Rubio To Barcelona? Kahn Says No

Quique Peinado and Edward Schell (Marca.com) reports point guard Ricky Rubio will be acquired from DKV Joventut to Regal Barcelona.  According to the article, a new six-year deal will be given to Rubio but a affordable buyout can be exercised after the second year.

Here is the google translated page to English.

Regal Barcelona will pay approximately $5.3 million to Joventut for the buyout of Rubio’s current contract in order to acquire him.

Despite contrary reports, the Minnesota Timberwolves will have full rights to Rubio throughout his six-year deal with Barcelona.  If and when Rubio decides to jump to the NBA, the Timberwolves will acquire his services at standard NBA rookie-level salary.

The important note to take out of Marca’s report is the affordable buyout after the second year of the contract.  The Timberwolves can afford to wait a couple years, and Rubio will still only be 20-years-old, with more experience under his belt.

Don’t fully believe this article just yet though.  These Spanish news services have been very wrong on many reports about Rubio.

Update:  As we suspected, this rumor is slightly fabricated.  Various sources around the media are saying Barcelona leaked this report to Marca, hoping to pressure Joventut into accepting their offer.

In the meantime, the official twitter of the Timberwolves tweeted that Timberwolves’ president David Kahn denied any agreement from any team of any league about acquiring Rubio from Joventut.

“Based on the information I have attained today, no team in any league has reached a deal with DKV Joventut” Kahn said.

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