ACB day 1
In the pavilion of the Municipal Sports Palace of Granada, present and past converged on the track. There, almost 20 years ago, a adolescent prodigy and imberbe of 14 years appeared to the world.: Ricky Rubio returned where it all started, with the Joventut Badalona, the club that saw him grow and where he first shone. That prodigy child met again with his adult version. The little Ricky against the 34 -year -old man, now with the same illusion, but with scars, also successful, along the way. After 490 days away from the ACB-his last game was on June 2, 2024 with Barcelona-the base of Masnou enjoyed the basketball in the victory against Covirán Granada (75-87), in the same place where, 20 years ago, it was simply Ricky, without the burden that came later and suffocated.
“20 years ago, it seems that it was yesterday. But many things have happened. It is a very important victory,” Rubio said after the game to the TV3 microphones. “I come with an illusion that I had not had for a long time,” he said in his presentation with the Joventut. The return was warm, with tribute included before the meeting. He did not start, but he barely entered the track, the stand, full of 7,489 spectators, applauded him with love. On the track, the defensive focus went to him; In the stands, the emotion. He demonstrated his talent and mastery of the game again in the 19 minutes he played: 18 points, four assists, nine of nine in free and 30 valuation throws. “Reviewing Ricky enjoying again is priceless,” said Pere Tomàs, a Granada player and Joventut’s excanterano.
The Joventut dominated the match from the beginning, although the game was squeezed as he approached the break, and the victory of the Penya was complicated at certain times more than it seemed. Beyond the result, Rubio’s return had the symbolic value of a reunion. “The boy who went to Granada has a lot to tell the Ricky of now. To the 14 would tell him that perfectionism does not exist. He enjoys everyday life, and that he accepts and assess what he has, but without forming. It is the main life lesson that I learned these years,” confessed the Masnou magician in the previous one.
Since that debut in 2005, Rubio has lived almost everything that basketball can offer: good, but also the bad. After a complicated exit of the Joventut in 2009, with 19 years he was chosen at number five of the NBA draft by Minnesota Timberwolves. Before crossing the Atlantic, he spent two courses in Barcelona. In the NBA he played 12 seasons in four franchises – Minnesota, Utah, Phoenix and Cleveland – and in 2019, with the selection, he was world champion and MVP of the tournament.
But Ricky had to stop. The injuries – two knee and an ankle – the death of his mother in 2016 and the constant demand of the elite consumed him. In the prior concentration of the 2023 World Cup, his head, which left for “very dark places,” said enough. “I spent a lot of fear. I thought a coward. But for the first time I prioritized, I thought about me first,” he said later. He turned away from basketball, and in January 2024 he announced his retirement from the NBA with a bitter taste for the course of the competition towards the business. A month later, in February, he signed for Barcelona. But neither did he find calm, and just a few months later, in summer, he took a break to take care of his mental health. “At the end of the season with Barça I was lost. I stopped and the most difficult thing was to differentiate the person from the ego. I had to heal me inside,” he confessed.
This summer hinted at the withdrawal with an enigmatic message in networks, but on July 22, 2025 he confirmed his return to Joventut 16 years after his departure. “I saw that the withdrawal was closer,” he acknowledged. And so, in Granada, where everything started, Ricky Rubio was again Ricky. “It will be my last club. There are no doubt,” he said. On the same track where a child dreamed of being a player, the man who was champion, but who played background and stopped to take care of his mental health, smiled again.
