(The Minnesota Star Tribune)
Ricky Rubio tells Spanish site he'd like Wolves' front office to value his input
Heading into his seventh NBA season, Ricky Rubio told a Spanish-language web site he would like the Wolves' front office to value his opinion.
June 5, 2017 at 7:16PM
If we can glean anything from a Catalan-to-English translation of an interview Wolves guard Ricky Rubio did with a Spanish web site — and that's a big if on multiple levels — it is that the 26-year-old guard, heading into his seventh NBA season, would like the Wolves' front office to value his opinion.
"Yes, I would like to my opinion to have more weight on things that affect the team," Rubio said, according to a translation on Eurohoops.net. "And I think that is linked to the performance on the court. My second leg of the season gives me more power."
That translation pretty much squares up with the one produced using Google translation, so hopefully not much is lost in language change. Essentially, it sounds like Rubio is saying he would like to have a voice when it comes to personnel matters and he believes his strong second-half play in 2016-17 gives him more leverage in that regard. Rubio is the longest-tenured member of the Wolves' active roster, having joined the team in 2011 after being drafted in 2009 out of Spain.
He also addressed the role of leadership, saying (again per the translation), "Both on and off the court. I'm not a man of many words, I don't like to talk much. I prefer deeds, sacrifices and showing that what matters is the team."
The original interview at Ara.cat is a wide-ranging Q&A that touches on a number of subjects including a foundation to help fight cancer in honor of his mother and how he leans on friends and family in tough times.
It ends with a question about the values he learned at home. The translation, from Google, is beautiful.
"The philosophy that I learned is that in our day to day can do many useful things to help other people around us. We spend a lot, but we do our best to improve our environment. I try not to lose innocence."
Despite so-so record, Wolves have improved at crunch time.