Ricky Rubio, Página Oficial

• Castellano

En parís, hemos tocado el cielo

Hello Everyone!

How you are?

As it could not be any other way, today I dedicate the blog to the F4!

We are the champions of Europe and it has been a unique experience.

We carried on for weeks preparing for this big event, and we were aware of the pressure for what was about to come, Monday. Maybe not a lot yet, but a little bit, yes!!! Eh!

Monday, a little before the coach and I, had to attend to the media and speak to them for about 40 minutes, I was starting to realize that this was going huge event, because the whole world was watching.

Wednesday, we set out on our trip after coaching. A trip without any type of problems we weren’t already expecting, well until the end, (but I will fill you in later). At night, we have dinner and we play a little game of cards to relax and to entertain us a little.

Thursday, we went to shoot in the morning and later, Xavi Paschal and I went to a press conference. The club gives us a suit at the beginning of season. And I have to say, we have not even had the chance to put it to use. This it was the first time that I ever had to wear it, and had not even tried it on, to see if it fit before, haha! So I was a little surprised, but turns out, that suit fit me perfect. But, I had to wear it without a belt, since I had forgot to pack one with my things (not being used to it)…. But at least I had a tie, eh! !! However, Uri the leader of press, for the club, had to tie it for me…

The press conference took place in the City Hall of Paris” L’ Hotel of Ville”, as soon I laid my eyes on it, it was so beautiful and brilliant, that I didn’t even want to touch it!

In the afternoon, we train and already we can feel the pressure.

Friday, the big day had arrived. After a filming session in the morning, we went to shoot a little. Later some food, a little nap and we prepared to go to the game. When the hour to play arrived, and we began to feel a little nervous, more nervous than I had felt the entire time, and when the referee launched the ball into the air, I began to feel the pressure of the “little butterflies in my stomach.” But after those first few minutes, I lost myself into the game. We had a chance to win this game, and it was a really tough game, with a lot of pressure on us. The honor was enormous, and the fact is, that the two last times that the Barça had played at the F4, the CSKA had eliminated us. UGH!!!

We had to win this… and we did.

Lo pasé muy bien con los niños en la tienda Nike de París

Saturday, in the morning I went the Nike Store of Paris, to attend to the children that had won a contest. They asked me some questions and I made quite the impression on them. In the afternoon, we touched base with our coach and quickly went back to the hotel, because we had to join Juan Carlos from Navarre, and Erazem Lorbek, to go to the City Hall of Paris for the awards ceremony.

Sunday 9, “THE DAY.”

The Finals, had finally come and I could feel it all around us. We were a part of an event that will go down in history. A little shooting in the morning, a filming session, dinner and then a little nap… It suddenly dawned on me that I have not had much sleep the past few days, because I had been so nervous. I had always dreamt of obtaining the Euroleague, and I was living my dream…

The game finally arrived, and what a game! We played a great game and we beat the Olympiacos, by 18!! It was a celebration of the TEAM, for we all contributed and strived for the same goal in the end. We were all thrilled and ready to celebrate it. We had a celebration dinner with our relatives, the people who had accompanied us on this journey, and also my friends who did not want to be left out of the excitement of Paris. This was where a dent was put in the Cup, a noticeable dent, but not to worry, it can be fixed, haha!

The next day, with smiles from ear to ear, we headed back to the airport. There, our flight was delayed 2 hours. I guess we can’t win everything! We knew that there was a festival in Palau and all our fans were waiting for us to celebrate our victory. But because of the great delay, we were afraid that everyone would get tired of waiting for us and leave. But when we arrived, it was such a surprise to find so many people still waiting with a very warm and enthusiastic, “welcome” home. Thank you to all of our fans!

When I finally arrived home, I put the Cup amongst all the other trophies we’ve won, but I couldn’t help but put this one in the middle!!!

It was by all means, an incredible experience and now we hope to culminate this season with the ACB.

!!Let’s go for it!!!

A hug

Ricky

• Castellano

Hello everybody!

It’s been a week since a wrote my last blog, so I’m doing what I said. I was pretty busy this week, as you could see. Finally my future is all clear and I will be able to play the European in better conditions.

Talking about this past week, we played on Sunday against Israel, and we won. After the game, we had to take a shower very fast because we had to take the plane to go home. The Catalans took a plane named MOSQUITO, for those who do not know it, it is a very small plane, just for 20 people or less. We were just 8 people so we had plenty of room. The plane was moving all the time, and our friend, Guille, who from here I want to send him a big hug, was having a bad time because he doesn’t like planes, and he started sweating and covering himlsef with a t-shirt, hahaha.

Wr arrived, and on Tuesday all my future was finally solved and I was named new player for F.C.Barcelona. I took a fly next morning very early so I could practise with my teammates because we had to fly to Vilnius in the afternoon.

We lost our first game, we played really bad. We lost BY 22 POINTS!! It was pretty painful, but it is also good because we don’t have to think that we are the bests.

We are going to Poland tomorrow, where we will play as good as we can to get what we want.

I have to say bye from Lithuania, and next time I will be in Poland writing about what is going on.

Hugs, Ricky

• Castellano

Hi again everybody!

