Cavs Star Ricky Rubio Says He’s Ending NBA Career Amid Mental Health Battle

Ricky Rubio, a veteran NBA point guard, said Thursday that he is retiring from the league after 12 seasons—a decision that he said he’d made last summer, around the time he stepped off the court to focus on his mental health.

Rubio, 33, was tapped for the NBA draft in 2009 after breaking out in his native Spain after a star-turning debut in the EuroLeague as a teenager. He played for four franchises in the NBA, including most recently the Cleveland Cavaliers, who signed him to a three-year contract for $18 million in 2022.

Last July, three months before the 2023-2024 season was set to kick off, Rubio said in his Thursday statement, he experienced “one of the toughest nights of my life.”

Read more at The Daily Beast.