A few days after raising doubts about his continuation next season at Barça, Ricky Rubio was left out of the list of 22 players selected by Sergio Scariolo to prepare and play in the pre-Olympic tournament in Valencia (July 2 to 7 ) where Spain will seek a ticket for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games El Masnou point guard has decided to resign from the National Team (it is understood that not only for the pre-Olympic but also for a hypothetical Olympic Games), which does not indicate good for the future with his possible renewal of Barça, where he has to negotiate a new contract this summer.
Rubio’s decision came as a surprise because of his strong involvement with the Spanish team. In fact, after deciding to return from the NBA and sign with Barça, the 33-year-old player chose to play his first game in Spain with the national team and not with the Barça team. It was on February 22 in Zaragoza and against Latvia, in a qualification match for Eurobasket 2025.
The other big news on Scariolo’s roster is the return of naturalized American point guard Lorenzo Brown, who played in Eurobasket 2022 where Spain won gold but missed the World Cup last summer.
Four Barça players appear on the list, Álex Abrines, Darío Brizuela, Joel Parra and Willy Hernangómez, in addition to Juan Núñez, with whom Barça has a preliminary agreement for his inclusion. Complete with 22 are Alberto Abalde, Santi Aldama, Alberto Díaz, Rudy Fernández, Sergi García, Usman Garuba, Juancho Hernangómez, Sergio Llull, Xabi López-Arostegui, Jaime Pradilla, Josep Puerto, Miquel Salvó, Yankuba and Simanti Edgar. The first players called up will begin the initial preparation phase next Monday, June 10 in Malaga, while other players will be gradually included after the end of the club’s season.
The National Team will play two preparatory friendlies, against Italy in Madrid on June 25 and against the Dominican Republic in Alicante on the 28th In the Pre-Olympic they are in Group A and will face Lebanon in the first stage (July 2). and Angola (July 3). The first two will meet in the semifinals with the first two in Group B, consisting of Finland, which will not have a good figure, Lauri Markkanen (Utah Jazz), Poland and the Bahamas. The two semi-final winners will play in the final and the winner will get a ticket to Paris 2024.
Source: La Verdad
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