Facts and figures
Hi friends,
While sportsmen and especially basketball players have always focused on figures and percentages, I can tell you that it’s important for me to tell you a bit more. I mean, the reason for everything or virtually everything that has happened to me, so far, in my short life. I was born in the town of El Masnou on October 21, 1990. This town, for those of you who haven’t been, is a pretty coastal town 12 kilometers north of Barcelona. It’s known for its marina and having, really, really great people. It’s where I was brought up and started to develop into a person first and later as a basketball player.
Even though I’m now 1.91 meters tall and have an arm span of 2.06 meters, I started playing football in my schoolyard, Escolàpies Masnou and in the ‘Casino’ in my town, which was in summer, my second home. However, it was my parents Esteve and Tona who instilled in me constantly that sport was the perfect complement for what I wanted more than anything else; to make friends.
Very early in my life I saw that my brother Marc played basketball like no-one else and this certainly gave me the appetite to play this sport. I wanted to perform the marvels that he did, in fact, when I went with my mother to see him train when I was four, I wouldn’t stop nagging her about when I could start training. I used to imitate my brother up in the stands until one day I did a trial and according to reports-I did pretty well ! It was from then that I really started in my sport, until now, my favourite. So in 1995 ( 4 years old ) I joined the basketball club in my town, Masnou Basquetbol where I played until 2001. I played in their mini-basketball team but more often than not I tended to play more in the older kids’ categories. One day at the age of 10, I told my father that I wanted to play football. I can still remember his face to this day.
Understandably enough because he is a basketball coach and an absolute fanatic when it comes to this sport , he had the good insight to say no…no. That was when I joined the football club, Club Deportiu Masnou. The coach here gave my father good feedback on me making it in this sport to which fell on deaf ears; my father’s.
And then what happened? Nothing serious … because I was normally on the bench and only occasionally played- this I didn’t like too much ! After a few matches, I asked my father , Hey dad, what do you reckon if we return to basketball? His lost smile returned again. So I returned to what has always been my sport and to my basketball club in Masnou where my friends and me started to achieve things. During the 1999-2000 season we were champions of the ‘A’ Group 2 league and were also 3rd in the tournament ‘ Escobasquet Mini’. In 2000 – 2001 we were again 3rd in the ‘Preferent B’ league and runners-up in the ‘Escobasquet Mini’, where I was the leading scorer and also included in the Top 5 team of the tournament. Third place was all we could manage in 2001 – 2002 in the ‘Preferent B’ league, nevertheless, during this season I was called up to the Catalan basketball team and we won the Spanish Championship in Blanes , on the Costa Brava.
The following season, 2002 – 2003 was when my parents realised that I had to leave my club in Masnou and join the club that I’m now in ; El Joventut de Badalona. This club which historically has been very good at scouting children and youths from different clubs, but in my case it wasn’t necessary because my brother two years earlier had joined their ranks. I realised that this was serious business( harder training sessions, more professional coaches ) but despite the fact of making more friends, from then on it was a case of playing to win, in other words, finishing second was considered a failure. So this was the way it went , my team and me under the watchful eye of the excellent coach ( and friend ) Marc Calderón, we won everything we could win. With the youth team we were ‘L’Hospitalet’ tournament champions, Catalan Champions (Les Roquetes) and winners of the ‘Escobasquet’ tournament in which I was nominated for the Top 5 team . We were also runners-up in in the Spanish Championship in Avilés. As regards the Catalan team, we finished 4th in the Spanish Provincial Championship in Lloret de Mar on the Costa Brava. This was the first year I played in the Spanish team.
In the 2003 – 2004 season playing in the Youth A team in El Joventut we were champions in the ‘ l’Hospitalet’ tournament where I received the MVP award. We also won the ‘Olmedo’ tournament were champions of the ‘Mini Copa’ in Seville where I was leading scorer and MVP. Along with this, we were Catalan and Spanish champions. Furthermore, with the Catalan team we won the Spanish Provincial Championship in Lloret de Mar and on a personal note, I was awarded MVP and leading scorer. With the Spanish team based in Granada we won the ‘Amistad 89’ tournament in the town of La Roda ( Albacete) where I achieved best passer of the tournament.
In 2004 – 2005 and with the Youth Cadet team of El Joventut,Badalona we were champions of the ‘ Moral’ tournament in Santa Coloma de Gramanet and I was personally awarded best passer and leading scorer there. As regards the Catalan team, we were runners-up ( best passer award for me) in the ‘Generación 89’ in Santiago de Compostela,Galicia. With the Spanish team that year, we were winners of the ‘Iscar’ tournament in Valladolid and the ‘Lignano Championship’ as well as finishing 3rd in Europe with the Spanish Cadet team in Leon, Spain.
