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Rubio's Camp Unhappy With Lottery
For those of you who love drama and were disappointed by the Los Angeles Clippers coming out and saying that Blake Griffin is going to be the top pick, there's no need to worry. With Griffin ending up in a Clipper uniform a certainty there's still the compelling situation with Spain's Ricky Rubio, who did not like how the draft panned out to say the least.
Rubio's Agent, Dan Fegan, wants Ricky to land either in Los Angeles or Sacramento. Memphis and Oklahoma City, his two most likely destinations after the lottery, are not attractive options to Rubio's camp and if nothing changes in the draft order he could end up waiting till 2010.
"He'll pull out if he doesn't like what he's hearing," an NBA source told Jonathan Givony of Draftexpress.com. "Or he can stay in and force the Grizzlies to call his bluff?would they really take him knowing that he may never come over? That's one way to get him to fall to three."
This isn't the first time that a Dan Fegan client has tried to position themselves to land where they feel best. If you remember back in 2007 Yi Jianlian's representatives made it very clear that they had no interest in Yi playing for the Milwaukee Bucks, but they drafted him anyway. Yi however didn't have the options that Rubio currently does.
A move to the NBA is going to be an expensive one for Rubio unless there are some drastic changes with DKV Joventut over the next four weeks. He currently has a buyout of $7.7 million and they don't appear to be willing to accept anything less than the full amount right now.
"Rubio doesn't want to go to Memphis, and he especially does not want to pay money out of his own pocket with that huge buyout for the honor of doing so," said another scout to Draftexpress.com. "Fegan [Rubio's agent] wants him in L.A., and if he can't have him there, he wants him in Sacramento. Definitely not Oklahoma City."
For Rubio there really is no downside in waiting until 2010. In 2010 his buyout goes down just over $1 million, which whatever NBA team that drafted him could play nearly half of. He'd also have a chance to go number one overall, which isn't going to happen this year despite the reports of the Clippers having a quiet interest in him.
At 18-years-old Rubio has all the time in the world. Although a lot of his countrymen have come over and been very successful in the NBA, Juan Carlos Navarro taught him how important it is to land in the right situation. If his camp isn't comfortable with where he's likely going to end up this year there's no reason not to put his NBA career on hold for another year.
http://www.hoopsworld.com/Story.asp?story_id=12714
Interesting.