Draft Night Drama

Ricky Rubio. The kid even has a fun name to say. Let me start off by saying the team I follow has a pretty miserable past. We have one bright spot where we made a dumb move and picked a scrawny high school power forward with the fifth pick in the draft… and that scrawny kid became one of the best power forwards of all time. Even though we had Kevin Garnett on the team for 50 years, we only got out of the first round once. ONCE! It still hurts to think about all the years of hope and then losing yet again.

Draft night, 2009, the unthinkable happened. The Timberwolves had lady luck smile upon them or so we thought. While David Kahn was working all week to make a move with either Memphis or Oklahoma City, somehow Rubio’s stock fell down. Every team slated to pick in front of the Wolves’ draft boards. When the Kings selected Evans, my entire living room erupted. Beer was spilt, tears were shed, and a drop too much of adrenaline poured out through the ten or so guys watching the draft. Ricky Rubio was finally ours.

This kid is what every team wants in a top pick in the draft, let alone a point guard. He is a marketing star. He is already known worldwide for his feats as a youngster such as playing professionally at 14, dropping 51 points, 24 rebounds, 12 assists and 7 steals in one game in the U16 championships. Rubio already has a deal set up with Nike, the best of the best when it comes to endorsements. I mean this guy just has a flair about him that could finally excite Minnesotans into watching their Timberwolves again.

Not only is he a great pick for the fan fare that comes with him to the team, but he also has every skill you need to excel as a point guard. He can beat people off the dribble, see a play coming before its executed, and hit a man in stride with a perfect pass. Sure, his shooting percentage has been suspect the past few years while he’s been playing in Spain (42% total, 26% for threes), but my jumper would be a little off if my dominant hand had a cast on it as well.

David Kahn is a brilliant man for picking up this basketball prodigy. However, what happened next was a huge mistake by Mr. Kahn. Selecting yet another PG, who was regarded by a few as the best point guard in this draft class was as big as a blunder as he could have made. So large it needs its own realm of largeness. I would call it ginormouge (a combination of gigantic, enormous, and huge) This not only made it so our best four players play two positions, but it also angered our newest “face of the franchise” Ricky Rubio. He already had to deal with losing out on millions from dropping from the 2nd pick in the draft to the 5th, and now he has to worry about playing time? Not a smart move, my friend.
So now Rubio is back in Spain, reportedly to try to get out of his contract there, while his father is saying he wont come over for a few years now. No one knows what to believe. The New York media has taken this thing, and blown it out of proportion, and no one really knows where Ricky is, or what is on his mind. Kahn is handling the situation brilliantly. He has already said the right things, that Rubio wont be traded and that he and Flynn will be able to work well in the same backcourt together, but everyone in Minnesota is sure that this won’t work out well.

I’m hoping Rubio comes to his senses and sees that the $4 million (it was lowered again) is quite the steal to get out of his $90k contract and into the $3 million a year he will be paid here. It is his dream to play in the NBA, and even though he may not be in the most desired place in the world to live (trust me, I live here, and even I wouldn’t wish it on anyone to move from Spain to here), but he will have a great post tandem to pass to in Love and Jefferson and a shooter in Flynn who is supposedly playing SG next to him as well.

So after daydreaming, thinking though all of the problems that are starting to occur for this franchise yet again, here I am. I’m sitting alongside 10 other drunken Wolves fans, praying that Ricky Rubio, the point guard we all wanted so badly, the star point guard we finally have, doesn’t run away. I mean every team gets lucky once in awhile. When will the Wolves franchise get it’s turn?