Luis Scola

Luis Scola

Scola in 2014
No. 4 – Toronto Raptors
Position Power forward
League NBA
Personal information
Born (1980-04-30) April 30, 1980
Buenos Aires, Argentina
Nationality Argentine
Listed height 6 ft 9 in (2.06 m)
Listed weight 240 lb (109 kg)
Career information
NBA draft 2002 / Round: 2 / Pick: 56th overall
Selected by the San Antonio Spurs
Playing career 1995–present
Career history
1995–1998 Ferro Carril Oeste (Argentina)
1998–2007 Tau Ceramica (Spain)
1998–2000 →Gijón Baloncesto (Spain)
2007–2012 Houston Rockets
2012–2013 Phoenix Suns
2013–2015 Indiana Pacers
2015–present Toronto Raptors
Career highlights and awards
Stats at NBA.com
Stats at Basketball-Reference.com
Medals
Competitor for Argentina Argentina
Olympic Games
2004 Athens National Team
2008 Beijing National Team
FIBA World Cup
2002 Indianapolis
FIBA Diamond Ball
2004 Belgrade National Team
2008 Nanjing National Team
FIBA Americas Championship
2001 Neuquén National Team
2011 Mar del Plata National Team
2003 San Juan National Team
2007 Las Vegas National Team
2015 Mexico City National Team
1999 San Juan National Team
2009 San Juan National Team
2013 Caracas National Team

Luis Alberto Scola Balvoa (born April 30, 1980) is an Argentine professional basketball player for the Toronto Raptors of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He has been a Euroleague star with the ACB's Tau Ceramica, and a member of the Houston Rockets, Phoenix Suns and Indiana Pacers in the NBA.

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 at the age of 15.

Cabitel Gijón

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

Tau Ceramica

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 win the Euroleague championship with Baskonia, he did win with them every major Spanish League title, winning a Spanish ACB League championship in 2002, three Spanish King's Cups in 2002, 2004, 2006, and three Spanish Supercups in 2005, 2006, 2007.

NBA career

In the summer of 2005, the San Antonio Spurs of the NBA (who drafted Scola in 2002), attempted to negotiate with Baskonia to buy out his contract. After throwing around numbers as large as $15 million, Baskonia settled on a number of over $3 million for the buyout of 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.[1] Scola would have been responsible for paying Baskonia the remaining $2.5 million amount of the buyout. 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[2] and his sticky buyout situation was resolved a few days later.[3] 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[4] 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.

On the afternoon of December 8, 2011, the day before the 2011 NBA lockout ended and players could move between teams, the Rockets, the Los Angeles Lakers and the New Orleans Hornets agreed to a trade that would have sent Scola, along with Goran Dragić, Kevin Martin, and Lamar Odom to the Hornets. In exchange, the Rockets would have received Pau Gasol, and the Lakers would have received star point guard Chris Paul. That night, after other team owners voiced their opposition, league commissioner David Stern nullified the trade.[5]

On July 13, 2012, he was waived by the Rockets using the league's amnesty clause to provide salary cap relief.[6] It was widely noted,[7] however, that Scola was not cut due to a lack of performance; rather, the deal was an attempt to clear cap space for the Rockets to trade for former Orlando Magic All-Star center Dwight Howard. Howard was instead traded to the Los Angeles Lakers, but the Rockets used their cap space to gain former Oklahoma City Thunder Sixth Man of the Year shooting guard and Olympic gold medalist James Harden.

Phoenix Suns

Scola with the Suns in December 2012

On July 15, 2012, Scola was claimed off amnesty waivers by the Phoenix Suns.[8] Reportedly, the Dallas Mavericks and the Cleveland Cavaliers were also interested in acquiring Scola during the amnesty process.[9][10] On November 21, 2012, Scola was relegated to playing off the bench for the first time in his NBA career since the start of his rookie season. He regained his starting spot less than a month later, and on December 29, he scored a season-high 33 points against the Minnesota Timberwolves.[11] While Scola did become a leader for the Suns, he finished the season with declining averages, as his 12.8 points per game were his lowest since the 2008–09 season.

Indiana Pacers

On July 27, 2013, the Suns traded Scola to the Indiana Pacers in exchange for Gerald Green, Miles Plumlee, and a future second round draft pick.[12] In his two seasons for the Pacers, Scola played a back-up power forward role to David West as he started just 18 games over his two-year stint.

Toronto Raptors

On July 15, 2015, Scola signed with the Toronto Raptors.[13] He made his debut for the Raptors in the team's season opener against the Indiana Pacers on October 28, recording 8 rebounds while taking no field goal attempts in a 106–99 win.[14]

Argentine national 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 several 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 Summer Olympic Games, the silver medal at the 2007 FIBA Americas Championship, the bronze medal at the 2008 Summer Olympic Games, the bronze medal at the 2009 FIBA Americas Championship, the gold medal at the 2011 FIBA Americas Championship and the bronze medal at the 2013 FIBA Americas Championship among other titles. At the 2015 tournament, Scola became the all-time scorer in FIBA Americas Championship history, and won his 4th tournament MVP.

