Subscribe Feed (RSS)There’s an interview on a Spanish site, Marca.com, with Rudy Fernandez from the NBA rookie orientation program. My Spanish is so rusty at this point of my life that I couldn’t do much with it. Fortunately, there are numerous websites out there that will roughly translate the story. Remember, this is rough, but there’s a certain charm in this translation that I can’t resist:
“Here there is people who are counted that their own relatives request money to them and is quite startling, because they must in addition it say to the group. They explain you that you are careful with where you invest grazes and, mainly, to whom the DAS. it hit when the professors told me, with total normality, that are women whom they look for to remain pregnant for sacarte the money. They count it as if it happened every day! ”, it says, surprised, Rudy.
There are other fun passages, including Rudy’s dismay when several players raised their hands during a lecture when someone asked them if they had friends on drugs. If you can translate better than this online program and find other gems, feel free to leave them in the comments. I says, surprised! with total normality, Dwight.
(UPDATE: Many thanks to Evan who now provides a complete translation in the comments section, including the wonderful headline, “There are women who look to get pregnant to take your money”)
Tags: Dwight Jaynes, Marca.com, NBA, Rookie orientation, Rudy Fernandez, Trail Blazers
I though the most telling thing about Rudy’s into to the new world was this passage.
“Cuentan de forma muy normal lo que para mí son barbaridades.”
(They told me in a normal manner about things that for me are barbaric.)
It’s just started, Rudy……
All the details of Rudy Fernández’s experience at Rookie Camp
“There are women who look to get pregnant to take your money”
By Quique Peinado
In the first class the professor asked Luis Scola, Marc Gasol and Rudy Fernández to stand up and all the rookies clapped. It was a tribute to the Olympic medal winners. “Everyone congratulated us,” says Rudy, amazed at what he’s seeing at the NBA Rookie Camp. And there’s enough to write a book from…
“There are some classes that are worthwhile, but there are others where you say, ‘I can’t believe this.’” Here are a few examples to give you a sense of what it’s like to be inside the NBA Rookie Camp. There’s an obligatory class for Rookies upon arrival that teaches them how to act around women and how to invest their money. Also they teach you manners and how to dress yourself. They also talk to you about how to keep yourself out of the media and what happens if you get caught with drugs. “They talk about things, which for me are crazy, as if they are normal. For example, yesterday they asked if people had friends who used drugs – and you have no idea how many people raised their hands! It made me want to say that my friends and I never even drink beer,” he says, laughing. But there’s much more.
Clash of Cultures
It’s not the same to give these talks to Rudy Fernández, en the ACB since he was 17 years old and part of a professional culture for practically his entire life, than to the other rookies who come from a University and are only 19 years old, oftentimes coming from a problematic environment. “There are people here whose own families ask them for money and it’s surprising because they have to talk to the group about this. They warn you to be careful where you and invest your cash and especially to whom you give it to. It surprised me when the professors told us, as if it were normal, that there are women who look to get pregnant to take your money. They said this as if it happened all the time!” says Rudy, surprised. And it’s clear that if the NBA didn’t address this issue it would happen even more often.
Legends, Marijuana and the Olympic Games
The time has been spent in the hotel in New Jersey in which the rookies received a class from some legends of the NBA, such as Hakeem Olajuwon, Clyde Drexler or Dominique Wilkins. “They have the best classes, because they tell so many stories,” says a Rudy who is visibly tired from the classes that begin at eight in the morning and end at nine at night, without breaks: “I’ve never been in class for so many hours straight in my life,” he continues.
He has gotten tired of receiving congratulations from his companions for his Olympic performance, although he hasn’t seen a replay of the final: “I haven’t had time. On NBA TV they show they only show the games involving American teams and I’ve gotten tired of watching them,” he says. The international players (Dragic, Marc, Ukic, Scola, who do the camp this year because they couldn’t participate last year due to international obligations) usually travel together. And it was Gasol himself who broke the news of the expulsion of Mario Chalmers and Darrell Arthur. “He came up to me and said ‘Damn, they’ve expelled one of my teammates!’” Rudy says, en reference to Arthur, the Grizzlies rookie. He has since found out that it was for marijuana possession. “They told us they had been kicked out, but they didn’t explain why. It’s good, you have to take it seriously,” says Rudy, who still has many years in the NBA to continue to be surprised.
I love it. I live in Oregon and am a life long blazers fan. we just finished making a new image of down to earth quality guys and rudy will fit in great. as for the rest of the league it has just started but not in portland there he will not find barbaric actions.
