The happiness over the Grizzlies’ lottery good fortune was dealt a couple of body blows on Day 2 of the draft countdown.
First came a report from DraftExpress.com’s Jonathan Givony that Ricky Rubio‘s “camp” is making noises about trying to maneuver the phenom point guard to the West Coast:
Rubio doesn’t want to go to Memphis, and he especially does not want to pay money out of his own pocket with that huge buyout for the honor of doing so. Fegan [Rubio’s agent] wants him in L.A., and if he can’t have him there, he wants him in Sacramento. Definitely not Oklahoma City. “
Unlike Griffin or Hasheem Thabeet, who don’t really have any choice where they will play next season if a team decides to play hardball, Rubio has a reasonably attractive alternative option at his disposal—returning to Spain.
“He’ll pull out if he doesn’t like what he’s hearing,” the NBA source tells us. “Or he can stay in and force the Grizzlies to call his bluff—would they really take him knowing that he may never come over? That’s one way to get him to fall to three.”
Then, later in the day, we get this dispiriting nugget from ESPN.com’s Chad Ford:
