- Interview.Ricky Rubio: "Bad times taught me that there is no light if there is no darkness"
Learning. The life of Ricky Rubio has been a continuous learning and unlearning. Even when everything was twisted or when the splendor arrived, it still assimilated the lesson. Farewell. In that knowing oneself or not being obnubilated with the successes - youngest debutant of the ACB with 14 years, Olympic medalist with 17, continental champion with 18, of the Euroleague with 19, NBA at 21 ... - she was. Mom. He had won practically everything and she left. It was May 2016, Ricard Rubio Vives (October 21, 1990, El Masnou, Barcelona) was 25 years old. Tona Vives, 56. He died of lung cancer. Ricky experienced a long depression. He even thought about quitting basketball. But he knew, he knows, that would not have been what his mother would want. He promised that he would continue fighting day by day for his dreams. And for the less fortunate. For them and for her. He bounced the ball again, to do it with another strength, for another purpose. Be exemplary Three years and four months later, Tona's boy looks at the roof of the Wukeson Arena in China. The multicolored confetti falls around you. The Spanish basketball team has won gold. And he is declared the best in the world championship. Point your index finger at the sky. "I know there is no one who will love me more than her," he says at a press conference. Promise fulfilled, Tona.
There is a personal struggle behind that title. A battle to live day by day. A rebirth Rubio spent the last five weeks of his mother's life taking care of her. It was no longer she who prepared the macaroni. Now it was his turn. He helped her, made her laugh. She always believed that she was going to heal. And he wondered, with red eyes, why. If I was not a smoker, how could I have lung cancer.
The farewell was intimate, she and he. Then he made public his feeling as catharsis: «Thank you for always holding my hand and getting up when I needed it most. I'm very screwed but I have your strength. And, as you did, I will never stop fighting, always with a smile from ear to ear. A part of me leaves with you but part of you stays here with me, inside my heart. I'm not very words, but you deserve this and much more. I will miss you so much but I know that from up there you will take care of us all as you have always done. You are the love of my life...". Ricky wrote it on May 27, 2016. He accompanied the text with a photo where the entire scene is intuited. One hand over another. Tona's is very thin, it has a wedding ring, another engagement ring, one on top of the other on the ring finger. Ricky's is like starting a caress. The hospital sheets as background. The good bye.
She was everything to him. She was his guardian forever. When I still had nothing. When I was a talented child, yes. With huge potential, too. She and her husband Esteve Rubio, a basketball coach, raised him to be a good man. It was he who told him to go to college, to get a doctor as he once thought. In the end, basketball triumphed but she kept telling him that the important thing was to be happy. That was the message. Tona, when he was barely months old, took him to see his father work with boys from Mataró. Already with five years, let him play. There was only one condition: not to cry. If they saw him shed tears, home. It's just a game, Ricky.
THOSE HUGS
It filled him with endless hugs in moments when he was still just a teenager who dazzled the world. He accompanied him by the orb and saw him succeed. He was forbidden to cry, but she did it for him. Of joy and sadness. Like when, against all odds, he debuted with 14 years, 11 months and 24 days. He was the youngest professional in the history of the ACB: October 20, 2005. He played five minutes and five seconds. He did it against CB Granada. He scored two points, got an assist and stole two balls. The Joventut won by 82 to 72 points. Mom's hug was her best prize. Even when offers of millions of euros came to him, he protected him.
“Her mother and I prefer that she be sure of being close to home. To keep a routine close to that of a boy his age, ”his father Esteve told me. Trophies and medals were happening. And there she was, vigilant. In moments of splendor and pain was Tona. Juan María Gavaldá, president of the Spanish Association of Basketball Coaches remembered her: «She, without being a coach, would be able to provide a team of girls or boys with all the educational and ethical values of a team coach in training. wait. Without being a coach, I would be able to grow as human beings all those players and players that I had at your service ... ».
He remembered how she was present in her son's most serious injury, in March 2012. Hard-fought match. Ricky and Kobe Briant - the legend of the Lakers, the same who applauded him from the rostrum last Sunday - collided knee to knee 16.4 seconds from the end. And Ricky doubled in pain like never before. «We accessed the tunnels of the inner ring, in the changing room area and saw her suffer. Like every mother, it was the son's physical condition that had him in suspense. I didn't think about the athlete. The need was in his son and his health. After many minutes of waiting, while they proceeded to the first tests and explorations in the locker room, Ricky came out supported by one of the assistants of his team and she could hug him. My tears skipped.
