Rudy Fernandez to return to Spain?

Sometimes, I'm glad I speak Spanish.  Otherwise, I wouldn't have understood this bit of news.

Mallorcaconfidencial.com, is saying that they've spoken to Rudy Fernandez, and he's not ruling out returning to Spain next year.  For reals?  And do you know what he lists as the reason?  The coach, Nate McMillan.

The same coach who recognizes that Batum is the defensive specialist - and lets leads slip away with Batum on the bench.  In fact, at Toronto Batum played less than 20 minutes.  But that's here nor there.  But I will say that the Blazers had a sizeable lead that, once again, nearly dissapeared.

But Rudy, who speaks Spanish, is much more open with the Spanish media.  Here's a quote:

“McMillan es un entrenador que tiene las cosas muy claras, que va a muerte con su filosofía y muchas veces yo no entro en ella. Yo intento amoldarme a lo que él dice y jugar como él quiere, pero no noto esa confianza que en el primer año tenía”

Translation:

"McMillan is a coach that a clear view of things, that will go to the grave with his philosophy and many times I'm not a part of his philosophy.  I try to mold myself to what he says and play likes he wants me to play, but I don't see the confidence like there was in my first year".

Pretty heavy stuff.  And it's what people on the outside have said about McMillan the entire year.  He's a task master who has his ideas about things.  His word is final.  Right or wrong, they're going to do it Nate's way.

Is it any surprise that Rudy played nearly 32 minutes tonight versus the Raptors?  This month of February he's averaged 23 minutes a game.  Blazers' brass knew about the comments Rudy made.  And I have to think that they told Nate, "Play Rudy.  He's going to leave, you horses ass."

Rudy goes on to say in the interview:  “Ahora mismo, y en esta situación, no descarto nada. Lo único que quiero es jugar y me puede dar igual dónde sea”,

Traslation:

"Right now, in this situation, I don't rule anything out.  The only thing I want is to play and it's all the same to me wherever it is."

Those are fighting words.  He's sticking it to Nate in full view of everybody.  He's insinuating he'd rather leave the league than ride the pine under McMillan's rigid system for one more year.  Who can blame him?  I'm going to have to learn French.  Maybe Batum is saying something similar and I'd have no idea.

This is serious stuff.  Rudy is really the first player to lay the challenge down to Blazers HQ.  And he's saying, "it's coach or me."  Please, please, please let it be the coach.