About Ricky Rubio Ricard "Ricky" Rubio Vives (born October 21, 1990 in El Masnou, Barcelona, Spain) is a Spanish professional basketball player with Regal FC Barcelona. Rubio became the youngest player ever to play in the Spanish ACB League on October 15, 2005. On June 25, 2009, he was drafted with the fifth pick in the first round of the 2009 NBA Draft by the Minnesota Timberwolves, making him the first player born in the 1990s to be drafted by the NBA. The Timberwolves had an agreement in principle with his former Spanish team, DKV Joventut, to buy out his contract, but Rubio backed out of the deal, indicating that he felt he needed to mature more before entering the NBA. On August 31, Joventut traded the rights to Rubio to FC Barcelona, and Rubio signed a six-year contract with Barça the following day.Rubio is regarded by some as the best European guard prospect ever. Rubio has been compared by some to Pete Maravich. Says former NBA guard Pepe Sánchez, who at the time played at the point guard position for Liga ACB rivals Unicaja Málaga: “ I think he's a freak of nature, being so young and being so skilled and also so cool all the time. You can see that he knows what he's doing. He's not playing out there with pros based only on his talents. He knows the game and he can only improve. I think he'll be a great player. It all depends on him, but I personally think he's going to be great. ” —Pepe Sánchez Despite his notability, he has been carefully shielded. DKV Joventut and Rubio's parents agreed not to make him available for interviews until his 18th birthday on 21 October 2008. However, the restrictions were ended a few months early once he was selected for the Spanish national team that would play at the 2008 Olympics. Rubio held his first press conference in early June 2008. During the event, he criticized what he saw as the NBA's emphasis on individual play and blamed poor team play for the recent struggles of the US national team, saying in Catalan, "Basketball isn't one-on-one. It's five-on-five, plus the bench." He then switched to English, commenting on his competitive nature — "If I'm losing, I'm going to do everything possible to win. I do the same thing on the court" — and how he practiced moves that he saw in videos of Maravich — "If I can do some magic, I do it." Rubio has been featured in SLAM Magazine. His nicknames are "Ricky Business", "Mozart", "La Pistola", and "The Boy Wonder".