“Keys to Barcelona”: When Kobe Bryant Was ‘Challenged’ by a Young Ricky Rubio Before the 2012 London Olympics

There are countless stories about the late, great Kobe Bryant‘s hardcore mentality and his propensity to dispense punishment to his trash-talkers. All of those stories have the same crux, Kobe was challenged by some player, who got a boatload of points dropped on him the very next game. However, Spanish basketball star Ricky Rubio still decided to fan the fire before the London Olympics in 2012. Quite unsurprisingly, the Black Mamba came out on top eventually.

A little blast from the past posted recently by Basket News on Instagram showed Kobe, Rubio, and Pau Gasol engaged in a conversation. At the time, Rubio was a fresher in the NBA, picked 5th overall by the Minnesota Timberwolves in the 2011 NBA Draft. Despite that, his confidence was at an all-time high and the Spanish star also wanted to avenge his team’s 2008 loss at the hands of the Redeem Team.

During the trash-talking session, after asking Kobe if he is going to be playing in the London Olympics, Rubio said, “You’re getting that silver medal, you know that.”

Kobe was never one to back out from an honest challenge and he immediately replied with, “I’m taking bets.” The next step was to put something on the line for the race to the gold medal. Kobe said, “If I win, I get the keys to Barcelona.” Even though Kobe said it in jest, Rubio was so confident that he seemed onboard with the challenge.

As we know now, team USA remained unbeaten in the tournament and ended up winning the Gold, while Spain had to settle for silver once again. It was a double blow for Rubio because not only did he lose the bet, but he also couldn’t participate in the Olympics due to a knee injury he suffered in February, 2012, quite ironically, while defending Kobe Bryant.

There was no bad blood between Kobe Bryant and Ricky Rubio

Talking trash is like a second nature for true competitors and the great ones never let that affect their off-court relationships. Kobe and Rubio had a similar chemistry between them. In December, 2021, while playing for the Cavs, Rubio suffered an ACL injury during a game against the Pelicans. Landing awkwardly on a jump shot attempt made him miss the entire season for his team.

While he was recovering from the injury, Rubio sought comfort in Kobe’s wisdom. The Mamba shared his thoughts on how the bad times always come to an end and no matter what the situation is, one should always keep going. Kobe said in the clip, “I’ve come to find out is that no matter what happens, the storm eventually ends.” That helped the Spanish star get through a very tough time in his career. Rubio announced his retirement from the NBA on January 4th, 2024.