Rubio made his La Liga debut! He retired due to mental problems. What kind of suffering did he go through?

Two years ago, he retired due to mental problems and frankly said that he thought about suicide. Recently, the "golden boy" Rubio returned to the game. In his La Liga debut, he scored 18 points, 3 rebounds, 4 assists and 3 steals. Compared with his style, people are more grateful that he has slowly emerged from the haze. What kind of mental torture did Rubio go through?

In 2009, the Timberwolves used the No. 5 pick to pick Rubio, but he still had a Juventus contract with a buyout fee of up to 6.5 million US dollars. The Timberwolves only had a budget of 500,000 US dollars, so it was not until 2011 that Rubio entered the NBA. However, in his first season as a rookie, Rubio collided with Kobe Bryant's left knee while performing a double-team and suffered a severe anterior cruciate ligament tear. It will take at least 8-9 months to recover.

In the 2012 offseason, Rubio was doing extremely boring rehabilitation training, but he received another bad news. His mother was diagnosed with lung cancer. From then on, he felt as if his fate was bound by the disease. Because when he was 10 years old, his grandmother died of liver cancer, and when he was 12 years old, his grandfather died of lung cancer. Fortunately, aggressive treatment allowed my mother to successfully suppress the cancer for a time. Timberwolves coach Saunders has also been helping Rubio deal with his mother's various situations.

However, in the summer of 2015, everything took a turn for the worse. The Timberwolves selected Towns with the No. 1 pick, and coach Sanders called Rubio, hoping that he would end his vacation early and train with Towns as soon as possible. When Rubio returned to the team, he found that Sanders had become skinny and pale. Sanders pulled Rubio into his office and revealed that he had been diagnosed with Hodgkin lymphoma two months ago. Sanders also recommended the Mayo Clinic, where he received chemotherapy, to Rubio, one of the world's top medical centers.

Rubio took his parents to the Mayo Clinic, but a review showed that his mother's cancer had returned and was spreading rapidly. That night, Rubio felt that the apartment's wall panels were so poorly insulated that he heard his parents sobbing on the other side and felt heartbroken.

In October of the same year, three days before the start of the season, coach Sanders passed away. While grieving for his mentor, Rubio seemed to have seen his mother's end. He called his family members thousands of miles away every day to inquire about his condition. When his mother vomited frequently and his father had to hang up the phone to take care of her, Rubio hated that he couldn't stay by his mother's side because of playing basketball.

During the 2016 All-Star Weekend, even though he only had 4 days off, Rubio insisted on flying back to Spain. Regardless of the distance, he only stayed with his mother for one day. A few weeks after the 15-16 season ended, my mother and Rubio were separated forever. In the 16-17 season, under various blows, Rubio suffered from depression. He grew a beard and frantically sent text messages to his mother's number. Seeing the conversations that no one responded to, he wanted to smash his phone again and kept talking to himself.

In the 2017 offseason, the Timberwolves traded him to the Jazz. Rubio discovered that the advertiser of the Jazz jersey was a cancer research charity, where there were countless children waiting for treatment. His innocent smile ignited hope for Rubio. He cooperated with the foundation to raise funds for cancer research in memory of his mother, and averaged a career record of 13.1 points per game with the Jazz.

In 2019, Rubio led Spain to win the World Cup and won the MVP. That was one of his mother's wishes. At the beginning of the next year, Rubio welcomed the birth of his son, and everything seemed to be clearing up after the rain. However, the good times did not last long. At the end of 2021, when Rubio broke through, he sprained his severely injured left knee and tore his anterior cruciate ligament for a second time. The one-year recovery period made his mood hit rock bottom again. Although he returned in the 22-23 season, his average dropped sharply to 5.2 points per game and fell into self-doubt. Finally in the 23-24 season, Rubio terminated his NBA career due to mental problems and bluntly said that some nights, he wanted to end his life.

After more than a year of treatment, Rubio returned to Juventus, the parent team of his youth. In addition to continuing the legend on the court, more importantly, it represents his courage to face life again. Isn't this true for each of us? After all, the competition with life is not necessarily less difficult than challenging the NBA.