“The reason was basketball. Barcelona in 2011 was one of the best teams in Europe, winning everything, they had just won the EuroLeague in 2010. They had a great team. That team was fantastic: Juan Carlos Navarro, Fran Vazquez, Boniface N’Dong, Ricky Rubio, an incredible team.
I looked at the club and that team, and I thought, ‘Where do I fit? I won’t be taking minutes from Juan Carlos Navarro. I won’t do that. He is a Spanish basketball legend. Can we play together? I think we can, but will the coach see it the same way? He didn’t know. On the contrary, I saw Real Madrid and said, ‘Here we have a young team, with some of the best Spaniards, still developing and progressing, and I think they lack someone who does what I do.'”