GQ caught up with Ricky Rubio recently, for a conversation with the the Minnesota Timberwolves’ rookie, and in the article they later published the author wrote that Rubio is “the January Front-runner for Rookie of the Year”.
Rubio’s playing real well this season, and his 11 points, 9 assists per game averages are indicative of that, but he is not the Front-Runner for Rookie of the Year. Kyrie Irving, also a rookie, averages 17 points and 5 assists per game. The same Kyrie Irving who is the “Front-Runner for Rookie of the Year”, actually. But Rubio is still pretty good to be sure, and their article wasn’t really about specific topic anyways.
What it effectively did though, was allow NBA fans the chance to hear a little bit more from this mysterious person behind the basketball mania. Drafted two season ago, casual members of the NBA universe never really got the chance to meet this Ricky Rubio character until now. We heard he’d be good, then most people thought he wouldn’t be, than we thought he wouldn’t come, and now that he’s here we think that he’s somehow related to Pete Maravich probably.
Kid’s real good, basically, and while the rookie of the year title I don’t think fits specifically, magician with the basketall does, as well as really good young point guard.
One who also appears down to earth, and talked about not needing to play in Miami or LA to enjoy his time so far in the Association:
So is it a bummer that you didn’t land in Miami or L.A.?
“Nah, when you play in the NBA, the city, I think, is not the most important thing. The better place might be one that’s not at the top right now—a place that can use me, that can grant me experience.”
Which is not to write off a winter field trip to the Mediterranean.
“Love, Beasley, and I were joking about getting the whole team out to Barcelona to practice,” he says. “They were joking…but not, you know?”
If I were Love and Beasley, I would be joking but not really joking about taking a winter field trip to the Mediterranean too. That’s never a bad idea. Nor is it a bad idea to allow the Minnesota fans hear just how much the international superstar that is Ricky Rubio say that he enjoys their humble little corner of the world. In Minneapolis, Minnesota:
GQ: What have you been up to off the court?
Ricky Rubio: We’ve got a lot of help here. A great plane to fly. Sometimes in Europe, you have to fly on commercial jets, so it’s really different. And you know, living in Minneapolis is great. Playing in the Target Center where there’s more than 15,000 people every night, it’s just crazy.
GQ: Have you had any time to see the cities you’ve visited, or are you mostly doing things around the hotel?
Ricky Rubio: It’s been a pretty crazy start to the season, since we play back to back games, and we don’t have a lot of time to visit, but when we were in Toronto, I went to eat with Jose Calderon, and we had a great time together.
Rubio also added that while all that’s been cool, his team does still need to start playing better too:
GQ; You guys have been a lot of fun to watch so far.
Ricky Rubio: Well, we’re not winning, so…
GQ: Yeah, but, c’mon—this is loads better than last year. What has to change?
Ricky Rubio: We’re close, it’s just not enough. We’re young, we can do good things, but only if we believe we can, and sometimes in games, we’re like two different teams in the same game. Like in Chicago, in the first quarter we were terrible, and then by the second quarter everything was going well—but we had to recover twenty points in five minutes. We have to play that way from the start.
Tough guy not to root for. Hopefully Rubio and Love can turn that thing around for those guys.
