A translation of an interview with Rudy Fernandez, the Spanish wunderkind who dunked on Dwight Howard in the gold medal game of the Beijing Olympics, as he attends the Rookie Transition Program (a mandatory series of seminars and lectures for the rookies starting out every NBA season):

“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, in 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 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, in 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.

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