Scariolo List: Spain, for the Games without Ricky Rubio

Let’s go for the Games without Ricky Rubio. The absence of the 33-year-old Spanish point guard presided over the call that coach Sergio Scariolo read this Thursday for the pre-Olympic tournament in Valencia, from July 2 to 7, and the Paris Games if Spain manages to win that tournament. The Italian coach assured that the Barcelona player has requested not to participate this summer with the national team for reasons of a “personal nature.” Ricky was the MVP of the World Cup won by Spain in China 2019, but he missed the 2022 Eurobasket due to a cruciate ligament injury and the 2023 World Cup due to a mental health problem. Now the point guard has decided to take a new break after finishing the season with Barça.

The squad is made up of 22 players: Lorenzo Brown, Alberto Díaz, Juan Núñez and Sergio García as point guards; Darío Brizuela, Sergi Llull and Josep Puerto as escorts; Alberto Abalde, Álex Abrines, Rudy Fernández, Xabi López-Arostegui, Joel Parra, Miquel Salvó, Edgar Vicedo and Santi Yusta as forwards; Juancho Hernangómez, Santi Aldama and Jaime Pradilla as power forwards; and Willy Hernangómez, Usman Garuba, Fran Guerra and Yankuba Sima as centers. Of them, 15 will gather next Monday in Malaga and the other seven (Lorenzo Brown, Lllull, Abalde, Rudy, Juancho Hernangómez, Aldama and Garuba) in Madrid when the domestic leagues finish and when the mandatory rest period for the players is over. coming from the NBA. Scariolo will have to cut the list to 12 men for the pre-Olympic and the Games.

“Ricky, they have asked us for a time of reflection. He has to make definitive decisions about his life and we show maximum respect for our players,” Scariolo commented on the Catalan point guard. Command of the national team will fall to Lorenzo Brown, who was key in the European gold two summers ago but is out of the World Cup due to a shoulder injury, to the tireless Alberto Díaz and to the promising young Juan Núñez, who took a great step forward in the last World. “I know Lorenzo’s commitment. Let’s hope he can arrive in good condition. The question is that after such a tough season if he will reach the level,” Scariolo explained about Brown.

“My mind went to a dark place,” Ricky Rubio explained to portray the episode that kept him from the 2023 World Cup during the previous concentration. Months later he would close the door to the NBA forever and last February he returned to play with the Spanish team in the qualifying matches for the 2025 European Championship, when he was already training with Barcelona. “I have saved myself. I’m here, and now I pamper myself more and I’m not so self-demanding. The player ate the person. There are many grays in life and I am learning to draw in gray. He had developed chronic stress. He never put a label of depression or anxiety disorder on it. Until I felt that he had to take me away from basketball. I was very scared,” he revealed on his return to the Catalan club.

With Barça he played 15 games in the ACB (six points and 4.1 assists on average) and 13 in the Euroleague (4.7 and 4.3), however far from the differential player of his best times. After the 3-0 defeat against Madrid in the league semi-finals, Ricky once again left his future in the air: “I have no idea, I don’t want to make the decision in advance, I want to spend a few weeks with a cool head to evaluate everything. It has not been easy. I have felt strange, I have wanted to change some things but entering in the middle of the season is not easy. My way of being, quieter… and not feeling one hundred percent. I think it hasn’t been everything I expected but I didn’t have any expectations either. The balance is not good.” Now the head has asked him for a new pause and another period of reflection to decide on his future on the courts.

Spain will gather in Malaga next Monday, June 10, together with the under-20 team, and starting on Monday, the 17th, the group will meet in Madrid once the ACB final between Real Madrid and UCAM Murcia has finished (if there is a fifth match, will be on Sunday the 16th), the Israeli League (Brown plays for Maccabi), the Greek League (Juancho, Panathinaikos) and the nbaAldama and Garuba. Scariolo’s team, which incorporates former players Albert Oliver and Fran Vázquez as part of the coaching staff, will play two preparation matches for the pre-Olympic: against Italy in the Spanish capital on June 25 and three days later against the Dominican Republic in Alicante. From there they will leave for Valencia for a tournament in which they will face Finland (with their star Markkanen out due to injury), Bahamas, Lebanon, Poland and Angolia between July 2 and 7. Only the winner will go to the Games, where a terrifying group awaits: Australia, Canada and the winner of the Greek pre-Olympic (the host team, Slovenia, Croatia, Dominican Republic, Egypt and New Zealand). A tough road without Ricky Rubio.