Ricky Rubio Has Never Successfully Dunked In An NBA Game, But He Did It In The Rio Olympics

There are a lot of things Ricky Rubio does well on a basketball court. He’s an amazing passer. He’s an extremely underrated defender. What he doesn’t do, though, is dunk. Ricky Rubio doesn’t have hops. He’s never dunked in an NBA game. Five years into his career, he’s tried one dunk in a game, and he missed it. However, apparently playing for his national team has given his hops a bit of a patriotic boost. Rubio dunked for Spain in the Olympics. The world as we know it has changed.

Spain was playing Nigeria in a must-win game Thursday. Rubio stole the ball and had a breakaway from half-court. This gave him enough time to go up for the dunk. It was not pretty. He didn’t slam it down with authority like Paul George did for the U.S. earlier in this Olympics. It was a dunk, though. Rubio has finally dunked in a competitive game.

Not that Rubio needs to dunk. He plays with Andrew Wiggins and Zach LaVine. The Timberwolves have plenty of dunkers. Rubio is there to dish alley-oops to his high flying teammates. When Spain needed him, though, Rubio rose to the challenge. Rubio used every last ounce of his leaping ability to dunk for his native land. They ended up winning. Maybe the dunk inspired them to it. Who can say for sure?

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