With so many games in an NBA season and a countless amount of players who just coast along, we don’t often think of the NBA schedule as being particularly rigorous. Teams like the Celtics don’t even try until the postseason comes around, so it doesn’t really matter to them if they have a west coast road trip or games on consecutive nights. For someone like Ricky Rubio who isn’t used to basketball in America, the NBA schedule is apparently a challenge.
“Yesterday I was looking at my schedule and putting it in my iPad and I was saying 16, 17, 18,” Rubio said according to Timberwolves.com. “I mean, three games in a row? What the hell?”
Rubio was making a joke of course, but it’s still interesting to see the culture change between playing overseas and playing here. If you remember, Rubio also said that he hadn’t spent much time playing with his teammates during the lockout because he didn’t have their phone numbers. Between the disconnect with his team and the shock over a busy NBA schedule, you have to wonder if it’s going to take Ricky a year or so to acclimate before becoming an effective player in the league.
