Luis Scola
Contributors to Basketball Wiki
Luis Alberto Scola Balvoa (born April 30, 1980, in Buenos Aires) is an Argentine professional basketball player who plays at Power Forward and last played for the Brooklyn Nets. He formerly was a Euroleague star with the ACB's Saski Baskonia. He has dual citizenship: Argentine and Spanish.[1...
/skins-ucp/mw139/common/favicon.ico
Basketball Wiki
Luis Alberto Scola Balvoa (born April 30, 1980, in Buenos Aires) is an Argentine professional basketball player who plays at Power Forward and last played for the Brooklyn Nets. He formerly was a Euroleague star with the ACB's Saski Baskonia. He has dual citizenship: Argentine and Spanish.[1]

Professional career[]

Argentina[]

Scola started his career with the Buenos Aires youth teams of Ferro Carril Oeste. He made his professional debut with the same club's pro team in the Argentine league during the 1995-96 season.

Euroleague[]

Cabitel Gijón[]

After the 1997-98 basketball season in the Argentine League, Scola moved to Spain where he helped the then Spanish League Second Division club Cabitel Gijón achieve promotion to the Spanish League First Division. He then signed with Saski Baskonia, but was loaned back to Gijón through the 1999-2000 season before arriving at Baskonia, where he played for seven seasons.

Saski Baskonia[]

With Saski Baskonia, Scola reached the Euroleague final in the 2000-01 season and three consecutive Euroleague Final Fours between 2005 and 2007. His outstanding performances earned him an All-Euroleague Second Team selection in 2005, as well as two All-Euroleague First Team selections in 2006 and 2007.

Although Scola did not manage to win the Euroleague championship with Baskonia, he did win with them every major Spanish League title, winning a Spanish ACB League championship in 2002, 3 Spanish Cups in 2002, 2004, 2006, and 3 Spanish Supercups in 2005, 2006, 2007.

NBA career[]

In the summer of 2005, the San Antonio Spurs of the National Basketball Association (who drafted Scola in 2002) attempted to negotiate with Baskonia to buy out his contract. After initially throwing around numbers as large as $1.5 million, Baskonia eventually settled on a still higher number of over $3 million for the contract. This made it difficult for Scola to join fellow Argentina national team member Manu Ginóbili in San Antonio because of the NBA's rule which limits teams to paying no more than $500,000 of a player's buyout.[2] Scola would have been responsible for paying Baskonia the remaining $2.5 million. When the deal to buy out Scola's contract fell through, the Spurs instead signed an Argentine national team teammate and friend of Scola's Fabricio Oberto.

Houston Rockets[]

On July 12, 2007, the Spurs traded the rights to Scola, along with center-forward Jackie Butler, to the Houston Rockets in return for Vassilis Spanoulis, a future second-round draft pick, and cash considerations. He signed with the Rockets soon after[3] and his sticky buyout situation was resolved a few days later.[4] Scola signed a three-year contract with the Rockets, at a salary of $9.5 million.

Scola placed third in the NBA 2007-08 Rookie of the Year Award voting[5] and he was also named to the NBA All-Rookie First Team. On March 13, 2010, he scored a career high 44 points against the New Jersey Nets.

ArgeAtine national basketball team[]

With Argentina's junior national teams, Scola won the gold medal at the 1995 South American Cadet Championship, the gold medal at the 1996 South American Junior Championship, the gold medal at the 2000 FIBA Americas Under-20 Championship, and the bronze medal at the 2001 FIBA Under-21 World Championship.

As a member of the senior Argentine national team, Scola has won numerous medals: the silver medal at the 1999 South American Championship, the bronze medal at the 1999 FIBA Americas Championship, the gold medal at the 2001 FIBA Americas Championship, the silver medal at the 2002 FIBA World Championship, the silver medal at the 2003 FIBA Americas Championship, the gold medal at the 2004 Olympic Basketball Tournament, the silver medal at the 2007 FIBA Americas Championship, the bronze medal at the 2008 Olympic Basketball Tournament, and the bronze medal at the 2009 FIBA Americas Championship.

Scola broke two Argentine records at World Championships during the 2010 edition: top overall scorer (beating Ernesto Gehrmann's 331 points)[6] and most points in one game (scoring 37 against Brazil on the round of 16, therefore beating Alberto Desimone's 35 against Mexico in 1963).[7]

Titles and medals[]

Club level[]

1 Spanish Championship (2002)

3 Spanish Cups (2002, 2004, 2006)

3 Spanish Supercups (2005, 2006, 2007)

Argentine national team[]

1995 South American Cadet Championship - Gold Medal

1996 South American Junior Championship - Gold Medal

1999 South American Championship - Silver Medal

1999 FIBA Americas Championship - Bronze Medal

2000 FIBA Americas Under-20 Championship - Gold Medal

2001 FIBA Under-21 World Championship - Bronze Medal

2001 FIBA Americas Championship - Gold Medal

2002 FIBA World Championship - Silver Medal

2003 FIBA Americas Championship - Silver Medal

2004 Olympic Basketball Tournament - Gold Medal

2007 FIBA Americas Championship - Silver Medal

2008 Olympic Basketball Tournament - Bronze Medal

2009 FIBA Americas Championship - Bronze Medal

Awards[]

Club level[]

Spanish League Rookie of the Year (2000)

Spanish Supercup MVP (2005)

All-Euroleague Second Team (2005)

2× Spanish League MVP (2005, 2007)

2× All-Euroleague First Team (2006, 2007)

NBA All-Rookie First Team (2008)

Argentine national team[]

2000 FIBA Americas Under-20 Championship MVP

2001 FIBA Under-21 World Championship All-Tournament Team

2007 FIBA Americas Championship MVP

2009 FIBA Americas Championship MVP

2010 FIBA World Championship All-Tournament Team

NBA career statistics[]

Legend GP Games played GS Games started MPG Minutes per game FG% Field goal percentage 3P% 3-point field-goal percentage FT% Free-throw percentage RPG Rebounds per game APG Assists per game SPG Steals per game BPG Blocks per game PPG Points per game Bold Career high

Regular season[]

Year Team GP GS MPG FG% 3P% FT% RPG APG SPG BPG PPG 2007–08 Houston 82 39 24.7 .515 .000 .668 6.4 1.3 .7 .2 10.3 2008–09 Houston 82 82 30.3 .531 .000 .760 8.8 1.5 .8 .1 12.7 2009–10 Houston 82 82 32.6 .514 .200 .779 8.6 2.1 .8 .3 16.2 2010–11 Houston 74 74 32.6 .504 .000 .738 8.2 2.5 .6 .6 18.3 2011–12 Houston 66 66 31.3 .491 .000 .773 6.5 2.1 .5 .4 15.5 2012–13 Phoenix 82 67 26.6 .473 .188 .787 6.6 2.2 .8 .4 12.8 Career 468 410 29.6 .504 .121 .750 7.5 1.9 .7 .3 14.2

Playoffs[]

Year Team GP GS MPG FG% 3P% FT% RPG APG SPG BPG PPG 2007–08 Houston 6 6 36.7 .448 .000 .686 9.3 1.3 .7 .2 14.0 2008–09 Houston 13 13 32.6 .494 .000 .673 8.4 1.8 .5 .2 14.4 Career 19 19 33.9 .480 .000 .679 8.7 1.6 .6 .2 14.3

References and notes[]

See also[]

Photo Gallery - Photos featuring Luis Scola

[]