Luis Scola: The Rockets Should Not Be Too Far Away From the Championship

benchmoochie · Aug 13, 2007

Pre hobby days of Scola = Yao's interests.

EGYPT · Aug 13, 2007

how come the chronicle writters don't travel abroad to get us similar information? I do not think it is a money issue.

lunaticrocket · Aug 13, 2007

"If we do not get past the second round it is on me"
Luis Scola

pryuen · Aug 13, 2007

The 3rd article from Jia Fan of Titan Sports sent over from Argentina on Luis Scola's game.

Can't wait to see him in action together with Big Yao !!!

http://nba.sports.tom.com/2007-08-13/0424/83386174.html

One will definitely be fascinated and attracted by his (long) hair after watching Luis Scola playing basketball on the court. After all, it is very rare to see basketball players on the court with such shiny long hair.

Luis Scola’s long hair is such a scenery to behold on the court. He runs fast and tireless on the court, and his long hair follows him like dancing in the wind; when he jumps to snatch the rebounds, his long hair also flies with him, and blocks out the sight of his opponents. No wonder the Argentine media once jokingly exclaimed: “Luis Scola’s hair is one of his most feared weapons on the court.”

Luis Scola has some very wild and long hair; he also has some very wild heart. Emanuel Ginobili once commented: “Regardless of when, regardless of who our opponents are, regardless whether we are leading or falling behind in a game, Luis will still go all out to fight for a loose ball on the floor whole-heartedly.”

Those were not empty words and praises from Ginobili. In the first game of the 4 Nations tournament, playing against a very average Uruguay team, Luis Scola was still playing all out as if he was playing in the final of the Olympics. In order to snatch a rebound, he threw his body horizontally out of the court to pass back the ball to his team mate. Such scene repeated itself more than once throughout the game. US Sports Illustrated magazine once had a description of Luis Scola like this: “Any successful team requires a player like Dennis Rodman. Even if he does not have any ability in offense, but at least he can lead his team in defense. Luis Scola is such kind of a player.” After witnessing Luis Scola went all out trying to save a ball going out of bound, one will fully understand why the basketball experts are comparing him on par with Dennis Rodman.

Dennis Rodman is one of the greatest defensive players in NBA history, and of course, Luis Scola’s one-on-one defensive ability is nowhere near the Big Worm. But Luis Scola has very good physique, height and physical strength, which will enable him to compete against any NBA power forwards. After learning the landing of Luis Scola into NBA, Emanuel Ginobili commented: “I am not a bit worried about Luis. He definitely can stand firm in NBA. (Like him), I also have had experience playing in Europe. The contest there at the low post is even more physical and intense than NBA.”

Luis Scola has not only got brute physical strength; he also plays with his brain. And it fully manifested in his offense. The top star player in the Uruguayan team was Esteban Batista, the centre of Atlanta Hawks. Although he is not very famous, he has got some NBA experience under his belt; he scored 30 points and 16 rebounds against Canadian national team in the last game of the 4-Nations tournament. But once compared with Luis Scola, Esteban Batista appeared to be just a very ordinary and foolhardy player. He played like an injured wild animal, and was just body-clashing under the low post. On the other hand, Luis Scola played like an intelligent hunter, always moving unceasingly and creating scoring opportunities for himself and his team mates. After watching some of Luis Scola's playing videos in Europe, Rick Adelman appraised Luis Scola like this: “The most profound impression he left with me is that he is extremely intelligent; he has great consciousness and strong ability in passing the ball. In our offense systems, we definitely need such kind of player.”

But this is only part of Luis Scola’s strengths and merits. If he had watched these warm up games of the Argentine national team, Rick Adelman will surely be dumbfounded by another technique of Luis Scola: his ability of making those mid range jumpers. Throughout the competition, Luis Sola frequently received the ball near the free throw line; he either dished the ball to provide assists to his team mates to score, or he would directly score on his own from beyond the free throw line, with ridiculously high FG%.

So (one can expect such scenes) in the Rockets’ new season, if Yao Ming is in the low post, Luis Scola can pull out and attempt his mid range jumpers to attract the defense of the opponents such that they can no longer front or double-team Yao Ming. If Rick Adelman lets Yao Ming to play from the high post, Luis Scola can then move in to play one-on-one in the low post; in normal circumstances, he probably will first lean onto his opponents, and then spins and turns around to attack the basket directly.

In summary, after watching 3 of Argentina’s warm up games, the most prominent feeling and impression Luis Sola left with the reporter is: There has never been such a comprehensive and such an outstanding power forward ever playing alongside Yao Ming.
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doublehh03 · Aug 13, 2007

the goal of this team from DAY 1 is to win a championship. not passing the first round or whatever. tmac and yao have to get that mentality out of the way. just think championship. think rings. think championships.

