"Sometimes, Ricky Rubio(notes) presses play on those old game DVDs, and his eyes long for the nerve of that 15-year-old flashing across the screen. He watches himself closely – the spontaneity, the boldness, the sheer jubilance of playing basketball. He wants it all again, wants it for good now.

The promise of Rubio's mid-teens became something of a burden this past year and a half, the pressures of delivering on the extraordinary expectations of his talent had installed a natural hesitation, a paralysis that can come with criticism. For all the hours that he spends studying the greatest point guards of all – Magic Johnson and Jason Kidd(notes) and Steve Nash(notes) – the Spanish wunderkind still finds relevance with flashing back to his buoyant younger self, remembering the roots of the sensation of Ricky Rubio.

"I see him, and that kid wasn't worried about what people were thinking," Rubio told Yahoo! Sports over lunch. "That kid wasn't worried about what would happen if he made a mistake. When I'm watching those games, I was playing like I don't care about nothing. I'm only worried about winning, about helping the team to win.""