Ricky Rubio is a humanitarian first and an NBA basketball player second.
The Utah Jazz point guard invited a young fan from Spain and his family to Madison Square Garden for the team's match-up against the New York Knicks Wednesday night.
.@rickyrubio9 flew Luca, who is battling cancer, and his family out to Madison Square Garden all the way from Spain! #TeamIsEverything pic.twitter.com/PAuOzMnB43
— NBA Cares (@nbacares) March 20, 2019
Ricky Rubio, a native of Spain himself, is seen in the video shooting around in pregame warm-ups with the fan (Luca) handling the rebounding duties.
In what looks to have been a fun-filled night for the youngster Luca, the Jazz dominated the Knicks on their home floor 137-116. Utah improves to 42-29 with the victory, seventh in the Western Conference standings.
Rubio put on a passing clinic, as he seems to do in just about every contest — posting a game-high nine assists.
The 28-year-old playmaker has coped with injury at times during the season, but that hasn't deviated him from having one of the better scoring seasons of his eight-year NBA tenure. He's averaging 12.6 points, 6.1 assists and 3.7 rebounds entering Wednesday's contest.
Not one for the materialistic side of the NBA, Rubio's impetus lies with being a role model for the youth. A good portion of his free time is dedicated to the Ricky Rubio Academy.
“If I want to do something in this life, it’s to make this world better,” Rubio told Eric Woodyard of Deseret News in 2017. “One of the ways is impacting the kids by letting them have fun but at the same time teaching them some values.”
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