Ricky Rubio's shocking confession: "One night in a hotel, I said, 'I don't want to go on, not with basketball, not with life.'"

It's been over a year sinceRicky Rubio last suited up for a professional basketball game. He did so wearing a Barça jersey—in a league Clásico against Real Madrid—after overcoming one of the most difficult moments of his life and professional career: his temporary retirement from the court to take care of his mental health, which he discussed in an extensive interview in which he opened up alongside Jordi Évole.

The Catalan point guard's story begins with his serious knee injury , when he was a player for the Cleveland Cavaliers in the NBA, in December 2021: "I didn't even want to pick up the phone, because I knew I had broken it . My first reaction was: 'this didn't happen to me, but they're going to screw up, and I'm going to come back stronger than ever."

"And I've been feeling like I'm not understanding it for a whole year, like I'm angry at the world . I'm playing again. I'm doing all the recovery, the preparation for the World Cup. And I'm going to the World Cup, but I have a really strange feeling inside. I look in the mirror and say: 'something's not right ,'" the El Masnou native revealed in another part of the interview. "I asked for help as soon as I knew how," added Rubio, who recounted how that afternoon he asked his wife to help him pack his bags to leave the La Familia training camp.

It was then that the former Joventut player made a shocking confession: "One of the nights I was in the hotel I said: 'I don't want to continue, not with basketball anymore, with life' ." And he empathized with those who may be going through a similar situation: "I can understand a lot of people, both those who are at the height of their success and, unfortunately, many who have taken their own lives, or like normal people, who say I can't go on. Because everything weighs so much on you... At the World Cup, when I say I'm stopping, it seems like I'm dying and that my life has no meaning ."

The 34-year-old player, who last June said he had taken this year "to reflect on my career and my life" and rejected the idea of ​​it being "a farewell," also praised his 12 years playing in the NBA: "It was a brutal experience, and I don't think I would have been able to live it here in Badalona, ​​but the person would have been happier."

During his decade in the North American League, Rubio claims he had no friends. "They're teammates," he says, while explaining why he couldn't make any friends: "Because of my personality, honestly, because it's hard for me to open up and connect. And I haven't known how to deal with conflict either. I've experienced it with many teammates with despotic attitudes . I'm not capable of saying, 'You don't talk to the waiter like that.' But how am I going to tell my teammate? I keep quiet, and I see attitudes or behaviors that aren't right."

"Many times they don't even realize it themselves; it's their character, it's their ego. In the locker room, people talk about things that don't make sense, like what car you drive. Am I really going to compete with you for a better car? It won't make me a better person," the player adds. "And I had to create that character, even though I didn't want to," he laments .

Finally, Ricky Rubio noted that he never fell in love "with the culture or the traditions," and he appreciated that in the United States, "they've turned the NBA into a show, a business ; they've abandoned the love of basketball." "What did I take with me from the United States? What I wouldn't do, not what I would do," he concludes in another excerpt from the interview.