00:00It's a big honor to be here for real.
00:03I started helping hospitals when I became professional.
00:07And with the team, we were going to visit some of the kids.
00:11But it was just one time, on Christmas.
00:14And I felt like, as a public figure,
00:17you have a responsibility to give back to the community.
00:24We wouldn't be a professional athlete
00:26if we weren't here for the community.
00:30So I feel like going to hospitals is just one part, a small part.
00:37But then I feel like you've got to come back to those places
00:43to really help the people in need.
00:48And in the hospital, they're doing a really, really good job.
00:52But a lot of people go to the private hospitals,
00:56which are really good.
00:58But public hospitals need help, too, as well.
01:02And when I came here to Dubai, I saw some of the deficits
01:07that can happen in public hospitals.
01:11And I was willing to help since day one.
01:14I came here for a visit.
01:16I was with the kids.
01:19And I saw them in the rehab gym that you have.
01:23And they were sharing with the adults.
01:25Even they have to walk through some of the practice,
01:29some of the buildings that you have here and across the streets.
01:34And it was really an image that impacted me
01:39when a kid was doing a rehab with a couple of the adults.
01:45And I was going back.
01:47I was driving back home with the president of the foundation.
01:54I mean, the CEO of the foundation.
01:55And I was talking to him.
01:57I'm a dad.
01:58And I don't want my son to be in that place.
02:01We need to help them.
02:02So we went back.
02:06And we knew it was an expensive investment.
02:09And as a foundation, we had resources.
02:12But we don't have that kind of resources.
02:14So we put together the plan.
02:16We put together I always play team sport.
02:19And we say that you can't do that alone.
02:22You have to have other partners to really have the success.
02:26So we created a plan with LaCasha as well that I'm helping a lot in a lot of projects.
02:33And it was something that grew inside of me that we wanted to do it.
02:39I know it was expensive.
02:41But it wasn't just about the money.
02:42It was about asking permissions and all this stuff.
02:45But finally it came to light a couple of years ago
02:50when that rehab area came to light.
02:54And it's amazing to see that.
02:58But thanks to the people who work there as well,
03:02are there every day.
03:03They're the real heroes.
03:05We just put the court so they can play.
03:09But they are the players.
03:11And we're really happy to make that happen.
03:15What did you feel when you visited the space with kids there?
03:20It makes sense.
03:21Like, it makes that that's what it's all about.
03:26It gives us hope.
03:27It gives us a sense of a community where everybody wants to help.
03:33And when there is a plan and there is a mission,
03:36we can accomplish that all together.
03:38We can't do it alone.
03:41We can't do it as just a Ricky Rubin Foundation.
03:43I think we need everybody on that to really make that happen.
03:47And at the end of the day, that it's all about.
03:50Life is about helping others.
03:52And when you help others and you feel that back to you, it means a lot.
03:58So two years ago as a foundation, we restructured a little bit
04:02because we were doing too much things and we just wanted to focus on one thing.
04:06And I think the reason why I opened the foundation, it was because of lung cancer.
04:12Lung cancer killed my mom.
04:14And I want to help all those people who are having lung cancer, have a longer life, even survive.
04:23And not just the patient, the whole family.
04:26I went that as an experience and it was the toughest thing that I went through.
04:33And helping with campaigns like against tobacco that are one of the main reasons that lung cancer is in our society.
04:45I'm willing to do all those kind of projects.
04:48Raise the boys to really do awareness.
04:50But at the same time, we have a couple of projects with exercise.
04:56I feel like exercise is the main focus that we have now with the foundation
05:00that is really helpful for having a healthy life
05:05and having a better recovery from all the surgeries and all the treatments that lung cancer are doing.
05:14Because one of the main reasons too as well is there's a lot of treatments.
05:18But at the same time, we don't want to take the quality of the life of the patient away
05:23just because we're trying to target one thing.
05:26So I think we have to do the 360 overall view when we're treating a patient.
05:33Mental health, all those kind of things that I think it's coming alive.
