Before unfortunately suffering a season-ending knee injury last month, Ricky Rubio was in the midst of his 11th NBA season. After a down year with the Minnesota Timberwolves, Rubio enjoyed a resurgence as a member of the Cleveland Cavaliers and certainly looked like he was capable of many more seasons of high-level NBA basketball.
Despite all that, Rubio appears to have self-imposed a limit on his NBA tenure. In a recent interview with Joan Josep Pallàs of La Vanguardia, Rubio said he doesn’t intend to keep playing in the NBA once his two-year-old son begins schooling.
Rubio’s interview was done in Spanish, so the following excerpt was translated by the team over at Eurohoops:
“When my son starts school, the NBA will not be worth it. I will have to go back,” Rubio said. “I don’t want to make him dizzy moving around when he’s six years old, at the age of starting to make friends. It was discussed with my wife and we have it very clear. There will come a time when basketball will not be the priority.”
Watching Rubio probe, pass, and smart his way to buckets for 11 years has been a joy. The hope is he remains a wonderful player whenever he returns from injury for as long as he wishes to stick around the league.