Ricky Rubio has been selected by coach Sergio Scariolo to join the Spanish national team for the FIBA EuroBasket 2025 qualifiers against Latvia and Belgium, scheduled for February 22nd and 25th.
Rubio signed a short-term deal with Barcelona last week, a month after announcing he was ending his 12-year NBA career.
However, he is yet to play a game for Barcelona, so his first game back could be against Spain.
The 33-year-old point guard, who took time off from playing to deal with mental health issues, has agreed to a deal through the remainder of this season.
Rubio first announced that he would be stepping away from basketball in the summer of 2023 while he was on the Spanish team for the FIBA World Cup.
His return opens the door to a possible participation in this summer’s Paris Olympics. Spain has not yet qualified for the Olympics, but has a chance to do so through the 2024 FIBA Men’s Olympic Qualification Tournament, which will be held in Valencia from July 2-7. The opponents in the first round are Lebanon and Angola.
Rubio was drafted in the first round by the Minnesota Timberwolves in 2009, but remained in Spain and played two seasons with Barcelona before making the move to the NBA.
This year, he linked up with Barcelona for a week of training before deciding to sign a new contract, the Catalan team said.
“This contract is dependent on the player’s progress in the final stages of his recovery,” the team said in a statement.
Rubio has been on the international basketball stage since he was a teenager, first catching the attention of scouts and fans as a 14-year-old hoops phenom. He won an Olympic silver medal in 2008, an Olympic bronze medal in 2012, and was named FIBA World Cup MVP in 2019.
Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.