Scola broke two Argentine national team records at the FIBA World Cup, during the 2010 edition: top overall scorer for Argentina at a World Cup (beating Ernesto Gehrmann's 331 points)[15] and most points scored for Argentina in one game at World Cup (scoring 37 against Brazil in the round of 16, therefore beating Alberto Desimone's 35 points scored against Mexico in 1963).[16]

Titles and medals

Club level

Argentine national team

Awards

Club level

Argentine national team

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  PIR  Performance Index Rating
 Bold  Career high

Note: The Euroleague is not the only competition in which the player participated for the team during the season, he also played in domestic competition.

NBA

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
2013–14 Indiana 82 2 17.1 .470 .143 .728 4.8 1.0 .3 .2 7.6
2014–15 Indiana 81 16 20.5 .467 .250 .699 6.5 1.3 .6 .2 9.7
Career 631 428 26.8 .497 .167 .742 7.0 1.7 .7 .3 12.7

Playoffs

Year Team GP GS MPG FG% 3P% FT% RPG APG SPG BPG PPG
2008 Houston 6 6 36.7 .448 .000 .686 9.3 1.3 .7 .2 14.0
2009 Houston 13 13 32.6 .494 .000 .673 8.4 1.8 .5 .2 14.4
2014 Indiana 17 0 13.9 .465 .333 .591 2.5 .5 .4 .2 6.4
Career 36 19 24.4 .475 .250 .660 5.8 1.1 .5 .2 10.5

Euroleague

Year Team GP GS MPG FG% 3P% FT% RPG APG SPG BPG PPG PIR
2000–01 Tau Cerámica 22 5 18.3 .547 .000 .538 4.4 .7 1.0 .1 8.7 7.0
2001–02 Tau Cerámica 20 3 23.7 .689 .333 .670 4.6 1.1 1.3 .3 15.9 16.8
2002–03 Tau Cerámica 16 9 24.7 .546 .000 .677 5.0 1.3 .9 .3 15.1 13.0
2003–04 Tau Cerámica 14 6 28.8 .604 .000 .765 6.1 2.4 1.4 .4 15.2 16.8
2004–05 Tau Cerámica 24 21 24.7 .564 .000 .676 6.5 1.9 1.3 .7 15.1 16.9
2005–06 Tau Cerámica 25 24 28.6 .536 .000 .679 6.7 2.2 1.6 .8 14.8 18.8
2006–07 Tau Cerámica 23 18 26.5 .573 .000 .708 5.9 2.2 .9 .3 15.5 17.9
Career 144 86 25.6 .577 .091 .671 5.6 1.7 1.2 .5 14.3 15.4

Personal

Scola and his wife, Pamela, have four children together. In the off-season, he resides in his native Buenos Aires.[17][18]

References and notes

  1. ↑ Larry Coon's NBA Salary Cap FAQ. July 11, 2007
  2. ↑ San Antonio's 2002 draft pick Scola signs with Rockets. July 17, 2007
  3. ↑ Scola buyout issue is resolved. July 17, 2007
  4. ↑ Kevin Durant Named T-Mobile Rookie of the Year. Nba.com (May 1, 2008).
  5. ↑ Wojnarowski, Adrian (December 9, 2011). "Teams still pushing for Paul trade". Yahoo! Sports.
  6. ↑ "Suns claim Luis Scola off waiver wire, amnesty Josh Childress". SI.com. Associated Press. July 16, 2012. Archived from the original on July 16, 2012.
  7. ↑ Bill Simmons (August 10, 2012). "The London Chronicles, Vol. 6: The Mailbag That Wasn't". Grantland.com.
  8. ↑ Young, Royce. (July 15, 2012) Suns claim Luis Scola off waiver wire, amnesty Josh Childress. CBSSports.com.
  9. ↑ Suns make winning bid for Luis Scola – Dallas Mavericks Blog – ESPN Dallas. Espn.go.com.
  10. ↑ Holler, Doug (July 15, 2012). "Phoenix Suns acquire Luis Scola in auction". The Arizona Republic (AZCentral.com).
  11. ↑ Luis Scola 2012-13 Game Log
  12. ↑ "Pacers Acquire Luis Scola; Send Green, Plumlee, Future No. 1 Pick to Suns". NBA.com. July 27, 2013.
  13. ↑ "Raptors Sign Luis Scola". NBA.com. July 15, 2015. Retrieved July 15, 2015.
  14. ↑ "DeRozan scores 25, Lowry has 23, Raptors beat Pacers 106-99". NBA.com. October 28, 2015. Retrieved October 28, 2015.
  15. ↑ Hernán Sartori (September 3, 2010). "Scola, el goleador que lidera la esperanza". Clarín (in Spanish). Retrieved September 8, 2010.
  16. ↑ Pablo Cormick (September 7, 2010). "Argentina, con inteligencia y carácter". ESPNDeportes (in Spanish). Retrieved September 8, 2010.
  17. ↑ "Five Things to Know About Luis Scola". NBA.com. July 30, 2013. Retrieved May 26, 2014.
  18. ↑ "Luis Scola's wife Pamela Scola". PlayerWives.com. May 24, 2014. Retrieved May 26, 2014.

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