During the 2005 – 2006 season with El Joventut A we were champions of the ‘Andorra’ tournament, 3rd in the ‘l’Hospitalet’ and I was leading scorer in ‘Tenerife’. For the first time this season I was called up to the U-20 El Joventut team for a match in Torrejón and then Aíto Garcia Reneses decided it was time to train with the first team ‘La Penya’ which plays in the ACB (Spanish league). I remember it very well, 14 years old, I was watching my friend Guillem training when suddenly Aíto came towards me and asked me if I wanted to train. I replied that I had no trainers but fortunately it was my since departed friend Guillem who lent me his. They turned out to be really lucky ! Unfortunately I could never get to thank him enough. That season , in particular October 15th,2005 in the CB Granada stadium , I made my debut for 5 minutes. In this short time I scored 2 points, made one assist and recovered two balls. Being 14 years old,11 months and 24 days old I was the youngest player to make his debut in the ACB and winning the game too ! In this same year with the first team playing in the ACB, we were the ‘Catalan League’ champions and winners of the ‘FIBA European Championship’.
I want to make a special mention to the big gamble taken by my coach Aíto Garcia Reneses,not just for having faith in me playing in the first team at such an early age but also for passing on all his know-how in and out of the court. I think for Spanish basketball it’s an honour to have people like Aíto who have given so much to the regeneration of the sport and contributed his knowledge to this game. Neither can I leave out the daring gambles he took trusting in young lads from nowhere; there’s no-one like him to get his message across with such tenacity. Thanks to the lessons of Aíto and of course to the professionalism of my new team mates such as Rudy with his energy and empathy in both his personal and sporting world. Nor can I forget what Elmert Bennet (20 years older than me ) did for me. All this made my debut much easier in the ACB , the second most competitive league in the world.
From a sport’s point of view, it would be fair to say that there was a before and after following the tournament in Linares with the Spanish Cadet team ( European Cadet Championship ). Likewise happened before and after the Olympic Games in Beijing-I’ll explain that later ! The Linares tournament was absolutely wonderful to have experienced and I’ll never erase what happened and how it actually happened from my mind. I have lovely memories of the team and coach Jota Cuspineda as well as the Andalusian fans’ support who were always behind us and gave us the strength needed to clinch victory in the final. Apart from the team’s level of achievement, European Champions, I was leading scorer along with most rebounds, assists and even MVP of the tournament to top it off ! I can’t forget to tell you about the final minutes of the passionate final against the Russian team in which I scored 51 points. After two overtime periods, the first thanks to a triple which reached the basket from the other half of the court in the final seconds. How it went in I’ll never know, with 3 players marking me and an acrobatic act straight out of the circus but someone up there was looking out for me and dropped it into the net. For this reason, whenever I get onto a basketball court I always point up to the sky thanking Guillem Raventós for his friendship and the loan of his trainers but also for popping that ball through the hoop from the sky with all his energy in Linares.
It was in the 2006 – 2007 season on the day of my 16th birthday that DKV Joventut offered me a professional contract for the following five years. That season we were 3rd in the ACB league and on a personal note I was named best recovery player in the Euroleague and the ACB along with best ‘newcomer/rookie’ in the latter. During this season, 16 years old, it was a luxury for me to make my debut in the Euroleague courts of the Top 16. I remember how impressive it was facing up to legendary players such as Bodiroga or Papilucas, not to mention the charged atmosphere of the fans in the Partizan de Belgrade and Maccabi stadiums. It was really amazing having these experiences at such an early age. With the Spanish Youth team we were 5th in Madrid in the European Championship after losing just one match against Serbia which prevented us from playing in the group 1-4. However, from a personal viewpoint I was included in the Top 5 team of the championship which didn’t make 5th place too bad after all.
During 2007 – 2008, DKV Joventut were champions in the Catalan League, ULEB Cup in Turin, 3rd in the ACB league and winners of the King’s Cup in Vitoria in the Basque country. I’d like to highlight that winning my first major trophy with DKV Joventut in Vitoria was really great considering that we hadn’t won a major competition since the 1996 – 1997 season. After beating Real Madrid in the semi-final we went on to win the final against TAU in their own stadium, as organisers of the tournament, this was a real thrill. It was my first experience of a big celebration, first with the team and afterwards in Badalona in front of our great fans who again took to the streets and squares of Badalona and later filling the ‘Olímpic’ ( our stadium). The atmosphere was perfect, raising the cup once again after ten years. During this season I was named best young player in Europe and included in the Top 5 team in the ACB league. It was at the end of this season that I had the immense pleasure of being selected for the Spanish team by Aíto, the newly appointed coach. We were going to the Olympic Games in Beijing !!!
Needless to say, heading off to the Olympics at 17 was great news for me. I have to say that the challenge was huge because I knew there was a well-established team that came to Olympic Games as World Champions in the tournament previously held in Japan. This situation instilled enormous respect, especially being the ‘rookie’ of the team. But not long after, while training for the Olympics and during the tour of Spain, I realised that not only were they great players on the court but they were even better as individuals making life easy off the court . Beijing has been the greatest thing to happen to me so far in my sporting life. The feeling of being ‘Olympic’ for the first time and to represent your country on the world stage is something else ! I’ll never forget facing Kobe Bryan, Chris Paul or Lebron James in the final and still only 17 years old. Although we won silver it felt like gold. The experience of hanging the medal around my neck was something I will always cherish.
This has been my life so far, as you can see, although short, full of intensity. None of this would have been possible without the support of many people especially my family, friends, team-mates, coaches and a huge list of people who believed in me and my destiny and those of you here now. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.
All the best , Ricky
