The Knights will celebrate after defeating arch-rival Celtic in overtime, and you'll see a familiar figure in it.
Ricky Rubio, who wears the Cavaliers' No. 13 jersey, cut his long hair and switched back to a short hair style. I don't know if the short-haired Rubio will bring your mind back to 2008, when the 17-year-old Spanish Golden Boy shook the world at the Beijing Olympics, and fans around the world were impressed by his smart play, ghostly passing, and wild imagination.
Rubio at that time was like the original Venbanyama. People who have seen him play seem to believe that they are witnessing the birth of a superstar.
And the Golden Boy, who is 32 years old today, does not seem to live up to expectations. In this powerful dialogue of the Knights' overtime victory over the Green Army, Rubio only had 7 minutes of play and only scored 2 points, which is really embarrassing.
Back in 2006, when information was not yet available, you could see it on TV and on the Internet that Spain seemed to have an unborn basketball genius.
Rubio turned professionally at the age of 14 years and 11 months, making him the youngest player ever to play in the Spanish Basketball League.
While Rubio's parents don't want him to be exposed to the media too early, you can't hide the shine of a rising star, Rubio dominated almost all his peers in the U16 European Youth Championship, he averaged 23.2 points, 12.8 rebounds and 7.1 assists per game, and you even wonder if this person is really under 16 years old?
When Rubio was selected for the Spanish national team for the Beijing Olympics at the age of less than 18, in the high-profile Chinese land, the teenager from a foreign country not only won an Olympic silver medal, but also got a group of Chinese fans who followed him.
After the Beijing Olympics, you will find that there are many more Rubio news on the Internet Chinese. When Rubio announced his candidacy in the NBA Draft, I still remember how fans were talking on forums and eagerly expecting the Spaniards to conquer the American arena.
Everyone is imagining what kind of spark the supernova who scored 51 points, 24 rebounds and 12 assists in a single game in the European Youth Championship will collide in the talented continental United States.
Perhaps, no one would have thought at the time that the NBA was not the beginning of Rubio's superstar path, but rather the beginning of his transition from genius to mediocrity.
In the summer of 2009, the Timberwolves selected Rubio with the fifth pick in the first round, but this made him a "laughing stock". Because the 7th pick in that draft was Stephen Curry, who would become one of the best players of all time, and giving up Curry for Rubio is hard to convince anyway.
Rubio's NBA road was not smooth, and the high termination fee and the pressure of public opinion in Spain forced Rubio to continue to fulfill his contractual obligations, thereby delaying his plans to land in the NBA. David Kahn, then general manager of the Timberwolves, revealed: "It was a tough summer for a kid who was only 18 years old. ”
If Rubio can enter the NBA smoothly in 2009, if he can adapt to the training, life and game rhythm of the NBA earlier, instead of delaying his NBA career for two years.
So, will today's Rubio be closer to what we imagined?
However, reality never ifs - consecutive major injuries during the Timberwolves era cost Rubio his speed and explosiveness, and he couldn't even shoot consistently; And when he was abandoned by the Timberwolves and turned into a homeless man who tossed and turned, all the titles that had been crowned on Rubio, even the billion-dollar endorsement contract given to him by Adidas, became somewhat playful and ironic...
In 2019, the Sun, who desperately needs a point guard, threw an olive branch to Rubio. It was also in this year that Rubio returned to the former blessing of China, averaged 16.4 points, 4.6 rebounds and 6 assists in the basketball World Cup, won the first international gold medal of his career as a tactical core, and was named the tournament MVP and the best team.
The 29-year-old Rubio seems to have regained the talent of the original Spanish golden boy and ushered in a belated peak, and in the NBA, he averaged 13 points, 4.7 rebounds, 8.8 assists and 1.4 steals per game, and helped the Suns get back on track to win.
But when Chris Paul entered the market, Rubio went from Britney to Madame Cow. And he chose to return to Minnesota, but the old land did not warm Rubio, but he was just another hurried passer-by there.
It wasn't until he joined the Cavaliers in 2021-22 that Rubio was appreciated again — he helped get the post-James Cavaliers back on track as a sixth man, and Rubio, who averaged 13.1 points, 4.1 rebounds and 6.6 assists per game, was added to the discussion of the best sixth man. Not only is he a key backup for the Cavaliers, but also a mentor to the entire team, he uses his experience to seduce the young Garland and build a winning team culture with his friend Love.
However, the basketball god made another "joke" with Rubio, and in December 2021, he tore the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee against the Pelicans, and the season was reimbursed, and the peak came to an abrupt end...
Although the Cavaliers re-signed Rubio in the summer of 2022, the cliff-like decline in form has taken the Golden Boy out of fan view. While Rubio is still using his experience to lead the Cavaliers' young men out of the fog of rebuilding, you can't help but sigh when it comes to Rubio's never-realized talent.
Rubio, who averages 5.1 points and 3.4 assists per game at the age of 32 and has been on 6 teams in the past five seasons, seems to be on the verge of retirement and becoming ordinary.
Perhaps, the fairytale-like supergiant road exists only in fantasy, injuries, lows, difficulties... Is it a true portrayal of reality?