Do Americans Like Ricky Rubio?

I have been reading some SLAM magazine blog posts lately dealing with the 18-year-old Iberian basketball-playing wunderkind, and I have noticed many blog posts - posted by Americans - tend to be slanted against him.
As most readers of this blog know, Rubio rocketed into the international spotlight as a major cog on the Spanish national team that took silver in last year's Olympics. He then underwent surgery, missed a few months and since returning to play for his hometown DKV Joventut team has averaged 8.2 ppg, 6.2 apg and 1.8 spg in 21 minutes a game for 12 games. Those aren't stellar stats, but they ain't picken' from the suckleberry tree either. His Euroleague stats in 5 games, however, are pretty bad: 2.4 ppg, 2.8 apg and 1.8 spg in 13.4 minutes a game. So, he has yet to get his game on track, but he'll come around. Besides, it doesn't look like Rubio will apply for the 2009 draft anyway, and with stats like that, he'd be wise to season another year anyway.

Evidentally, Senor Rubio and his hermanos didn't get too bored while he convalesced from his surgery: Just look at how much fun they had practicing coin tossing into each other's hoodies/pockets for a McDonald's commercial!


As you can imagine, when SLAM posted the video on its site, many Americans (I assume) did not seem especially get into it. Take "eboy's" opening salvo:

You’ve got to be fu*king kidding me, right? There’s not enough words to describe how incredibly fu*king ghey and asinine this is...

Later, "underdog" enters the fray:

Pathetic. But I’m sure Ricky earned a good amount of money with this ad. So I understand the financial reasons, but c’mon. This sh- looks bad. (I don’t speak Spanish at all, so maybe for Spanish speakers this ad is funny or entertaining, but for some reason I don’t think so.)

Not to say everbody is so reactionary. Here's "RV" as a voice of reason:

i don’t understand the hate towrds the video, it’s a different culture, what’s amusing, funny, or interesting to them may not be the same for Americans. Also, it’s a commercial basically saying u can buy a burger for that much, so i guess they needed a gimmick involving the coin….

But then some Spaniards (I assume) get up in it with their own particular brand of vim:

I hope he never makes the NBA, so I can enjoy him here. U yankees think ur sh*t doesn’t smell. It’s OK with me. Keep on saying bad things about players u haven’t even seen in your life and I’ll keep suporting (good) Spanish players. BTW is great to have Navarro back. Just because he ain’t black he didn’t had a real chance to be the real leader he is in the NBA. World Camps baby. Cheers

and..

Couple of years ago, first European to go nr 1 in the draft. Then first European MVP. And Spain is still the world champion and played well against the redeem team in the olympic finals… Can’t denie that we’re catching up. Go Ricky!

I wonder if anything extraordinary in this online expression of a Spanish-American tiff, or if this all is simply a trans-Atlantic extension of the high school rivalries every Thad and Tyler knows while growing up playing football in Texas. I think there are two main differences, though:

1) While Thad and Tyler may hate each other schools, they can understand why they do so better than people in different cultures. After all, Thad and Tyler share the same god, Wal-Mart, megaplex movie theater, Abercrombie and Fitch store and even cross-date each the girls from each other's school occasionally. Whereas most Americans have never been across the Atlantic for an extended period of time and don't necessarily understand that different cultures have different ways of approaching humor. That can be very hard to wrap your head around until you're immersed in it. Similarly, Spaniards who have never lived in America may have constructed their view of America solely through commercials, MTV, Shia LaBeouf movies and Beyonce songs. Warped views run both ways.

2) Especially nationalistic Americans may view the others" from knocking America from its perch as basketball's superpower. At the head said "others" is Spain, who proved in 2008 that its arsenal of young basketball talent poses the greatest threat to beat the senior Americans in upcoming international basketball tournaments. Rubio is the best of the new generation, and will likely be the guy orchestrating the upset. And once the upset happens, there are no more excuses for America, which now has a coherent, consistent national team program focused on winning FIBA games. The U.S. will have to admit it no longer towers above the others, but is a first among equals. I don't see that as such a bad thing - if future international tournament games look like the end of the thrilling Spanish-U.S. 2008 Olympics final, we'll have entered a golden age of worldwide basketball quality.