# ESP – Rubio all smiles after winning FIBA Europe Young Player of the Year Award again



## skslzf (Feb 19, 2009)

MADRID (FIBA Europe) - Ricky Rubio captured his second straight FIBA Europe Young Player of the Year Award this week.

The 18-year-old Spain point guard made his senior national team debut last year and played for his former DKV Joventut boss Aito Garcia Reneses at the Beijing Olympics.

The Spanish ran the United States very close in the title game but lost and returned to Europe with a silver medal.

“Last year, I had the luck to be in a winning team like DKV Joventut and then in the Spanish national team, that was also a winning team,” he said.

“Even though we did not win the gold medal at the Olympics, it felt as if we had because we did a good job at the Games.

“At DKV, I also won important titles like the Copa del Rey and the ULEB Cup. One of the reasons why I have received this individual award is thanks to the team."

Rubio, who is projected as an NBA lottery pick if he declares for the draft, will this weekend be in action with DKV at the Copa del Rey in Madrid.

He will represent Spain this summer at EuroBasket 2009 in Poland.


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## Jakain (Sep 8, 2006)

*Re: ESP – Rubio all smiles after winning FIBA Europe Young Player of the Year Award a*

I can't wait to see how Rubio performs in an NBA environment and hope he lands into a good organization. Being a teenager and going up against the likes of gold-medal winning TEAM USA must've been a great experience for him - he's played against some of the best the NBA has to offer.


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## G-man-sc (May 9, 2008)

*Re: ESP – Rubio all smiles after winning FIBA Europe Young Player of the Year Award a*

he's a really great kid and he got game for real, i have no doubts about him performing in the nba..
i had the luck of playing with him a bit over a year ago in italy, some closed practices where we played some 5-on-5, and i even played him 1-on-1 a couple of timed (i obviously got beat pretty badly).. he's just a really good player with really quick hands on D, straight stripping the ball from everybody he guarded, at least a dozen times.. i think he will do really well, and he obviously deserve the award


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