05:41And now with institutions and hospitals as well,
05:46I think there is a trend right now where the hospital doesn't have to look at us as a hospital anymore.
05:55It has to be a warm place where you go.
05:58And we even rehab some of the places that we visit with my mom.
06:04And the waiting area doesn't have to be white walls.
06:10It has to have a life and a purpose.
06:12And the energy has to be flowing as well.
06:16So as a foundation, we're trying to take care of all the details as well
06:19as trying to help the patients.
06:22I'm going to talk about something that I think I have never talked.
06:27So it took a year break because I thought I was done with basketball.
06:35And I was approaching to a point where I was 99% of quit.
06:42Like saying, like, I gave myself a year to really heal myself.
06:47So five things happened in five different days.
06:51And the third day, this person that is here, suddenly, a book, he wrote a book.
06:59I told him like five minutes before, but I didn't end up explaining.
07:05Because he opened up so much and I related to that.
07:09It helped me come back to basketball.
07:11So he was one of the reasons, and he's one of my idols as well.
07:15Not just because of soccer, of course, everybody knows.
07:18And I was in 2009 when I signed for Barcelona.
07:22I was going to the games and, yeah, Messi was there.
07:27But him and Xavi were my favorite players.
07:30So 15 years later, I'm in the middle of a, I wouldn't say a crisis.
07:41Because I say taking a year off and just thinking about myself, it was the best thing I ever done in my life.
07:48And reading that book and the things happened to me.
07:52The third one was that it gave me hope to really see that I wasn't suffering alone.
08:01So thank you, Andres, to open up for real.
08:03Because I think when you open up and when you perform at the highest level, a lot of people just see the bright side.
08:12And there's a lot of darkness.
08:13And that doesn't mean we're sad or, but for something that we have in common, it's just one thing that we are human beings.
08:23And human beings feel.
08:25We have emotions.
08:27And we have to share those emotions so we can relate to each other.
08:31So thanks for him to open up.
08:33It helped me find that reason or one of the reasons why I came back to play basketball.
08:39And I'm enjoying it right now.
08:41I'm enjoying it.
08:42I'm approaching in another level.
08:44And I'm willing, I wouldn't like to talk about mental health all the time just because I don't want to be in the spotlight.
08:50I feel like there is a bigger issues in the world than me being in problems.
08:58But if me sharing those problems help other people, I will keep doing that.
09:04And like Andres say, we're not trying to be the heroes.
09:10We're trying to share our experience so others can relate and help each other.
09:15At the end of the day, I think the life is tough enough.
09:19So, yeah, being at the highest level and having a voice where a lot of people can listen to you.
09:29And sometimes they listen to us more than their parents or their teachers.
09:33And we just play good soccer player or good basketball, but we don't know better than anybody else.
09:40We're just human beings trying to live in this life.
09:44But when you share experience to the truth, to know what's going on as your own vision.
09:53That doesn't mean it's the truth as your own vision.
09:56And other people can relate to that.
09:58So, yeah, I feel like we're in a better world and we're just trying to do that.
10:03So, yeah, I have some of my teammates and ex-teammates who approach me.
10:07Oh, I didn't know that happened to you.
10:10I say, it's not your fault that you didn't see it.
10:13I was hiding it.
10:14But now me open up.
10:15I hope you guys can open up as well and we can share those topics in the locker room.
10:19Because sometimes we think that we against the world, me against the world, and it's all of us have to play as a team to be better.
10:31I think that's a bigger issue than just soccer.
10:34And I think we are not the ones who can respond to that.
10:40I feel like he has to find for a psychologist to really help go through that.
10:48But one thing that I will tell him at the end of the day, it's a topic that it's really hard to say just because I feel like soccer brings him bad memories or good memories, whatever it is.
11:06But this is bigger than soccer.
11:09This is life.
11:10And I don't think we are the ones who can say anything to him.
11:15Instead, he will have to be the ones telling us how to live life.
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