Journalists who follow basketball always remember her by their side. «Ricky is reminded of his mother, that Tona Vives always present, part of the family of the national team, who, for example, in one of those prints of hundreds, in 2013 he cuddled on a sofa in the Union Hotel of Ljubljana », describes Lucas Saez-Bravo, basket specialist of this newspaper. "It was as if the one who wore a continental bronze around his neck was still his baby ..." Ricky himself remembered what that physical contact with her meant, his connection: "When my mother died, I really knew what a hug was."
-What is your dream Ricky?
-Never stop enjoying this game.
That is what Ricky himself told me at 16, in the first interview he gave. I was on my way to losing that passion when Tona left. But he recomposed himself. He made a wish list and what to do. His mother made him promise that he will not forget the most disadvantaged. Of what he had lived with her. From the waiting rooms. That not everyone has the privilege of living what he ... And he didn't leave it in words. He joined the A breath of hope: Lung Foundation. He established, in March 2017, the Tona Vives Cancer Research Prize endowed with $ 150,000. It was a tribute not only to his mother. Also to his grandmother Maria, who died of liver cancer when he was a child. To his grandfather Vicente, who suffered the same illness as Tona and died when he was 12 years old. His metamorphosis was also physical. He left his beard. A message in English was tattooed on his right arm: "With you went so much of me" . He knows that Tona wouldn't have let him do it but he felt that way. He is accompanied by the giant image of a lioness and her cub. Close, a flower, a rose.
"A LIFE LESSON"
Live as if there was no tomorrow. Skydiving. Done. Swim among white sharks. Done ... "Every day do something you really love, even if only for 10 minutes," is Ricky's message to himself and his people. But always thinking of leaving a legacy. That is its north. Reach the unreachable. With that philosophy, he told Esteve, his dad, that he was going to win the World Cup. That from heaven she helped him. I would do it for Tona. He got it. And he made it clear when he already had gold on his neck and he had been named the best in the world championship: «We have given a life lesson ... There is someone always following me. I lost my mother three years ago. I know he was after me, pushing me every day to get the best of me ... She still guides me, even though I'm not here, I'm sorry like that. It's something I'm very proud of, having the mother I've had, and continuing ... I know there is no one who will love me more than her.
He usually talks about Tona in the present, as if he were by his side. He does it again this Wednesday, after the hangover of the celebrations, accompanied by Victor Claver, another hero of the championship and his friend. He lost his father to cancer, and Javier Claver, together with the Ricky Rubio Foundation, has been inaugurated together since 2018. It is a support site for those awaiting medical results. «Each test is a final exam. Every TAC is life, ”he said when he launched his NGO. He was accompanied by Pau Donés, former singer of Jarabe de Palo, who struggles with cancer.
Claver is from his adoptive "family." "You are my brother," Victor releases, moved. "I know that the opening of this space has more impact because we have won ... But I think my mother is more proud that she has opened this room than that she has been world champion," says Ricky. As in his momentous moments, he gives himself the time to look at the sky. As in Rio, Minnesota, Utah, Phoenix, Barcelona, Beijing ... To her. It is the communion of the promises fulfilled.
And a mother's last name on the shirt ...
In the stands of China, a mother of 185 cm tall gave joy to the Spanish team every game. His name: Margarita Ivonne Geuer Draeger (Seville, 1966), better known as 'Wonny'. A legend of Spanish women's basketball: champion of the Euroleague 1992, the World Cup and gold at the Eurobasket 1993, in Perugia. He fell in love with former Real Madrid Basketball member Guillermo Hernangómez. Got married. He stopped playing after giving birth to his first child. In his tribute, Willy Hernangómez Geuer - 25 years, 211 cm, Charlotte Hornets pivot - placed his mother's last name on the shirt. He did it in homage to mom. Perhaps one of the most beautiful moments of the World Cup was when, together with his brother Juancho -23 years, 206 cm, Denver Nuggets-, they intertwined with their mother in the gallery celebrating the victory. The Hernangómez Geuer are from the 90's generation, like Ricky Rubio, and the youngest of the national team. From what happened with Ricky, they have learned to enjoy their mother more. And 'Wonny' has always been happy to see his two boys in the national team. "Not even in my best dreams did I think they would go so far," he told EL MUNDO when they first met on an NBA track, along with his parents and Andrea, his sister, future star : 19, the same stature of mom forged in the quarry of the Students and today in the NCAA, the university league of the USA. She hung the picture that illustrates this column on Instagram: "Reflection. Seeing happy people makes you even happier ... and especially if they are part of your family. #LaFamilia."
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