The NBA- where barbaric happens.
Rudy seems to have a good head on his shoulders. Another good soul for our “culture”.
Jaynes’ translation looks to be copied directly from a site where you type in a spanish phase and they spit out a very literal, and often incorrect translation
Thank you for your article on Rudy. I think that he will own Portland in a couple of weeks. He will be starting before the others know what hit them. He will dominate sooner than later. The videos probably don’t do him justice. I think that he will be a huge asset to the Blazer Nation. Thank you again for the info on how he is transitioning at the conference.
Portland’s love affair with Rudy is about to begin.
I bet money when he arrives, tons of people will be at the airport to welcome him. I say this in all seriousness, people will love Greg but be head-over-heels for Rudy. His passion, creativity, and energy will make him irresistible.
I’m offended by the suggestions of racism in the first couple comments…
so often in discussions such as these the focus of what is wrong with the world is placed at the feet of the victims on the front lines of oppression (poor minorities) and not the culprits (global capital)…
…I do agree that Rudy sounds like a good guy and the “right culture” is a very important thing, but…???
Are you serious? Is he claiming that he there are no scandalous golddiggers in Europe or that there are no drug addicts in Spain? And you guys are really swallowing this crap? I almost feel bad for people, but then I realized how racist you have to be to believe that someone from a country that had a dictatorship in the recent enough past is going to experience culture shock with all of the terrible people that populate the NBA. You’re damn right that’s racist.
“You’re damn right that’s racist.”
Typical knee-jerk idiot reaction.
What gets in my nerves is the NBA paternalistic treatment of the players. I just find offensive they “teach” grown up men how to dress, how to behave around women, or how to invest their money??? Maybe that’s what Rudy found offensive as well, being treated like an underage teenager.
When it comes to the drugs, Spain has as many drug problems as any other country. I don’t know where Rudy has spent his life, but Spain has the highest per capita consumption of cocaine of the Western world, and in the 1980s we had our own version of the heroine epidemic the US suffered in the 1970s. Maybe we don’t have problems with crack cocaine or meth, but we certainly have our own issues.
THe NBA has to be paternalistic because many of the players haven’t matured (and some never do). It’s a CYA on their part and although it’s wasted time on a lot of players maybe some will learn not to blow all their money on sex and drugs.
Portland is going to be a major force with Greg and Rudy joining an already good team. Note that USA today’s pre-season power ranking listed Portland as the 5th strongest team in the NBA this year.
just the fact that Chalmers and Arthur were thrown out shows that the camp is useful…And as it is said he lives in the professional world since he is 17! And since the bball players in Europe make much less money than in the NBA(dont be fool by the recent events) and most importantly less than soccer players so i think gold diggers exist in Europe but they hang around soccer players.
For the drugs i guess Rudy was preserved and that’s good for him, the blazers and the NBA
Hey Frank. Before you start calling me an idiot. Take a look at what I said, I don’t have knee jerk reactions. If I did, I would have been angry when I read your insulting comment. Calling names is for children. Did you read what I said? Did you understand? Believing that Rudy has never been exposed to anything like what was discussed in the rookie orientation is ridiculous and the people who believe it are also.
To Bkbb. Drugs happen everywhere over the world, but in Spain they are not to be found everywhere. It is perfectly possible to live hardly encountering them. I have no relatives or friends who are affected, and of all the people with which I relate it is an exceptional case when someone does have to face it. Even my nephews who are in school know, they know that a few mates are in it but it is rare and they are considered as bad models not to relate with. So drug exposure is limited in general, though in some neighbourhoods in big cities the situation is not as good. I can understand Rudy’s amazement when surrounded by so many cases: I would have been.
And regarding golddiggers, they may be a few cases in soccer, but in general in Spain girls would not act against their own inside feelings just to get money, the majority would not bear to live with an unwanted child from an unknown just for some monetary compensation, no matter how high. Money is less important here in a value scale than being true to personal feelings and values… money here is not regarded as THE goal in life. Quality of life is.
Are you kidding me? Quoting Evergreen: “I can understand Rudy’s amazement when surrounded by so many cases”. I completely agree with Spaniard and bkbb: “Believing that Rudy has never been exposed to anything like what was discussed in the rookie orientation is ridiculous and the people who believe it are also”.
