I don't know if you remember the 2019 World Cup, when the 39-year-old Scola led a group of Argentine players about the same size as his son to defeat the top teams Serbia and France in a row to advance to the World Cup finals, Ginobili and Scola hugged their heads and cried.
He has represented Argentina in 5 Olympic Games, 5 World Cups, and broke the long-term monopoly of the U.S. men's basketball team on Olympic gold medals in 2004, winning the bronze medal at the Beijing Olympics, the semifinals at the London Olympics, and the runner-up in the 2002 and 2019 World Cups (World Championships).
Just looking at Scola's resume, it can be described as an honor, but in fact, Scola's basketball career is far more bumpy than imagined, and what supports him is his wife and 4 sons.
Hello everyone, I'm Kong Yiji, who doesn't like to steal books, and today let's walk into the story of "Diamond" Scola!
01 Growth
In distant Argentina, there is a famous basketball family, the head of the family is called Mario Scola, he is a basketball fan, the development of basketball as the family's top priority, so since his son Luis Scola was three years old, he devoted all the family's resources to Scola basketball enlightenment.
The elder Scola played until he retired in 1993, and his biggest idol was Jordan, so he showed Scola the video of Jordan, the first person in basketball, playing since he was a child, and took him to dry shooting and dribbling training day after day, so that Scola inherited his basketball dream.
Scola also lived up to his father's expectations, and in 1995 he was officially selected for Argentina's Under-21 youth team, where he met Ginobili, a young boy three years his senior, as well as Argentine golden generation players such as Delfino, Nocioni and Oberto, and began a fantastic journey.
Scola and Ginobili were placed in the same dormitory, and the "bald man" took great care of the little brother, teaching him dribbling, breaking, serpentine layups, and letting him touch his smart head and share his wisdom when he was fine.
Although Scola is not outstanding among basketball players in terms of physical talent and athleticism, and he was already a floor stream athlete at a young age, he is good at shooting, flexible and changeable footwork, and is an extremely versatile player with offensive skills.
As a football powerhouse, Argentina's basketball league is not hot, so the golden generation of players have gone to Europe to experience, and Scola also followed in the footsteps of his bald brother, leaving the pampas alone at the age of 18 and going to Spain to fight monsters and upgrades.
There are pros and cons to being away from home, the advantage of being in Spain is that he has learned to integrate into a new environment and receive a good English education, which has made his future life in the United States a lot easier, of course, most of the time he can speak Spanish, especially when he sees the Gasol brothers in the future, he finds a sense of being in a foreign country.
Of course, there are also bad ones, that is, there will be liars and scoundrels, such as the second team he signed with in Spain, the Tau team.
When Scola first arrived in Spain, he signed for Gijón in Spain's second division, but it only took one season for Scola to bring the Gijón team, who were teetering on the edge of the second division, to the top of the second division and help the team be promoted to the first division.
The ill-eyed Tau immediately signed Scola to a multi-year contract, but did not immediately bring Scola to the team, but continued to loan Scola to Gijón until 2000, when he was recalled from Gijón.
Scola came to the club with a strong edge, winning the Rookie of the Year title in his first season, and helping the team win the Spanish league and cup double in the 01-02 season, and thus entered the field of vision of NBA scouts.
In 2002, Scola officially entered the NBA draft, and his scouting report wrote: "Physical, mediocre, but well-rounded, skillful, and daring to fight."
But in those days, NBA scouts only saw the first six words "mediocre physical condition", so they selectively ignored Scola's all-round skills, and skipped Scola in the draft, if it weren't for Popovich's preference for Argentine players and the 56th pick to choose Scola with the 56th pick, then Scola would probably be lost.
Although Scola was not so happy with the 56th pick, the thought of playing for an NBA championship team right away and being able to get together with his "bald" brother in San Antonio made Scola very happy and began to imagine his journey in the NBA.
02 Bargaining
As with Ginobili, Spurs did not immediately call up Scola and kept him in Spain for training.
After the 2002 NBA Draft, the 22-year-old began to shine at the World Championships in Indiana with Ginobili and other members of the "Golden Generation", ending the American Dream Team's 58-game winning streak at World Series since the 1992 Olympics and finishing runner-up at the World Championships.
