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Eurobasket 2025 Qualification – Group c – working day 1
The Spanish basketball team debuted in the qualifying phase for the 2025 Eurobasket with a defeat against Latvia (75-79). Beyond the result, the most notable note of the match was the return of Ricky Rubio to the national team after six and a half months without playing, a period of time that the Catalan player dedicated to addressing his mental health problems.
Rubio played a total of 20 minutes, in which he managed to score eleven points, captured a rebound and scored eleven assists. The Catalan point guard was part of the starting quintet, along with Xabi López-Arostegui, Juancho Hernangómez, Joel Parra and Jaime Pradilla, and took charge of the team from the beginning, before being replaced by Alberto Díaz in the second half of the first quarter.
Later, he returned to the court with just over four minutes left before halftime and led his team again, providing three more assists, two of them finished with two dunks by his teammate Jaime Pradilla. And then Rubio scored his first two points in the final minute of the first half from the free throw line.
His field goal scoring drought continued for the first five minutes of the second half and, after committing his third foul, he sat on the bench again. Finally, Rubio returned to the court to participate in the last five minutes of the match, with the score at 64-66, at which time he scored his first basket of the match, which came two minutes from the end with a shot frontal. His only three-pointer came when Spain needed it most, but he couldn’t complete the comeback after missing from the free throw line.
“I feel incredible, the truth is that he was missed a lot. The atmosphere is spectacular and young people with a lot of talent also come,” Rubio said after the game. The now 33-year-old Barça player signed for the Catalan team on February 6, with a contract until the end of the season. Thus, he began training under the orders of Roger Grimau, but without yet playing a game upon his return to the club where he played before landing in the NBA.
With this defeat, the Spanish team begins its journey towards Eurobasket 2025 with a stumble, but the alarms have not yet gone off. Sergio Scariolo’s team still has commitments ahead, in which two places will be disputed to be distributed among three teams: Spain, Belgium and Slovakia. The next match for the national team will be the one against the Belgian team, next Sunday, February 25, in Charleroi.