Ricky Rubio had finished his postgame interviews inside the visitors’ locker room at Madison Square Garden when someone had one more pressing question.
“How did you feel playing this game?” 12-year-old Luca de la Vega asked. “Was it easy? Or hard?”
Rubio smiled.
“There’s nothing easy in the NBA,” the Jazz point guard said.
No matter how challenging the NBA season gets, though, Rubio knows some things are bigger than basketball. That’s why the Jazz point guard wanted Luca at the Garden with him this week. Rubio flew Luca and his family from Spain to New York City to watch the Jazz take on the Knicks on Wednesday night, part of a yearlong plan to help Luca and his family in the wake of the boy’s cancer diagnosis.