Rudy Fernández made his debut for Real Madrid Basketball a couple of days ago. You'd think this would be slightly bigger news, considering the whole will-he-won't-he-who-cares thing he had going this summer with los blancos. Well, it certainly shot straight under my radar. 

Rudy scored 12 points in his seven minutes on the court--he didn't show any signs of rust, despite having not played in the NBA in a couple months (he did play for the Eurobasket Champions Spain this past month, so that must've helped). He was a great player in the EuroLeague last time he was around (back when he was 23), and this could be a great sign of things to come. 

I wouldn't read much into this match because it was a friendly against a team called CAI; I'd also be reticent to overreact to Madrid's second match, another friendly--a loss--against Caja Laboral, when he started and scored 7 points.

But hey, we might not see much of him this year: if the NBA doesn't lock out (finger's crossed), then he'll be heading back to Dallas to play with the defending champion Mavericks. It's OK, though, he'll be back in Madrid next year.