I bet Rudy, M.Gasol and the young fella Rubio have been hitting their bongs till yesterday, or more likely just smoked it in joints like 98% of the spaniards do…
Regarding the differences between the US and Spain. I suspect that it’s a class issue. While the US has many more billionaires, there is a great deal less poverty in Spain as it has a social safety net. The desperate situations that some US-born NBA players escape from is a far cry from what your average Spanish athlete has ever experienced, even from afar. It doesn’t surprise me that Rudy is surprised at how common these kinds of problems are for many NBA rookies. It’s not racist to point out this disparity, but it may be classist.
C’mon folks……let’s not paint this into something bigger than it really is. The rookie orientation is what it is because the league finally woke up and realized it had to help young men deal with the responsibility of handling a 7 figure income….often when they are still teenagers. Many of these folks don’t really understand just how completely their lives are changing….that a “friend” is not always a friend.
Since when did this become an issue of globalization or that the league is being overly paternalistic?
Things are culturally different between Europe and the US…..it;s not a big deal. It’s also not racist.
It’s not racist, it’s just true. Most of these kids keep bad company, that’s why most raised their hand when asked if they had friends on drugs. Now you get these kids that are about to be multi-millionaires, and well, they’re now looked at as a meal ticket. And let’s be honest…a good amount of them aren’t the most educated people in the world. We all know how colleges and now even high schools are when it comes to sports, they’ll do anything to let these kids play, and if they have to fudge a few grades, so be it. They’re viewed as a meal ticket from their friends, families, and sluts. These girls want an NBA baby daddy, it’s their meal ticket, they won’t have to work, just take care of the kid and collect the check. It’s not racist, it’s just how the system works. I’ve been to europe quite a few times, and I can assure you, the ‘baby mamma’ concept is foreign to them. If a woman wants your money out there, she tries to marry you, not get knocked up by you. And yes, they need to learn how to dress as well. Seriously. I dressed like trash when I was young, and I’m sure these kids do too…so it’s nice to have someone kind of show them how to look professional. As for the racist chants on this message board, you’re all idiots who get offended at every little thing someone says, and you are the reason America is becoming so PC.
I didn’t read anything about a race or color anywhere in the Rudy transcript.
There’s some stuff in there that you can take to mean whatever you want, and having the word ‘race’ pop up in your head says a little bit about you in a wierd-reverse-psychological-whatever sort of way.
lemme hit you with some stories and statisticalizations (much harder to find than i thought):
U.S. Statistics
http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/hus/hus07.pdf#067
NPR Story on Spain’s Rising Drug Use
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5069687
Hoopster Demographics
http://www.american.com/archive/americana-entries/hoopster-demographics
p.s.
this post did disturb me, though
“in general in Spain girls would not act against their own inside feelings just to get money, the majority would not bear to live with an unwanted child from an unknown just for some monetary compensation, no matter how high. Money is less important here in a value scale than being true to personal feelings and values… money here is not regarded as THE goal in life. Quality of life is.”
maybe america really is so much more diverse and tolerant. when you bring up the word “values” in america, people automatically understand that these are -your personal- values. we don’t have ‘values’ as a whole.
well, maybe understanding that our ‘feelings’ and ‘values’ are different from other people’s ‘feelings’ and ‘values’ is in fact – an american value.
also – to a lot of people, money = quality of life. this is not being selfish or greedy while spanish people are all lofty, idealistic and in touch with the ‘right way’ to live.
money = better food, better housing, better healthcare, better education = quality of life
Of course Spaniards are concerned with money, but maybe they don’t always believe that rich = good and poor = dumb/lazy like we do in the US. The class disparity in this country is our biggest problem and a source of widespread disorder (i.e. drugs and crime). But then again maybe we’re right about the dumb/lazy sterotype, considering how many poor people vote Republican…
“Or more likely just smoked it in joints like 98% of the spaniards do…” Information is out there to check what you say: http://www.pnsd.msc.es/Categoria2/publica/publicaciones/Guia2008/img/cannabis2.jpg (18% of 14-to-18 youngsters consumed cannabis in the last 30 days in 2006). Of course cannabis consumption is not equally spread among youngsters, so you could see high schools where this could rise up to 50% and some others where it is rare.
The case of Rudy must have been one of these last ones. Before he entered the ACB league in Spain, he was playing for Joventut younger categories, and if things go as I know do for Estudiantes (an ACB team from Madrid where a friend of mine used to play in 10-14 categories), their education is controlled before they even have a chance to face drugs. His father seems to have been a professional basketball player in Spain as well, and his sister played in WNBA last year.
I love Rudy Fernandez! Stay in Portland