Alvin Choo · Aug 13, 2007

nice translation pryuen, i have always tried to find faults in your translation and so far i still failed to find any. Keep up the good work, and if i notice any mistakes i will surely let you know

Cant wait to see how good scola turns out.

saleem · Aug 13, 2007

All this is very encouraging,but let's not get ahead of ourselves,Scola's main weakness is rebounding which is around 6- 7 a game which amounts to very little. He also is foul prone and needs to keep on getting better at the free throw line and with his mid-range shot. He is strong at scoring around the basket and is a smart passer and plays tough defense which are obvious plus points but he needs work to get ready for the upcoming season.
The good thing about him is his willingness to improve, which hopefully can result in overcoming difficulties sooner than later.

xomox · Aug 13, 2007

dntrwl said:

all he needs now is a haircut and he'll be winning championships in no time!
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All you need is a headcut.

Yetti · Aug 13, 2007

dntrwl said:

all he needs now is a haircut and he'll be winning championships in no time!
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Itn't it true that he gets it cut every week. Remember he is european in nature.

Dr of Dunk · Aug 13, 2007

The Rockets' marketing department should use this somewhere :

"WOW !! He is simply inconceivably ridiculous!"

durvasa · Aug 13, 2007

Dr of Dunk said:

The Rockets' marketing department should use this somewhere :

"WOW !! He is simply inconceivably ridiculous!"
Click to expand...

So, is that a Spanish to Mandarin to English translation?

Nero · Aug 13, 2007

BEXCELANT said:

He can take on Yao and they can play as teammates on Warcraft lol
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Yao is WAYYY too busy farming gold!

across110thstreet · Aug 13, 2007

these articles are simply overwhelmingly inconceivably amazing reading material for the off-season!!

thank you to the translator

ico4498 · Aug 13, 2007

Scola sounds great. he has serious game in an interview.

best regards for the season!

Hemotivo · Aug 13, 2007

A couple of things:

1º - A video of Luis against the Canada Development Team is here:
http://rapidshare.com/files/48414655/scola.wmv
2º - The last captain of Arg. Nat. Team was Pepe Sanchez, now Luis it's the captain.

Argentina travels to Puerto Rico for Tuto Marchand Cup
BUENOS AIRES (Tuto Marchand Cup) - The Argentinean Senior Men team travels to Puerto Rico for the Tuto Marchand Cup to be played in San Juan to August 16-18 in order to prepare for the 2007 FIBA Americas Championship.

Head coach Sergio Hernandez confirmed that Leo Gutierrez will not play in the Cup due to a right foot injury but might be ready for the FIBA Americas Championship.

"The group is united. He have many days to adjust many things, expecially on the defensive end, but the team will arrive well to the FIBA Americas Championship", said Hernandez.

"We are going to the qualification, the tournament will be hard and Brasil is the team to beat".

Luis Scola from the Houston Rockets is the captain of the team that is the current Olympic Champion.

The players named are:

PG: Pablo Prigioni (TAU Cerámica, ESP) and Antonio Porta (Angelico Biella, ITA).

SG: Carlos Delfino (Toronto Raptors, NBA) and Paolo Quinteros (León, ESP).

SF: Federico Kammerichs (Bruesa, ESP) and Matías Sandes (Burgos, ESP).

PF: Luis Scola (Houston Rockets, NBA), Leonardo Gutiérrez (Boca Juniors, ARG) and Diego Lo Grippo (Burgos, ESP);

C: Román González (Regatas, ARG), Martín Leiva (Burgos, ESP) and Juan Gutiérrez (Granada, ESP).

Hemotivo · Aug 13, 2007

Links:
http://www.fibaamericas.com/noticiasread_us.asp?r=SVOUSWQIZO
http://www-31.fiba.com/xml/ext/default.htm

wreck · Aug 13, 2007

dntrwl said:

all he needs now is a haircut and he'll be winning championships in no time!
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He looks weird with a crew cut. I think he should keep his hair and use it as an intimidation factor.

barryxzz · Aug 14, 2007

tsunami said:

>>>
TITAN: What do you usually do in your leisure time? You know, many NBA players of your age like to play computer games or something like that.
<<<

This question is stupid. I don't think many NBA players take computer games as their hobby.
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Didn't Phil Jackson said that all the young lakers players did were watching p*rn and playing video games?

WhoMikeJames · Aug 14, 2007

Happy?

Jonhty · Aug 14, 2007

barryxzz said:

Didn't Phil Jackson said that all the young lakers players did were watching p*rn and playing video games?
Click to expand...

i doubt that. why the hell would you watch p*rn when you can afford the real actions?

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Luis Scola: The Rockets Should Not Be Too Far Away From the Championship

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Luis Scola: The Rockets Should Not Be Too Far Away From the Championship

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