Knott: This pick may leave Minnesota out in cold

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By Tom Knott

Ricky Rubio is dropping the Danny Ferry card on the Timberwolves, balking at the idea of playing in the Land of 10,000 Frozen Lakes.

"It's too cold," he said after checking out his Doppler radar.

It is too icy and snowy in Minnesota, too.

Ferry liked the weather in Los Angeles, just not the Clippers. He wound up in Italy instead.

Rubio is either the next Pete Maravich or Jason Williams, and gosh, the latter fate would be truly spectacular, given all the hype enveloping the 18-year-old point guard from Spain.

Rubio prefers the no-look flashy pass to the fundamentally sound one, which puts him in the family of Williams, the erstwhile White Chocolate who often made good on his threat to throw a perfect pass to the spectators sitting courtside.

It took Williams years to break this bad habit, and it undoubtedly took a few years off his coaches' life spans.

David Kahn awarded two shooters to the Wizards to land the No. 5 pick in the NBA Draft.

That pick turned out to be Rubio, and the Wizards can be thankful they were not put in the position to resist temptation.

Rubio might have found the District to be too politically gaseous and threatened to keep his basketball gear in Spain. That is his threat to the Timberwolves, dispensed just before blowing off the team's news conference that unveiled its newcomers.