Luis Scola · Biography

On 12 July 2007 the San Antonio Spurs traded the rights to Luis Alberto Scola Balvoa, along with Jackie Butler, to the Houston Rockets in exchange for Vassilis Spanoulis, a future second-round pick and cash. The deal ended nine years tied to Spanish basketball and opened a decade in the NBA. Scola, a 6-foot-9 power forward born in Buenos Aires on 30 April 1980, finished his international career as the leading scorer in the history of the Argentina national team, with 2,857 points in 173 games.

Early years and move to Spain

He started playing at the age of six at Club Ciudad de Buenos Aires and later moved on to Afalp. In 1995 he joined Ferro Carril Oeste, the only Argentine club of his career, where he stayed until 1998. That year he signed for TAU Cerámica of Vitoria, who loaned him to Gijón Baloncesto for two seasons to toughen him up in Spain. Back in Vitoria, he was named the Liga ACB rookie of the year in 2000.

Nine years at Baskonia

With TAU he played in the 2001 EuroLeague final and reached three consecutive Final Fours, from 2005 to 2007. In 2002 the club won the Copa del Rey in its own arena, beating FC Barcelona 85-83 in the final, and a few weeks later took the 2002 Liga ACB title, the first league crown in its history. Further Copa del Rey wins followed in 2004, when Scola scored 22 points in the final in Seville against DKV Joventut, and in 2006, along with three straight Spanish Supercups in 2005, 2006 and 2007. He was named Liga ACB MVP in 2005 and 2007, and Supercup MVP in 2005. The Spurs, who had taken him with the 56th pick of the 2002 draft, tried to bring him over in 2005, but the roughly three million dollars needed to release him exceeded the 500,000-dollar limit the NBA allowed a team to contribute in such deals.

Ten seasons in the NBA

He signed a three-year deal in Houston and in his first season, 2007-08, he made the NBA All-Rookie First Team and finished third in Rookie of the Year voting. He spent five seasons with the Rockets until the club waived him under the amnesty clause on 13 July 2012; two days later the Phoenix Suns claimed him. On 27 July 2013 Phoenix traded him to the Indiana Pacers for Gerald Green, Miles Plumlee and a 2014 first-round pick. After two seasons in Indiana he signed with the Toronto Raptors in July 2015 and, a year later, with the Brooklyn Nets, for whom he played his last game in the league on 13 February 2017. He closed his NBA career with 743 regular-season games and 8,882 points, an average of 12.0 per game, plus 48 playoff appearances.

The Argentina national team

He made his senior debut at the 1999 South American Championship in Bahía Blanca, scoring 18 points against Ecuador. In 2001 he won the FIBA Americas Championship and in 2002 took silver at the World Championship in Indianapolis. Two years later he was part of the team that won the gold medal at the 2004 Athens Olympics, scoring 25 points in the final against Italy. Bronze followed at Beijing 2008, where he produced his best Olympic game, 37 points against Russia. He was the top scorer of the 2010 World Championship with 244 points and the FIBA Americas tournament MVP in 2007, 2009, 2011 and 2015; he won that championship again in 2011, and in 2015 he passed Oscar Schmidt's 1,287 points to become its all-time top scorer. At Rio 2016 he was Argentina's flag bearer.

Lima, China and Tokyo

He played at five Olympic Games, from Athens 2004 to Tokyo 2020. In 2019 he won gold at the Pan American Games in Lima and, weeks later, silver at the World Cup in China, where he was named to the All-Tournament Team. His final game for Argentina came on 3 August 2021, a 59-97 quarter-final defeat to Australia in Tokyo. He left the national team with 2,857 points in 173 games spread over 22 official tournaments.

China, Italy and retirement

In 2017 he moved to China, playing one season for Shanxi Zhongyu and another for the Shanghai Sharks. In 2019 he joined Olimpia Milano and in 2020 Pallacanestro Varese, where he averaged 17.8 points and 6.6 rebounds per game in his only season with the club. On 20 September 2021 he announced his retirement as a player, and that same day Varese introduced him as its new chief executive.