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Scola hits the heights in NBA, will captain Argentina

Discussion in 'Houston Rockets: Game Action & Roster Moves' started by ying861020, Mar 25, 2009.

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  1. ying861020

    ying861020 Member

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    Luis Scola will serve as captain for Argentina at the FIBA Americas Championship this summer in Mexico.

    His country’s basketball confederation (CABB) confirmed over the weekend that the 6ft 9in power forward will both play for Argentina and lead the national side as they attempt to book a place in the 2010 FIBA World Championship.

    The announcement will come as a surprise to no one with the 28-year-old Scola headed for NBA superstardom like fellow Argentinian Manu Ginobili of San Antonio.

    In Sunday’s 87-85 win at San Antonio, Scola had 19 points and 17 rebounds. It was the 27th time this season that he achieved a double-double.

    He capped off the magnificent performance against the Spurs by hitting the game-winning shot with just over 11 seconds remaining.

    France’s Tony Parker had a chance to steal victory at the end but missed with a runner in the lane, and Scola grabbed the rebound.

    Fans and media outside the NBA have known for a long time how special Scola is. His performances with Argentina in international basketball, and with TAU Ceramica in Spain’s ACB and the Euroleague, made him one of the sport’s biggest names.

    A gold-medal winner with Argentina at the 2004 Olympics, Scola was the MVP of the 2007 FIBA Americas Championship in Las Vegas after leading a depleted national squad to a silver-medal finish and into the Beijing Games.

    After a strong rookie campaign in the NBA, Scola’s excellent play helped fire Argentina to a bronze medal in China.

    Now, with the Rockets winning even more following the loss of McGrady to a season-ending injury, more and more people are beginning to appreciate the contributions of Scola and one-time Team USA role player Shane Battier.

    One Houston Chronicle story paid tribute to Scola after Sunday’s win over San Antonio.

    Columnist Fran Blinebury wrote: “It's Scola who has been the foundation from the very first day. It is his hustle, his determination, his professionalism, his perseverance that led to this stirring win on Sunday.

    “Through all of the early season turmoil - the injuries, the lineup changes, the disappointing losses - Scola kept his head down and his energy up. And on Sunday afternoon it was fitting that he put the Rockets over the top in their biggest win of the season, maybe their biggest win of several seasons.”

    Spurs fans are certainly regretting the club’s decision to trade Scola’s rights to Houston before the 2007-08 campaign, which paved the way for his move to the NBA from TAU Ceramica in Spain.

    He is averaging 12.6 points and 8.7 rebounds per game this season.

    His Rockets teammate Brent Barry rubbed salt in the wound for San Antonio – a team he played for the previous four years before joining Houston last summer.

    After Sunday’s game, veteran Barry called Scola the best power forward in the NBA since the All-Star Weekend in Phoenix.

    “Think they could use this guy back here?” Barry said, grinning.

    Meanwhile, the two Argentina national team players with the Spurs, Ginobili and Fabricio Oberto, did not figure in Sunday’s game against Scola and the Rockets.

    Ginobili is out of action with a sore ankle while Oberto played just one minute.

    Another national team star, Carlos Delfino, has recovered from a right shoulder and is playing with BC Khimki again in Russia’s Superleague.


    http://www.fiba.com/pages/eng/fc/news/lateNews/p/newsid/29690/arti.html
     
    #1 ying861020, Mar 25, 2009
  2. MiracleShot

    MiracleShot Member

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    I always knew scola's hard work would pay off...Whether theres no chance to win and we're down by 30 or the other way around he was always putting in his best effort...now it paid off in SA AND hes gunna captain argentine team..
    GO SCOLA :D
     
    #2 MiracleShot, Mar 25, 2009
  3. mw_mw

    mw_mw Member

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    I don't follow FIBA but is Scola more valuable than Ginobili?
     
    #3 mw_mw, Mar 25, 2009
  4. theogcasey

    theogcasey Contributing Member

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    Congrats but I hope this doesn't affect his health next season. Wouldn't that make at least 2 years without a full break for him?
     
    #4 theogcasey, Mar 25, 2009
  5. Seth

    Seth Member

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    Argentina has better subs in the SG position than in the PF. But i think in our National Team Manu is more important than Luis by an inch.

    everybody is important, during the last WC we have 7 different game Top scorers in like 9 games i think, all but one (Pepe Sanchez) of the starters were scoring leaders for at least one game.
     
    #5 Seth, Mar 25, 2009
  6. Marcus Bryant

    Marcus Bryant Member

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    that's the keypoint, Scola wouldn't be the captain of team Argentina if Manu "the bald head" Ginobili was still a memer of Argentina national basketball team. Although Manu has got old and already become a prone to injury, his reputation and his rings still are the trump to guarantee him the leading role on argentina national team in some bigger events like olympics.
     
    #6 Marcus Bryant, Mar 26, 2009
  7. Marcus Bryant

    Marcus Bryant Member

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    but I believe Scola will finally replace manu on the argentina national team in the near future, but I'm afraid scola may not still be a rocket then. 9m or 10m is far from enough to retain scola once his contract expires. our team will have plenty of salary space when scola's contract expires, but that won't be enough for us to trap another superstar after scola takes his lion share of the salary space. what i expect morey to do is just to sign a couple of decent role players after he manages to retain our cores- yao, scola, artest.
     
    #7 Marcus Bryant, Mar 26, 2009
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