This week was not that bad, we left Seville on Tuesday after nine wonderful days, and then we went to Zaragoza. By the way, Seville is really beautiful, but it is so hot. My free day I went with my friends that came to see me and support me, and we could not even walk on the street, it was 43 degrees outside, but it seemed even hotter.  You know, every summer, there is a friendly argument with my friends, we try to be as tan as possible, and I use to be the tannest, but everytime that I go with the national team I lose my tan and they always beat me.

Like I was saying, we took the AVE on Tuesday to go to Zaragoza. We arrived to Zaragoza and it was incredible, there were a lot of people waiting for us on the station, it was very nice. The bad thing was that not everybody could get autographs from their favorite players, we tried to sign as much as we could, that is why I say thanks for theis support.

Well, Wednesdat was the game against Israel. The first half was really tough, but we charged our batteries and we ended winning by 23. There was not any big fact about that game, and I was a little worried thinking about what fact I was going to be able to tell you guys. I was trying to think about something funny until we went to eat dinner. At the restaurant there was a ham, a ham that looked really good, but this is normal because there are a lot of hams, the thing is that the ham was from our friend Jose Calderon. From here I want to send a big hug to Jose. He is from Extremadura, and there are very good hams over there.

Thursday arrived and we had to play against Poland. T was a very complicated game, where they were winning by two points when the game was almost done. But when  the things are going bad, is time for the playmakers to play, and that time, Juanki (Navarro) made 9 points and a three pointer from seven meters, amazing. We ended winning by 5, and the fact of the tournament (negative fact by the way, but you can see some funny things), was that I did not score any point, and I tried so hard haha! I promise to punish myself with a shooting session tomorrow.

Today, Friday, we had a day free and they made us a Fideua, a tipical dish from here, and it was really good. But only some of us could enjoy the fideua because some of the players went with their families.

My family also came, my brother, my sister in law, my mom, my sister (who turned 13 last Thursday, HAPPY BIRTHDAY!), my cousin and my uncle, but all ofthem left this morning. I am going to call them to see if  they have arrived because they were driving and the car had a little accident when they were coming to Zaragoza and the car needed to go to the mechanic. The mechanic told them that the car had to go at 120 km/h. I’m sure  they did not have any ticket.

I want to say bye to all the Zaragoza supporters, but only to the “maños”, because last time I said that the people from Sevilla was really nice, and I got comments from other people saying that there were also more poeple from somewhere else. So I send a big hug to everybody! See you guys in Múrcia!

• Castellano
• Català

Hi everybody!

I just created my blog today, a place where approximately once a week (at least, but just when there is something interesting to explain) I will be telling you guys some events.

My first blog is when I am with the Spanish national team. We just finished the “Marca Ciudad de Sevilla Tournament” and we ended in the first position!!! Three games and three victories.

We have played against teams with a great European level, and two out of these three teams will be in the European Tournament in Poland. We know that is a good sign that we beat them, but at the same time, we also know that it will be different in Poland, we will have to work harder to beat them. It has been three days with a lot of basketball here in Seville, where we have seen good basketball and spectacle.

We started the tournament playing against Great Britain. They were a team with a lot of absences like Luol Deng, Ben Gordon, and a good friend of mine, Pops. But they had known players like Robert Archibald, Andy Betts or Drew Sullivan, all of them ex-teammates in la Penya. We beat them by 21 points and I really had good personal feelings, and team feelings. I even made 2 three-pointers!! And I just tried three times, uh?

I will tell you guys a funny fact about that game. When Rudy had the basketball at the end of the second quarter and the posession was almost over he made a three-pointer. Well, untill here everything is Ok, because a three-pointer for Rudy is like a lay up for me. The thing is that the three-pointer that Rudy made, was right in Robert Archibald’s face, yeah, in our ex-teammate face, and we had been remembering him that three-pointer all the tournament. Everytime I saw him I was like: oohhh in your face!! (friendly, of course).

The second game was against Slovenia, in my opinion a very good team with a serious medal option. They are a good team with really good players,specially in gard position. We worked so hard and that is why we could beat them by 18 points, although it was very tough in the first half. The fact of that game, I would say negative fact for me, was that I got a technical foul!! I don’t use to complain to the referres, but Jaka Lakovic pushed me and the red didn’t say anything about it, and I was kind of mad. And in the next posession I was complaining a little bit, and that is why I got a technical foul. But because of that, I learn that I will never complain again.

The third and last game was against Lithuania, a really tough team with a really good level. We were fighting against them in semi-finals last year in the Olimpic games. I already knew that they also had big absences like Sarunas, Kaukenas, Siskaukas, but nonetheless they are still a good team. Theres a good friend of mine playing for Lithuania, Simas Jjjjjasaitis, like I use to call him, and there is a funny fact because I scored 3 three-pointers just in the first half, and he, the really specialist in three-pointers, came to me and told me that three-pointers are just a thing that he does, not me, and he told me that I had to stop shooting. Hehehe. We beat them by 26 points, and we got the tournament!! Come on!!!

And finally, I just wanted to thank all the Seville people, for all the support that they gave us during these 3 days of basketball. I wish they could go to Poland and support us like they did, Im sure that everything would be easier with them, and our final goal will be easier too.

Well, I have to say bye, but we will see each other very soon because now that I am with the national team I will have time to explain some events to you.

A big hug to everybody.