Background and career
Luis Alberto Scola Balvoa (born 30 April 1980) is an Argentine former basketball player and the chief executive officer for the Italian Lega Basket Serie A (LBA) team Pallacanestro Varese. A three-time All-EuroLeague selection with Tau Ceramica, he signed with the Houston Rockets in 2007 and was voted to the NBA All-Rookie First Team. He also played for the Phoenix Suns, Indiana Pacers, Toronto Raptors, and Brooklyn Nets. Scola has been a regular member of the Argentina national basketball team since 1999, winning an Olympic gold medal in 2004 and a bronze medal in 2008. In 2010, Scola won the Konex Award Merit Diploma as one of the five best basketball players from the last decade in Argentina. He was honored as the national flag bearer at the 2016 Summer Olympics.
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 age 15.
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.
With Saski Baskonia, Scola reached the EuroLeague Finals 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.
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. The teams 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. 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. 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 and his US$3.2 million buyout was completed a few days later. 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 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. After other team owners voiced their opposition that night, league commissioner David Stern nullified the trade. On July 13, 2012, he was waived by the Rockets using the league's amnesty clause to provide salary cap relief. It was widely noted, 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.
On July 15, 2012, Scola was claimed off amnesty waivers by the Phoenix Suns. Reportedly, the Dallas Mavericks and the Cleveland Cavaliers were also interested in acquiring him during the amnesty process. On November 21, 2012, he 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. 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.
