It’s moving! Golden Boy, who scored 51 points at the age of 14, retired due to depression at the age of 33, and now returns to the court!

"One night, I was resting in a hotel, and there was no one around me. I suddenly had an idea, that is, to end everything. I mean not ending my career, but ending my life." Recently, in a basketball blog program, Ricky Rubio, the former European "golden boy", said this extremely heavy idea in an interview. In the NBA, he earned a total of $140 million and represented the Spanish national team on the podium for European and world events many times. To outsiders, Rubio should be a winner in life, but this is not the case.

According to Rubio's own memories, he has always felt very lonely during the years in the NBA. He has been on the other side of the ocean for a long time and can only reunite with his family during the offseason, which has become a knot in his heart. For him, the biggest blow was undoubtedly his mother. He passed away in 2016 due to cancer, which made Rubio, who was extremely filial, feel a heavy blow and always play with sadness. In addition, in the last period of his time in the NBA, he frequently suffered injuries, so he once had the idea of suicide. However, Rubio bravely returned to the basketball court recently and completed the signing with the first team of his career, Badalona Juventus. Let’s take a look at how difficult Rubio has been in recent years!

1. Leading Spain to the World Cup, but keeping wandering in the NBA.

Time returns to the summer of 2019, and the men's basketball World Cup has moved to China this year. The national teams can be said to have made extremely sufficient preparations for this World Cup. The Spanish team is no longer the super team that could compete with the Dream Team back then. The golden generation such as Paul Gasol has retired one after another. Although they still maintain their outstanding strength, almost no one will associate them with the championship before the event has begun. However, they did it. As the core of the team, Rubio averaged 16.4 points, 4.6 rebounds and 6 assists per game, and his three-point shooting percentage was even close to 40%, and he played extremely efficiently. He finally successfully helped the Spanish team defeat Argentina and won the championship of the event. Rubio not only became the world cup's history assist king, but also was selected as the best team of the event and was elected as the final MVP of the event and the MVP of the entire cup, showing extremely outstanding dominance.

However, unlike the glory of the World Cup stage, after returning to the NBA, he did not get a contract renewal from the Jazz. In the eyes of the team's senior management, they would rather get a player with a stable three-point shooting. Fortunately, Rubio was only 29 years old at that time, and the Suns gave him a three-year, $51 million contract, hoping that he and Devin Booker could support the team's back line. In fact, during this year with the Suns, Rubio performed well, averaging 13 points, 4.7 rebounds, 8.8 assists, 1.4 steals per game, and his three-point shooting percentage reached 36.1%. But what is a little disappointing is that the Suns have not improved much this year, so he was used as a bargaining chip for trading Chris Paul in the offseason and was sent to the Thunder. Soon before he reported to the Thunder, his old club, the Timberwolves, handed out an olive branch and exchanged a draft pick from the Thunder for Rubio. The constant wandering made Rubio a little annoyed.

2. Continuously traded by the team and frequently encountered injuries.

After returning to the Timberwolves, although the ball rights have decreased, it has to be said that Rubio's contribution is still good when he holds the ball, and he still contributes 8.6 points, 3.3 rebounds, 6.4 assists and 1.4 steals per game. Although his shooting ability is still relatively poor, it has to be said that his organization and defense are indeed the top-notch existence in the NBA at that time. But what no one expected was that the team sent him to the Cavaliers after the end of this season. In the Timberwolves' eyes, they already have D'Angelo Russell, and in the shooting guard position, there is also No. 1 pick Anthony Edwards. Rubio no longer has a place in the team. However, after coming to the Cavaliers, although he was a substitute, Rubio was activated, and his average data increased to 13.1 points, 4.1 rebounds and 6.6 assists, becoming the core of the team's second team, helping the Cavaliers' record to begin to rise.

But at this critical juncture, unfortunate things happened again. Although Rubio scored excellent 27 points, 13 rebounds, 9 assists, 2 steals and 2 blocks in the game, he suffered a serious injury in the game and the diagnosis was a torn ACL in the left knee. For a 31-year-old point guard, the injury is undoubtedly fatal. What disappointed Rubio even more was that the team sent him to the Pacers under this circumstance. Although many people, including Rubio, can understand it, they are still very disappointed after being traded. Although the Cavaliers signed him back with a three-year, $18.4 million contract after the season, he also played 33 games in the 22-23 season. But at that time, Rubio was already plagued by severe depression, and with some injuries on the court, Rubio was almost defeated. Finally, with the agreement between the two sides, Rubio and the Cavaliers terminated their contract in January 2024.

3. He once considered suicide, but now he bravely returned to the arena.

After termination of the contract with the Cavaliers, Rubio also directly announced his retirement. Rubio, who was under the blow of depression, felt overwhelmed. This is why, he said in an interview that he had considered suicide for a while. But thinking that he had other family members, he gave up on this idea. After his mother passed away in 2016, Rubio had been unable to get out of the shadow for a long time. For this reason, he established the German Anti-Cancer Foundation named after himself, just to save more patients like his mother and also to save his soul. This year, Rubio, with the encouragement of his friends around him, returned to the stadium and became a member of his old club Barcelona. Although he did not play too many games, at least he dared to face these things. Now that Rubio has officially signed with his first stop in his career, he will officially return to the stadium, and this time for the 34-year-old, it will be a new beginning in his life.