CLEVELAND (USA) - Ricky Rubio, current FIBA World Cup champion and MVP, has dished more than 5.000 assists during his NBA career but his most impactful assist has come off the court through his foundation.

The latest example, launching the “I Am ready project” in the USA - a virtual reality program with the goal to help cancer patients across the globe- just days before coming back to play after being sidelined for 380 days with a torn cruciate ligament when at his best. An unpleasant revival of the ACL in March 2012…

That fateful Olympic year, his mother, Tona, a role model for Ricky, was diagnosed with lung cancer before passing away 4 years later. During those tough years in hospital waiting rooms receiving bad news, the Spanish point guard had long and transcendental conversations with his mother, a truly inspiring woman for all who had the chance to know her. And he made her a promise:

Mom, don’t worry, I’m going to make sure I give back to the community and help people who are going through what we are going through and help them have opportunities as we did

 
Ricky wanted to help others. Like he does on the court. He had the urge to help. Creating a Foundation was one of those ideas always had in the back of his head, but he realized that, in order to make an impact, he had to do things the right way.

In 2018, The Ricky Rubio Foundation became a reality focusing on patients battling lung cancer like his mother and kid cancer patients: “Imagine an adult going through that and knowing what’s going to happen and how scary it is,” Rubio said. “Put that 10 times on a child. Kids don’t understand, they are supposed to be healthy and playing all the time. Put them in the hospital where they don’t know a lot of stuff, they only see adults and just want to be with other kids. Put them in treatment and they feel sick, it’s not fun”.

Photo from  Ricky Rubio Foundation

Since then, The Ricky Rubio Foundation hasn’t taken a day off. Too much to be done. They work the same way Ricky plays: being a leader, involving everyone for a common goal, adding and multiplying, bringing every day their A game, never giving up, and always bringing a smile to others.

The legendary Toni Kukoc, member of the FIBA Hall of Fame used to repeat a phrase that Balkan coaches like Boza Maljkovic added to their Golden Rules: “A basket only makes one person happy, an assist makes two people happy”.

Photo from  Ricky Rubio Foundation

In Ricky’s case, you must multiply that amount by hundreds. Amongst many Basketball For Good initiatives, he has funded cancer research projects, has built enhanced waiting areas including playrooms for kids in hospitals, has joined forces to raise funds for research with a recent charity basketball game, he is building a recovery gym and lastly, he has delivered an MVP assist:  the I Am Ready Project.

Already available in certain hospitals in Spain, The Ricky Rubio Foundation has brought to the US hospitals a new way of helping young patients while they’re getting treatment: “It’s virtual reality in the hospital with a cartoon explaining everything to the kids. It shows me doing things like tying my shoes and getting ready for basketball. It has the doctors telling them how it’s going to be then we go into the treatment room to see the machines. I think it helps them to see how it’s going to be. The kids feel safer and more familiar with what’s going on. We are doing studies and seeing how it affects the kids and eventually, we want to show it can help anybody, not just the kids. We want to make it even bigger. This is the first step. We’re going in the right direction”.

Photo from  Ricky Rubio Foundation

And it doesn’t stop here. Rubio’s always thinking of new ways to help others through basketball. He’s up to make reality any given challenge as long as it helps any patient. No one understands better than him that research and innovation with better treatments are the keys to defeating cancer.

The dream is to work hard and find a cure for cancer

 
He’s determined to make it happen. He has always accepted challenges as he did on the court: making history with his debut in Spain at the age of 14, playing in Euroleague and in the NBA, putting the Redeem Team on the brink in 2008 with the Spanish National Federation, being part of La Familia summers of constant medals, leading Spain to the FIBA World Cup Gold medal in 2019 with an MVP performance. What's next for him?

What is sure is that in this game of helping others through The Ricky Rubio Foundation, nothing will change for Ricky. He has a goal in mind in memory of his beloved mother, and as he has proven many times with his ‘never too high, never too low’, Ricky never quits.

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The FIBA Foundation is the social and legacy arm of FIBA that addresses the role of sports and particularly basketball in society, preserving and promoting basketball’s values and its cultural heritage. The FIBA Foundation believes that basketball has the power to empower, educate and inspire youth and facilitates this by implementing Basketball For Good projects around the world.

FIBA