In the 2004 Athens Olympics, Scola averaged 17.6 points and 5.1 rebounds per game, in the semifinals, Scola teamed up with Ginobili to defeat the American Dream Six team, in the final, Scola scored 25 points and 11 rebounds in 10 of 13, defeated the dark horse Italy, and won the first Olympic gold medal in team history.
After the Olympics, Popovich decided it was time to bring Scola to San Antonio and began to negotiate a contract with him.
For Scola, this would have been a blessing for him, as the Spurs not only have a good brother Ginobili there, but they are also in dire need of an interior second attacker, which can be considered the best of both worlds.
But what Popovich and Scola didn't expect was that the Tau club didn't plan to let Scola go easily, they wanted to make a lot of money from it, so they offered a high buyout fee far beyond the NBA's buyout fee ceiling, which neither Spurs nor Scola could afford, and finally Spurs chose to sign Scola's teammates in Argentina, while Scola continued to wait for the right time in Spain.
In the process of waiting for the opportunity, by the way, he and his wife Pamela gave birth to their eldest son, and at the same time completed the domination of the Spanish league copy, the best team, MVP, European League all-time scoring champion and other honors are like picking up a bag, and the European copy has lost room for him to improve.
In the summer of 2006, seeing his best friend in the NBA, Scola learned from the pain and decided to break the net with the Tau team, pressured the other party at all costs, and even took the other party to court, and finally cut the buyout fee to $3.5 million, in order to celebrate this historic moment, Scola and his wife gave birth to another son.
When Scola arranged everything, the usually vicious Popovich turned it down, rejected Scola's offer of a three-year, $9.3 million contract, and traded his signing rights to the Houston Rockets.
Morey's negotiation skills are obviously much better than Scola's, after they got Scola, they immediately continued to cut down with the Tau team, cutting the buyout amount to $2 million, the Rockets helped Scola pay the NBA maximum of $500,000, and Scola paid the remaining $1.5 million, and finally landed in the NBA at the age of 27 with his wife and two sons.
03 Bloom
In the 2007-08 season, Scola officially started his career with the Houston Rockets, although he was the absolute core in Europe, but in the NBA, Scola could only play a supporting role next to Yao Ming and Maddy, after struggling at the beginning of the season, Scola sat in the starting position in the second half of the season, averaging 10.3 points and 6.4 rebounds per game throughout the season.
Although there is still a certain gap from the top power forward, this is already the best one of Yao Ming's partners, when Yao Ming is on the court, he is a spatial inside, and when Yao Ming is not on the court, he is Yao Ming who is one size smaller.
After finishing his rookie season, Scola followed Argentina to the Beijing Olympics, in 8 games, Scola averaged 18.9 points and 6.6 rebounds per game, including 37 points and 8 rebounds against Russia in 12 of 16, and 28 points and 11 rebounds against the United States.
After the Beijing Olympics, Scola, who already had two sons, wanted a daughter very much, so he and his wife asked for another one, but they didn't expect it to be a son, which made Scola unable to raise his head in front of Kobe Bryant for a while.
In the 2008-09 season, Scola became more and more consistent, averaging 12.7 points and 8.8 rebounds per game in the regular season, helping the team finish fifth in the West, and in the first round of the playoffs, Maddy was absent, and Scola beat Yao Ming to score a team-high 16.2 points, helping the Rockets to break through the second round for the first time since the 1996-97 season.
In the second round of the playoffs against the Lakers, Maddy continued to be absent, Yao Ming only played 3 games, Scola teamed up with Xiaobu to struggle, in the sixth game, Scola scored 24 points and 12 rebounds, Xiaobu scored 26 points and 4 assists, and dragged the game into a tiebreaker.
In the 2009-10 season, Yao Ming was reimbursed for another season, and Scola became the team's interior core, averaging 16.2 points and 8.6 rebounds per game, helping the team achieve a 42-40 record, ranking ninth in the West.
On May 22, 2010, Yao Ming and his wife gave birth to a daughter, and Scola and his wife were not far behind, giving birth to their fourth son soon after. ”
In the 2010 World Championships, Ginobili had to take care of his wife and children at home and couldn't play, Nocioni didn't come, Scola picked up the burden, he staged 5 consecutive 30+ miracles, averaging 27.9 points and 7.7 rebounds per game in the entire Olympic Games, but he was unable to return to the sky and fell outside the semifinals, making him a tragic figure in the World Championships that year.
