Report: Rubio signs with Regal Barcelona

Finally something to wash the bitter taste of boredom out of my mouth. No more Joe Smith signing or Ramon Sessions Sweeptstakes or where will AI go or Michael Beasley talk. Here is some blockbuster rumor/news of the day that you can sink your teeth into. Reports are coming left and right that Ricky Rubio will ditch the NBA for the next couple of seasons and sign with Regal Barcelona. Whoa. Kind of funny when you consider how Minny was so ‘optimistic’ a few days ago about him being in their 09-10 plans. Time to give credit where credit is due. First reported on Marca.com , here is the original story in Spanish. I….can’t speak Spanish. I occasionally watch a telenovista or listen to a Shakira song but I’m completely lost on what it says. First seen on J.E. Skeets twitter was the following:

"“If translations are to be believed, Ricky Rubio is close to signing with Barcelona for six years. Should have reasonable buyout in ’11.”"

That was shortly followed up by RealGM reporting the following:

"“The Spanish team will pay a buyout of 3.7 million Euros, approximately $5.3 million, to Rubio’s previous team, Joventut.Rubio will sign a six-year agreement that contains an affordable buyout in 2011.”"

Now that I can see it in English…yikes. As of me writing this post, neither ESPN or Yahoo Sports has anything about the story so I’m still taking it with a little bit of salt. However, it seems pretty credible as of right now. If you want to read the fallout of Minnesota’s fans, I’d go to Canis Hoopus or click right here. This is not the most shocking news considering how immediately the Rubio/Minnesota relationship fell apart. Also when you consider how fast Rubio bolted back home and how many offers were bound to come, it was inevitable. I’ll tell you what this definitely is: a pretty nice sized blow to Minnesota. Personally speaking, I find it a bit sad to see the fans of that franchise take another blow like this. Rubio really could have given them some hope….something they haven’t had for the past couple years. And something they won’t have for the next couple years. Sidenote, I don’t see how anyone can defend Minny drafting Rubio by the way. Also, there’s no way that people can’t start worrying about what David Kahn is doing. He may be getting inspired as a GM by reading the Weekly World Dumb Dumb. He essentially traded away Mike Miller and Randy Foye for nothing. Instead of drafting Stephen Curry with one of those picks he wanted to draft two PG’s back-to-back. Of course that would upset Rubio, I mean come on now. It didn’t make any sense and it surely doesn’t make any sense now. At least they didn’t hire Mark Jackson.

UPDATE: it seems as if this story has lost its legs very quickly. Yahoo Sports has denied this deal about 51 times on their twitter. Inside Hoops tweeted that four different media outlets are denying the deal. Even David Kahn has been quoed as denying this. Apologies for te lack of links as I type this from my phone, but definitely had to update the post. Remember that grain of salt I was talking about? Consider it a Scarface sized snowbal of salt. Marca is looking pretty foolish these days. Stay tuned for more.

I do have one question: does Minnesota retain his draft rights, or will Rubio be able to re-enter the draft or become a free agent?

Jonny Flynn is still smiling.

DOUBLE UPDATE: ESPN reporting that a deal is ‘likely’ but not done yet. It smells like someone is pulling a Sergio’s agent to make some pressure.