NBA Insider: New contract is indication of Rubio's willingness to stay

The former international man of mystery whom Timberwolves fans wondered if they'd ever see just five short years ago now is contractually obligated to remain in Minnesota through 2019.

The Wolves guaranteed as much Friday evening when they signed point guard Ricky Rubio to a four-year, $55 million contract extension that is both a bet on the player they believe he can become and a response to a previous contract negotiation partly responsible for All-Star forward Kevin Love's departure from Minnesota.

It also will pay him, starting next season, an annual $13.75 million salary. That's more than peers Stephen Curry, Tony Parker, Mike Conley, Kyle Lowry and others earn and it makes him the team's leader in body and spirit until he's 28, unless the team decides otherwise.

Drafted fifth overall in 2009, Rubio was the man whom wary Wolves fans fretted might force his way out of Minnesota before he ever arrived from Spain and before he played a game alongside Love. They waited two years for his arrival and now, only three years later, Rubio is the franchise's face and its future — at least until rookie Andrew Wiggins matures — while Love is long gone.

"Well, that's true," Rubio said Saturday when asked about such a turnabout with fans from 2009 to now. "They're going to see me a long time here."

Once upon a time, Rubio and his camp gave the distinct impression the precocious point guard wanted to play in New York, Sacramento — anywhere but Minnesota. Here in 2014, Rubio said re-signing was always his No. 1 objective through months of contract negotiations that benefited from a "man to man" conversation with team owner Glen Taylor in September and from Taylor's role as a closer when the last details were agreed upon Friday.

"My goal was staying here, so from the first moment I came here, I felt it was something special between Minnesota and me," Rubio said at a Saturday news conference. "I keep feeling it and I want to stay here for a long time. I want to take this team to the playoffs. We've had tough seasons, but I think we are on the right track."

"What it boils down to in our league, players get paid," said Flip Saunders, Wolves coach and president of basketball operations. "Good players also have the opportunity to make the decision whether they want to be somewhere else. There is no question all along, Ricky wanted to be here. So it says something about his character that he wants to be someone who is going to lead the team where we want to go."

Love chose to leave after six seasons, partly because he was embittered when the Wolves refused to offer him in January 2012 a maximum five-year, $80-plus million "designated player" contract. Instead, he signed a four-year, $62 million deal that theoretically left free for Rubio that lone five-year max slot for players coming off their rookie contract.

The Wolves refused demands from agent Dan Fegan for such a contract or any maximum-salary deal, but they still paid a player who turned 24 in October handsomely for what Saunders calls Rubio's work ethic, competitiveness and innate passing and defensive instincts that he can't coach.

It also eliminates the possibility another team would offer a max $64 million contract next summer that might have left the Wolves hesitant to match. Wolves fans now know their flashy point guard is here to stay.

"Staying here I think will make them happy," Rubio said. "It's making me happy, too. I think we have a special connection and I want to keep building that, giving them every night something to go to bed happy about."

Twitter sometimes promotes conversations that otherwise never would take place. LSU assistant coach Eric Musselman tweets coaches' quotes and truisms daily, including a snippet Thursday from a Star Tribune story last in which Wolves coach Flip Saunders paraphrased Eric's late father, Bill.

Their shared philosophy: If any player errs on the court, it's the point guard's fault, to which the great Phil Jackson chimed in. Winner of a record 11 NBA titles as coach, New York's new GM Jackson said a point guard is not comparable to football's quarterback.

"I couldn't disagree more," tweeted back Jackson, who was Bill Musselman's coaching rival back in their Continental Basketball Association days. "Yes, he sets the table-each player must be responsible to team."

No longer active on Twitter, Saunders points out that Jackson's triangle offense isn't a point-guard oriented system, like his is. He believes in his offense because he thinks it forces his point guard to be a leader and in turn promote teammates.

In an essay he wrote last month for Derek Jeter's new website The Players' Tribune, new Cavaliers forward Kevin Love said he would sweep the floors if it means winning a NBA title after those six losing seasons in Minnesota. Cavs rookie coach David Blatt was asked last week if he has seen Love pick up a broom yet.

J.J. Barea took the Timberwolves' money — $19 million guaranteed, at the time— when he left the NBA champions for Minnesota in December 2011. But he left his heart in Dallas, where he returned last week in a free-agent signing after the Wolves paid a him $3.2 million buyout of $4.5 million owed this season and waived him Monday.

"I wish I would have never left, but things happen,'' Barea told reporters after signing with Mavs. "They happen for a reason, so hopefully this works out. … The best five years of my life were here, so hopefully we can get this going again."

Wednesday: 6:30 p.m. at Brooklyn, FSN

Friday: 6 p.m. at Orlando, FSN

Saturday: 6:30 p.m. at Miami, FSN

Chris Bosh, Heat

The Heat threw a maximum $118 million contract at him last summer after LeBron James moved his talents out of South Beach, just so Bosh wouldn't leave for Houston. Now the third guy of the Big 3, he's the man — more so than aging Dwyane Wade and much more than newly signed Luol Deng — entrusted with keeping the franchise relevant.

— T-shirts entrepreneurial vendors sold on the streets outside the arena before LeBron James' emotional return to Cleveland Thursday night. It's a reference to Nike's "We Are All Witnesses" and "Witness" ad campaigns during James' first time around with the Cavaliers.