Before the start of the 2010-2011 season, the Rockets and Scola signed a five-year, $47 million contract (which was not small that year), but Houston completely lost Yao Ming, Scola and Kevin Martin, Lowry and others led the civilian Rockets to a 43-39 record, ranking ninth in the West again, and Scola also reached his peak, averaging 18.3 points, 8.2 rebounds and 2.5 assists per game, becoming the league's best technical stream.
After the end of the 2011-12 season, the Rockets chose to pardon Scola in order to chase Howard, and the five-year Rocket career of "Diamond" ended, and the Houston generation of "actors" came to an end.
After leaving the Rockets, Scola has been growing old and strong, and has maintained a stable performance, continuing to heat up in teams such as the Suns, Pacers, Raptors, and Nets, and in 2017, Scola's NBA career officially ended, but his ageless legend in the international arena continues.
04 The myth of immortality in basketball
If the 2002 World Championships, to the 2004 Olympic Games, and then to the 06 World Championships, the 08 Olympic Games, and the 10 World Championships are the pinnacle of Scola in the international arena, then, since the 2012 London Olympics, it is a veteran and a legend of time struggle.
At the London Olympics, 32-year-old Scola, 35-year-old Ginobili, 30-year-old Delfino, 33-year-old Nocioni, 35-year-old Priccioni and other 10 veterans over 30 years old, plus two children played again, and finally Scola averaged 18 points per game, Ginobili averaged 19.4 points per game, and Delfino averaged 15.4 points per game, which brought Argentina to the top four with difficulty.
In the 2014 World Cup in Spain, Ginobili, Delfino, Nocioni and other veterans couldn't play, and the 34-year-old Scola became Argentina's last support, averaging 19.5 points and 8.5 rebounds per game, and Argentina missed the quarterfinals.
In the 2016 Rio Olympics, the 39-year-old Ginobili teamed up with the 36-year-old Scola to lead the team again, and the two veterans shined in Rio, but the team was not picked up, coupled with the rise of European powerhouses, Argentina fell outside the semi-finals again, and soon after, Ginobili announced his retirement, and Scola became the last pearl of Argentina's golden generation.
In 2017, Scola, who lost his position in the NBA, did not return to the European arena, but came to the CBA to play his spare time, and at the age of 37, he contributed an average of 27.7 points, 13.8 rebounds and 3.4 assists per game in the CBA, allowing Chinese fans to witness the gap between China's internal line and foreign internal line.
In 2018, Scola came to Yao Ming's hometown team, the Shanghai men's basketball team, and helped the Shanghai men's basketball team catch the last train of the playoffs.
In 2019, the 39-year-old Scola led the team to the World Cup for the fifth time, playing an average of 30 minutes per game, scoring 17.9 points and 8.1 rebounds, defeating Serbia with Jokic in the quarterfinals, and defeating the French men's basketball team in the semifinals.
After the 2019 World Cup, Scola did not choose to retire, nor did he choose to stay in the Chinese basketball world, but picked up his bags and returned to the European arena at the beginning of his basketball career, because of the impact of the epidemic, some basketball games in Europe were forced to be suspended, and the Tokyo Olympics also chose to postpone, in order to continue to play the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, Scola signed with Varese Club of Serie A after his contract expired, and at the age of 41, he averaged 17.8 points and 6.7 rebounds per game.
On 17 July 2021, the 41-year-old was named in Argentina's squad for the Tokyo Olympics for his fifth Olympic tour, losing 59-97 to Australia on 3 August 2021 in the final four of his national team and career.
On September 21, 2021, Scola officially announced his retirement and became the CEO of Varese FC, continuing to be active in basketball in a new capacity.
Now 44 years old, because Yao Ming and came to China to play for two years, he is often active on major Chinese websites, sharing his basketball routine, and during the 2023 World Cup, Scola also commented several games.
It is worth mentioning that Scola's son has been selected for the Argentine U16 national team, he is 2.02 meters tall, he is the essence of Scola, and he is wearing his No. 4 jersey.
When asked why he loves the number 4 shirt, Scola said: "It's the number my dad used when he played on the pitch. ”
#文章首发挑战赛#