The road loves Rudy

Outside of Greg Oden and sometimes Brandon Roy, Rudy Fernandez draws the most interest from the local press when the Trail Blazers are playing away from the Rose Garden. Rudy has already established himself with the Portland media, but the journos outside of the Rose City are still anxious to get their first bit of face time with rookie from Palma de Mallorca.

Sports Illustrated's Steve Aschburner, who's based out of Minneapolis, scribed this Rudy profile after our win against the Timberwolves.

"You see him start to do something and you think, Oh, no!'' said Oden, seemingly happy to be discussing a Blazers newbie besides himself. "Then you stop and say, 'Oh. Good shot, Rudy.' He's been doing that sort of stuff for years.''

Fernandez, 23, already is in his sixth full professional season and he actually signed with Joventut Badalona at age 16, making one-minute appearances (according to his NBA Register bio) in 2001-02 and '02-03. That put him at 157 pro games before he unpacked his bags in Portland in September, along with two Olympics and other international competition.

"You can definitely tell he's played professionally,'' Blazers guard Brandon Roy said. "He's been doing a great job for us. We might not need him to do his heroic stuff every night, but we do need it on certain nights.''

Our rivals in New Orleans also sat down with Fernandez for a quick Q&A.

Hornets.com: With NBA players now leaving for Europe, why did you decide to come over at this time?

Fernandez: My dream was to play in the NBA. Playing in Portland this year is going to be a great opportunity for me. They have great young players and it should be a great experience for me.

Hornets.com: Do you think Ricky Rubio is ready for the NBA?

Fernandez: I think he is intelligent for his position. I think he needs to improve more on his offense. I think in two or three more years he will be great.