Despite $130 Million Earnings, Ricky Rubio Resented NBA’s Money-Minded Locker Room Culture

Ricky Rubio is one of many NBA players who came into the league with bucketloads of promise. After all, the Barcelona product became a pro basketball player at the tender young age of 14 in the Euroleague. At 17, he was going toe-to-toe with the world’s best player, Kobe Bryant, at the Beijing Olympics, leading Spain to one of the most closely contested Olympic Gold Medal games in men’s basketball since 1992.

Rubio entered the NBA with rare levels of hype in 2011, two years after the Minnesota Timberwolves drafted him with the No. 5 pick in the 2009 NBA Draft. Ricky Rubio immediately made a mark, both on and off the court. He had a happy-go-lucky side to him that seemed to resonate with fans. His lowered levels of melanin and European origins also helped. Rubio had a charm to him that others didn’t have.

But over the years, as Rubio became a seasoned NBA veteran and embarked on playoff runs with the Utah Jazz, there came more signs of him becoming disengaged with the league. Although mainstream media never highlighted it, COVID-19 hit his mentality hard, even as he put in a great performance at the NBA bubble and the season that followed.

Shortly after, Rubio announced his decision to stop playing NBA basketball and take an indefinite break. He confessed to having suicidal thoughts and conveyed that he was going through a bout of depression. Years later, now that he feels better, Ricky Rubio revealed some reasons that brought his psyche down in those times. He mainly talked about the materialistic aspect of the locker rooms he was a part of, that didn’t sit right with him:

I didn’t make friends, just teammates. It’s hard for me to open up and face conflict, and I’ve witnessed attitudes that didn’t sit right with me. In the locker room, you hear nonsense like: “What car do you drive? Are we really competing over that? That won’t make me a better person.