Ten NBA players not afraid of a long lockout

Garnett has a history of initiating European players in the NBA, and one witness in the gym had recently watched him respond to a Rubio move with the ball by barking, “That’s a traveling here. We don’t do that [expletive] here.” And on and on.

Of course, Garnett also took the time to tell Rubio what a wonderful place Minnesota was to break into the NBA, what great, great fans they have there. If the lockout continues, Rubio could be on his way back to Spain to play again. He loves home, but it isn’t his preference. He’s done everything he can there by winning the Spanish ACB, European and world championship titles.

He’s deferred to older players on teams, his stats suffering for the selflessness. The Wolves are young, the franchise is invested in him as its point guard and there’s a few potential finishers who could bring out the best of his playmaking abilities, who could make this easier for Rubio. For the first time, he’ll be on a rebuilding team. The pressure will be on gradual improvement, not immediate championships. Kobe 6

Sometimes, people don’t realize how unprecedented it was for Rubio to be playing point guard in the world’s second-best league at 15 and 16 years old, guarding Chris Paul(notes) and Jason Kidd in the Olympics at 17.

“I think maybe it come easy, too easy then,” Rubio says. “When I was a kid, it didn’t matter how I did. I was so young, that if I did well, it was good. And if I didn’t do good, it was normal for my age. Now that I’m 20 they look at me different. They say, ‘You have to do the right things, because you were playing when you were 17. You have to know all things. They looked me as more of a veteran than I am, but I’m still young. I’m still growing up, still improving. I have to learn a lot of things, and I think I have a long career to do it. Kobe MS

“There’s no time to think about what will happen if you make this mistake or make that mistake. You have to trust your instincts about the play you need to make to help your team win. And I know this time lately has helped me to get back to doing that. I come and play now, and I let go of the judgments of people … I trust myself again.”

Soon, Ricky Rubio wants to press play on those old DVDs and know that kid is all the way back. He wants to be that free again, that assured and he swears that he can feel it all returning. Far, far away, in this faceless Southern California suburb, the game has finally slowed down for Rubio. Out of the light, and away from the voices, away from the harsh judgments, a teen idol gets time to grow into the kind of man, the kind of player, that that old footage promised he would eventually become.

Between then and now, it got hard for Ricky Rubio, complicated, and he’s sure that it’s the best thing that could’ve ever happened to his basketball career.