Ricky Rubio Headed Back to DKV Joventut?

And the Ricky Rubio drama continues…

This morning Wolves fans finally received a decision from the Ricky Rubio camp. He is headed back to Spain to finish off the final two years of his contract.

Or so we thought.

After playing NBA 2K9 watching this story all day, there has been one remarkable recurring fact. That no major news outlet will write up a story about this. There are two main reasons so far that I have come up with.

1. Sources

2. Leverage

The only two articles (not blogs) I have found on this topic all day are from Charley “shooter” Walters and some Spanish newspaper. Ill start with the Pioneer Press and Shooter’s credibility. Shooter is known for jumping the gun on many a sports news story.  He loves to be the guy with the information, even if that information is completely off base. The Pioneer Press in general has had some major problems recently, as even yesterday their editors somehow did not look through Don Seeholzer’s write up about how “Charles Barkley thought that Del Harris would be a good fit for our coaching spot. We at Fansided know that the writer whose blog is named “Sir Charles In Charge” was indeed not Charles Barkley, but our own Andrew Ungvari. The Pioneer Press seems to be lacking these normally critical traits.

Then there is this Spanish newspaper. First off we do not know how credible this paper is. Secondly, we don’t know how credible this paper is. When you look at journalism outside of the U.S. you have to keep in mind that things are not the same over there. The standard here is to find out information from people who would know the true facts. If you don’t have a credible source, you don’t have a story. Overseas, you may not have the same credibility. I am in no way denouncing this article to say that there is no way it’s true. I am merely stating that you shouldn’t believe it to be fact when you don’t know enough about the Spanish media.

My second point is about the leverage in the Rubio camp that would come from this announcement. DKV Joventut has been hit hard by the economy like most other people in the world. They are so far in debt that Ricky Rubio’s contract has been taken by the Spanish government as collateral for back taxes owed. Since this team is so far in debt, it seems quite obvious that the team has far more to gain financially by agreeing to a multi million-dollar buyout than by keeping Rubio hostage on the team. Although Ricky is a crowd pleaser, and could bring in a few people that normally wouldn’t go to games, we are talking about a developmental team in Spain that has bright young stars. This is not an elite team that attracts swarms of fans. To have the financial leverage on this team is HUGE in lowering the buyout from the team, and ultimately getting Rubio to the NBA. Even if that means scaring me to death confusing a few wolves fans in the process.

Lastly, I just want to bring up how much money Rubio would lose just by staying in Europe the next two seasons. If he indeed is worth a max contract after his rookie contract is up, he is looking to gain $16 million over the next 9 years by coming over to the NBA THIS YEAR, even when taking his $6 million buyout into account. By waiting just one year, he will be losing out on $11 million over that same 9 year span. It just does not make any sense financially for Ricky Rubio to stay in Europe at all, and hopefully everyone giving him their opinions on the situation take this into account.

The only known truths in either of these publications is that Ricky has dropped his lawsuit against DKV Joventut.. Something they demanded from his if they were even going to speak about lowering his buyout.

In any case, heres to the hope that Ricky Rubio can still be here next season.