Ricky Rubio and the Cleveland Cavaliers part ways

Ricky Rubio and the Cleveland Cavaliers have reached an agreement to terminate the player’s contract, ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski reports. The Spanish point guard, whose agreement was due to expire in the summer of 2025, thus puts an end to his stay of almost three years in Ohio.

Ricky says goodbye to a franchise which he joined as a veteran to lead and lean experience to a very young squad in the making. There, he was able to rediscover his best basketball... until the fateful injury to the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee, which he suffered at end of 2021 and which kept it in dry dock for more than a year. Up until that point, the Spain international averaged 13.1 points and 6.6 assists in 28.5 minutes on average.

Time out to take stock

Rubio has been away from the courts since the beginning of August when he decided to leave the national team camp, as they were preparing for the World Cup, to take care of his mental health. It was a huge blow for Spain - and for the Cavaliers, who offered him their full support when he opted not to report to training camp before the start of the season. “We continue to fully support Ricky and his efforts. For now, it is best that he remains outside the team and we have excused his absence. We continue to communicate and consult periodically with him and we will continue to help him in any way possible,” the franchise assured.

But as time passed, the Cavs were forced to consider what they were going to do with a player who they believed was essential in their efforts to regain status in the NBA and with whom they reached the Play-In. Reports published on 20 December presented an array of different plans for Rubio, with whom there were serious doubts about whether he would ever play professional basketball again.

Finally, a mutual agreement to rescind his contract has been chosen. The point guard had signed a contract extension with the Cavaliers in July 2022 for three seasons and $18.4 million in total, of which he had $10.3 million left to collect. Once he is out of the Cavaliers, any NBA franchise has 48 hours to claim his contract, but according to Wojnarowski, if Ricky continues his sports career, it will be back home in Spain rather than in the US.

This afternoon, he took to social media to announce that his NBA adventure was at an end and to thank Cleveland and the fans for the unconditional support they gave him: “I know the way things ended have been tough. I could never have imagined the year would develop this way but you have an amazing organization, with Koby and JB, who have been extremely respectful and understanding of my situation and caring for me as a person”.