Chad Nielsen of ESPN the Magazine: “At 6′3″, Ricky Rubio is tall enough to stand out in Spain, but this spring morning, among the whitewashed walls of his hometown, he’s just another 17-year-old high school senior on his way to take final exams. That night, though, Rubio is in nearby Badalona, the home of DKV Joventut, Spain’s small-market hoops factory. On the floor, the third-year pro disrupts passing lanes and creates plays that don’t make the stat sheet. Several times he even outpositions 7′1″, 280-pound Marc Gasol for rebounds.”
Trevor Smith of Hoops Addict: “Jerry West is universally respected and widely regarded as one of the greatest basketball player ever. Experts and casual fans alike agree that the former Los Angeles Laker was one of the best talents to ever play the game. In the years since his retirement he has received numerous honours that stand as a testament to his talent and success, from being named to the NBA Top 50 Team to his 1980 enshrinement in the Basketball Hall of Fame. Yet West’s career holds a paradoxical quality: while he is at once revered and celebrated as having a career of the very highest merit, it is still somehow reasonable and unembellished to suggest that he may too be one of the most underrated players in NBA history.”
Mike Kahn of Foxsports: “This just stinks, and it will continue to stink if only because so many people from Seattle to New York — by way of Oklahoma City — are permeated with a stench that comes only as a result of ugly politics and big money. Thank you, politicians of Washington state. Thank you, politicians of the NBA. And thank you, Starbucks chairman Howard Schultz. You all played equal parts selling the Seattle Sonics and their fans down the river twice in two years, in the process giving Clay Bennett and his Oklahoma carpetbaggers our NBA team.”
Adam Lauridsen of the San Jose Mercury News: “Regardless of whether the Warriors end up with Elton Brand, the post-BD counterstrike has certainly made for an entertaining and suspenseful week. Accomplishing what would essentially be a Davis for Brand swap would be nothing short of a masterpiece. Even if the move fails, driving up Brand’s price to kill any remaining cap space the Clips might have is a nice way to ensure they spend the next five years slowly sinking under the weight of two players’ contracts.”
David Friedman of 20 second timeout: “Bottom line: if you are not on one of the three All-NBA Teams–or a player who deserved to be there but clearly got snubbed–then you are not an elite player. An All-Star is not an elite player; every year there are 24 All-Stars plus another 5-10 players who could just as easily have made the cut. An elite player must be no worse than one of the top five players at his position and one of the top 15 players in the NBA. Even when fully healthy, Davis and Arenas operate at the fringes of elite territory: Arenas made the All-NBA Second Team in 2007 and the All-NBA Third Team in 2005 and 2006, while Davis made the All-NBA Third Team in 2004.”
The Best Michael Jordan Dunk Never Seen via Austin Burton of Dime Magazine:
July 6th, 2008 at 9:03 pm
If you haven’t heard of Rubio yet, get familiar with him. He blew up big time 2 years ago when he absolutely owned the U-16 European Championships. In the semifinals, he threw up a quadruple-double, but that was just the start. In the hotly contested finals game against Russia, he basically won the game on his own with an incredible 51 points, 24 rebounds, 12 assists and 7 steals. He’s played in the best European domestic league (ACB) for the last 3 years, and this last year he was far and away the best point guard in the league. He’s also played in the extremely competitive Euroleague for the last two years. All that, and he’s only 17. With his height, his ball-handling, his floor vision, his flair and his slightly scraggly look, it’s hard not to watch him and think “Pistol Pete”.
July 7th, 2008 at 1:32 pm
X,
I’ve followed Rubio’s career for quite some time. I can’t wait to see how his game translates to the NBA.