother.

Q. I think you’ve been blessed and touched
to play basketball. You have a special gift that makes you a unique player. Was
it back then in those days when you realized that you could play?

R. No, no. Truth is that it was recently that I realized that
I could play basketball, but I’m still not sure that I will make it and reach
the goal.

	Ricky Rubio

Q. Well, Tim Shea (basketball coach and NBA scout) has already
told me that you’ll be a Hall of Fame player. Is it easy to be a good student
at the same time you play at pro level?

R. I try my best and my parents always tell me to keep on studying, you
never know what can happen in life.

Q. Do you already know what are you going
to be when you’re a grown up person?

R. (Big Smile). Not sure yet if I want to study to be a doctor or
something related with sports, but I lean more to this last option.

Q. Dirk Nowitzki’s manager and mentor,
Holger Geschwinder, once told me in an interview how important is for a player
to be smart and have studies in order to perform better on the court and that he
insisted Dirk to learn to play the guitar, piano and saxophone in order to be a
brighter person and then use those things he learned on the court. He and Dirk
talked to me about the musicality of basketball.

R. Yes, Aito (Ricky’s former coach in DKV Joventut and in the Spanish NT)
always said to me that while we we’re in Joventut that I should read, read a
lot, as many books as I could, he told me to study and be smart in life because
that was reflected on the court.

Q. Seeing you so focused and mature when
you’re only 18, it’s clear the influence of your parents.

R. Yes, they have always been there for me and my brothers. I’m a family
guy, I like to spend my spare time with them and my friends, with the same
friends of all my life.

Q. You’ve always said your brother is your
idol.

R. True. When you ask people who’s their idol in basketball, everyone
tends to say Michael Jordan, who is also one of my idols, but my true idol is
my brother. I’ve been blessed to have someone near whom I could learn so
much.

Q. What are your worries in life?

R. The proper ones of an 18 year old kid. I like to spend my time with
my friends talking about our stuff. They also come to see me play at games when
they can, and they were at the recent King’s Cup in Madrid.
They were very happy and that made me happy too.

Q. Friends, school mates and teachers ask
you for tickets?

R. (Smiles) Yes, and when I can, I give it to them.

Q.
I imagine they also ask you for autographs, but who did you ask to sign
you anything?

R. After the Olympics I asked my team mates to sign my Spanish national
team T-Shirt. We all did.