The Grizzlies won the second overall pick in this year’s NBA Draft, and with that right came the widely-held assumption that they’d try and get their hands on Ricky Rubio. There’s just one tiny problem. Ricky is reportedly not interested in moving to Graceland.
According to a report on Draft Express , Rubio and his people might pull a Steve Francis on the Grizz should Memphis draft him:
From what people around the league are saying, Rubio’s camp may already be sending out feelers indicating that he’s not interested in the least bit in playing in Memphis. “Rubio doesn’t want to go to Memphis, and he especially does not want to pay money out of his own pocket with that huge buyout for the honor of doing so. Fegan [Rubio’s agent] wants him in L.A., and if he can’t have him there, he wants him in Sacramento. Definitely not Oklahoma City.”
Unlike Griffin or Hasheem Thabeet, who don’t really have any choice where they will play next season if a team decides to play hardball, Rubio has a reasonably attractive alternative option at his disposal—returning to Spain.
“He’ll pull out if he doesn’t like what he’s hearing,” the NBA source tells us. “Or he can stay in and force the Grizzlies to call his bluff—would they really take him knowing that he may never come over? That’s one way to get him to fall to three.”
The Grizzlies plan on meeting with Ricky to see if they can’t change his mind, otherwise all of these new ticket buyers are gonna be some kind of mad.
Much of the basketball watching public on this continent only knows Ricky Rubio through grainy YouTube footage, and his stellar performance during the Olympics last summer.
I think it’s important to recognize that just because we barely know about him, doesn’t mean he’s not fully aware of how to play the political game to get what he wants in this League.
