Ricky Rubio, absent from the European basketball tournament due to a serious knee injury, is the great novelty of Spain’s squad for the World Cup that begins on August 25 in Japan, the Philippines and Indonesia. The man from Masnou is the leader of a team that is starting preparation for the tournament with 16 players, four of whom will be discarded in the coming weeks.
In addition to the Catalan point guard, the other big name on the list drawn up by coach Sergio Scariolo is Santi Aldama, a player for the Memphis Grizzlies. The Italian coach has relied on the same group that won the European champion title against all odds in 2022, a team that stood out above all for its choral strength.
The full list is made up of Santi Aldama, Willy and Juancho Hernangómez, Usman Garuba, Ricky Rubio, Alberto Díaz, Rudy Fernández, Dario Brizuela, Álex Abrines, Joel Parra, Sebas Saiz, Sergio Llull, Jaime Fernández, Alberto Abalde, Víctor Claver and Jaime Pradilla. Regarding the call for the continental tournament, Xabier López-Arostegui and Lorenzo Brown, who was one of the sensations of the championship, fell due to injury. Abrines, Claver and Llull, all present in the World Cup squad, were going to be in the last continental tournament, but they finally fell off the list due to injuries.
Spain will start the World Cup as the current European and world champion, a title that it won in 2019 with Ricky Rubio as MVP of the tournament. The 32-year-old Catalan has returned to the courts this year with the Cleveland Cavaliers of the NBA after overcoming, after twelve and a half months, a rupture of the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee, an injury that he already suffered in the 2012.
The last game of the former Barça and Joventut player with the Spanish team was in the quarterfinals of the last Tokyo Games, when he was eliminated against the United States despite scoring 38 points, his highest score. Rubio, Sergio Llull and Rudy Fernández are the last representatives of the most successful era in Spain.
